Air Conditioning - How to fix a pipe leak?

My AC wasn't cooling. Using a leak detector, I find an extremely tiny leak right before the blower inside the basement. How do I cap this invisible leak. After a few minutes, a little tiny oil appears on the copper pipe. It's almost invisible. should I solder or use marine epoxy? Since I don't want to cut and then joing the pipe, how do you solder this issue? Is there anything out there that I can buy to fix this tiny hole?

Thanks in advance for helping me!

Agnes

Only DIY repair I can think of would be to use a clamp on type line tap over the pinhole leak, just do not pierce the line simply use the clamp to seal the hole, You will have to determine the line size to get the correct one. To use a clamp on type line tap the hole would have to be in a straight section of pipe and accessible enough to install the clamp. Don't forget to clean the area of the pipe where the clamp seal will be. Any other repair would require recovery of the refrigerant requiring the proper EPA certifications/specialized equipment and training. You can pick up a line tap at any HVAC supply house that is willing to make a cash sale to a individual or a man could order one from McMaster-Carr Supply Co for about 4 bones hope that helps.

Thanks for the info. Unfortunatley, the tiny hole is on the curvey edge of a coupler which is accessible but not straight. Do you know why epoxy would not work? I wish there was a way that I could drop some solder on the hole to cap this leak?

Since the system is under pressure, epoxy will likely not work. Just dropping solder on it won't work either because the solder won't stick.
Beyond that, you are going to have to call an EPA certified tech to fix the leak.

I agree with Grady. It's near impossible to stop the leak while under pressure, even with the best epoxy. The pressure builds up before the epoxy can harden and creates a tiny hole.

Also, in my experience, the surrounding copper tube is very weak in the leakage area. Any movement or disturbance will cause the leak to become much larger. Generally, a small leak is a big one waiting to happen.

You will need a tech on this one. You may find someone who is willing to repair it. But, keep in mind that you cannot expect any kind of guarantee on repaired coils.

Good luck.

Thanks for the tip. I got my brother involved and he followed your suggestion and no more leak! Thanks a million!

I assume, I need a repair man to come in and recharge the system. I'm hoping they don't charge me for the whole thing such as this is patch and we need to fix it for good before recharging the system. How do you go about finding a certified repairman that would just recharge the system?

Agnes




QUOTE=Tsubaki]Only DIY repair I can think of would be to use a clamp on type line tap over the pinhole leak, just do not pierce the line simply use the clamp to seal the hole, You will have to determine the line size to get the correct one. To use a clamp on type line tap the hole would have to be in a straight section of pipe and accessible enough to install the clamp. Don't forget to clean the area of the pipe where the clamp seal will be. Any other repair would require recovery of the refrigerant requiring the proper EPA certifications/specialized equipment and training. You can pick up a line tap at any HVAC supply house that is willing to make a cash sale to a individual or a man could order one from McMaster-Carr Supply Co for about 4 bones hope that helps.[/QUOTE]

dont know if your system was completely empty or not if so it will need to be vaccumed I assumed it still had refrigerant in it since you said you could see oil forming a drop on the surface of the leak area. Anyway most nice little small operators around my area charge a 65 dollar service charge 25 dollars for first pound (R22) and 15 bones for each one after that so less than a couple hundred bones should get you back going dependent upon if you need a system vacuum (extra of course lol) keep in mind prices vary greatly by area and sometimes from one side of town to another. If your system is completely empty it would be a real good time to pressurize with nitrogen and a couple of ounces of R22 and do a thorough leak check I like about 250 psig with a good electronic leak detector and some liquid bubble detector sprayed liberally around, you might find that the system has many perforations and want to take a different repair route. Good Luck

Before I fixed the leak, I could see some oil like a small dot. Therefore, I assume it isn't completely empty. Why does it need to be vacumed if empty?

My system is about 10 years old and I'm not sure if it's wise to invest more money on it. I rather keep recharging the system instead of investing money to find out if there are any other leaks, vacuming, etc.

Agnes

dont know if your system was completely empty or not if so it will need to be vaccumed I assumed it still had refrigerant in it since you said you could see oil forming a drop on the surface of the leak area. Anyway most nice little small operators around my area charge a 65 dollar service charge 25 dollars for first pound (R22) and 15 bones for each one after that so less than a couple hundred bones should get you back going dependent upon if you need a system vacuum (extra of course lol) keep in mind prices vary greatly by area and sometimes from one side of town to another. If your system is completely empty it would be a real good time to pressurize with nitrogen and a couple of ounces of R22 and do a thorough leak check I like about 250 psig with a good electronic leak detector and some liquid bubble detector sprayed liberally around, you might find that the system has many perforations and want to take a different repair route. Good Luck

How many pounds of refrigerant does my system needs? It's a 3 ton Carrier split heat pump model# 38ykc036, 10 seer+?

Agnes



dont know if your system was completely empty or not if so it will need to be vaccumed I assumed it still had refrigerant in it since you said you could see oil forming a drop on the surface of the leak area. Anyway most nice little small operators around my area charge a 65 dollar service charge 25 dollars for first pound (R22) and 15 bones for each one after that so less than a couple hundred bones should get you back going dependent upon if you need a system vacuum (extra of course lol) keep in mind prices vary greatly by area and sometimes from one side of town to another. If your system is completely empty it would be a real good time to pressurize with nitrogen and a couple of ounces of R22 and do a thorough leak check I like about 250 psig with a good electronic leak detector and some liquid bubble detector sprayed liberally around, you might find that the system has many perforations and want to take a different repair route. Good Luck

figure between 2 1/2 pds to 4 lbs per ton on refrigerant charge obviously varies quite a bit with the type of system length of line set etc. The reason for vacumming a completely empty system is that as the temperature changes the system can actually pull in air and moisture thru the spot where it is leaking, moisture wrecks a system long term air wrecks the cooling ability immediatley some people refer to them as noncondensables in the system bad stuff and you dont want it in yours.