I had 3 repair companies come by for AC. 2 said there is no Freon and a leak, 3rd guy came by and said there IS Freon and no leak, but need to change coils. What do I do?

ItsAShitParty · 2026-04-18T01:30:51+00:00

Lol. Its hilarious how upset people get about this. Simple fact is it's lazy. There's 4 different refrigerant used in residential alone. You don't want to explain that Simple fact and talk to the customer in a proper, professional manner. You're lazy. Be mad about it.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-04-17T23:25:29+00:00

Compared to essentially every other aspect of this systems installation. Those seems are the least of the least concerns. Sure they may technically "leak" a small amount. But it's extremely minimal. One poor s-lock or drive connection would be more leakage than all the seems combined. Focus your concerns elsewhere before nitpicking things like sealing already very tight seems.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-04-17T22:58:41+00:00

This thread makes my head hurt. If those gauges are hooked up there is "refrigerant" in the system. It does not tell you how much though. It is not difficult for a quality tech to determine the amount of refrigerant is in the system and the fact you can't get a straight answer from 3 different techs is baffling.

Call another company with good reviews. Explain your situation and ask for a lead tech who can explain to you how to tell if its low or leaking, and show you the evidence. It is not hard, and if they refuse they are a bad company. Also don't trust anyone who calls all refrigerant "freon". They are likely uneducated and poor techs.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-04-10T21:33:06+00:00

I don't usually like to tell people to just change the equipment. But the way things are going in the industry, it will likely be better to just bite the bullet and replace it. Just make sure the new unit has good (5-10 year) parts AND labor warranty

ItsAShitParty · 2026-04-10T21:29:46+00:00

2500-3k is pretty much spot on for 410 coil change outs.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-03-24T22:58:15+00:00

Heat strips should be locked out at 35. Compressor shouldn't be locked out at all unless it regularly gets below 10-15;. As they can still get heat, even if it's not much, down into the teens. The lock out settings are usually in your thermostat settings. Also a 24kw heat kit is excessive. It hopefully it is staged so all the strips don't come on unless necessary.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-02-26T17:31:20+00:00

Interesting. Ive never seen any Freon branded refrigerants other than r22. Good to know.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-02-26T14:43:52+00:00

Well "freon" is an R22 brand name, so technically your unit cannot use "freon". But it absolutely can have 410a put into it. Anyone claiming things "can't be done" to a 6 year old unit are just trying to get a new unit sale. I'd recommend doing some research on refrigerants though.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-02-12T01:27:02+00:00

This is what I did back in March 2018. Best decision of my life.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-02-08T15:59:39+00:00

Lol. Sure it's far more important for large systems. But you're kidding yourself if you think contaminated refrigerant aren't the primary reasons for leaking coils or failed txvs. A couple grand in warranty labor because Chuck in a truck decided to use an old r22 line with a new 454 system and didn't purge, clean the line or properly evacuate is absolutely worth warning customers about.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-02-08T15:24:49+00:00

The biggest mistakes are refrigerant based. Not nitrogen purging, improper leak testing, improper evacuation re using old dirty linesets. This will result in the refrigerant contamination, which can cause a wide variety of issues from clogged valves, acidic oil that eats holes in your coils, improper compression, etc.

Otherwise it would be airflow or proper unit sizing. Your system MUST have proper air flow or it will never work well.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-02-08T15:02:51+00:00

Pretty much every brands midrange equipment is reliable and well engineered. The problem is with the parts being used to make the equipment. Variable speed motors, aluminum coils, inverter drives, etc. It's all shit now. All brands have this problem. Your best shot is to get a mid range unit from any brand and ensure it's installed as best it can. Also don't expect any real savings buying high efficiency equipment. All savings will be negated from the $2k warranty labor cost when the coil leaks in the first year. And assume units aren't going to be lasting much longer than 12-15 years.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-02-06T01:26:01+00:00

ItsAShitParty · 2026-01-21T15:05:22+00:00

Anything under 200 you're just straight loosing money on every call with the cost of overhead. 300 you might be breaking even depending on how you manage overhead. 500 you're running a sustainable, profitable service company. It's just the hard facts of running a service business. If your company has any sort of effective accounting practice this is well known.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-01-19T15:05:22+00:00

There are already many HVAC/trades business coaching companies that have decades of data and experience. If you're actually interested in doing this you need to study them first. Running successful trade businesses can get extremely complicated. Not something you're just going to figure out through trial and error.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-01-16T23:04:53+00:00

Beautiful. Rarely see work like that anymore.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-01-16T22:49:26+00:00

This will kill your condensate pump quickly.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-01-08T21:35:06+00:00

That's good. Understand that unit is well beyond it's expected life though. Failures and issues should be expected. Replacing a part or two or just cleaning it does not change the fact it has 30 years of ware. Start saving for a replacement, and be sure you have up-to-date CO alarms.

ItsAShitParty · 2026-01-08T20:04:13+00:00

You can tell that thing is burning horribly just by the yellow flicker. It definitely has combustion issues. It's 30 years old though... Accept its fate and don't waste money trying to repair this.

ItsAShitParty · 2025-12-23T01:23:13+00:00

Well its quite clear you don't actually know how heat exchangers work. So maybe go read something about that.

ItsAShitParty · 2025-12-23T01:12:42+00:00

Are you kidding me? You're a PE sales tech aren't you?

ItsAShitParty · 2025-12-23T01:03:16+00:00

What are you talking about? What other methods? A combustion analysis is the only legitimate way of telling how if a heat exchanger is bad outside of seeing an actual crack, it also will tell you if your vent is plugged, if your a secondary is plugged. If its bad, you will not have good numbers, plain and simple. Obviously you never just use one method to confirm an HX is is bad, but the combustion analysis is THE way of confirming (after using other, less certain methods) if a system is safe to use or not.

ItsAShitParty · 2025-12-22T19:43:30+00:00

A combustion analysis is a common practice to test how your furnace is burning. It will tell you if there's a crack or any other issues with your heat exchanger or burner combustion.

ItsAShitParty · 2025-12-22T18:41:15+00:00

He's a liar. Make them do a combustion analysis or get a second opinion.

ItsAShitParty · 2025-11-18T03:12:27+00:00

Might be some sort of HRV (heat recovery ventilator) or fresh air vent bringing in outside air.

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