Air Condtioning Recharge Cost?

I feel maybe over charged; but just spent $408 to recharge, & semi diagnose my home AC. Tech said 0% Refrige. Put 4 lbs. in, & no dye to check for leaks. Said they don't do that anymore. Wanted to do a walkthrough check. I told him charge it, & that's it! I think most people still use a dye to check for leaks. Am I wrong?
 
They hace meters to check for leaks. Did he use one? That refrigerant had to leak out somewhere, so maybe he just set you up for the next service call - and another bill. If he didn't find and fix the leak, you will need to have that done. Mine had a leak in the coil; it was not cost effective to replace the coil so I replaced the whole unit with z higher SEER unit.

The AC repairmen here are ripoff artists, so $300 -$400 is about a minimum charge for anything. Often they will tell the homeowner that they need a new compressor for $1,000 (or more); then they take the compressor and exchange it for a rebuilt one for just a few dollars and pocket the rest.

When my heat pump started buzzing a couple times before it wouls start, I knew that a service call would be over $300. I checked around and found an exact replacement capacitor on Amazon for $26.95. Changed the capacitor myself and unit starts right up now.

Finding and fixing a leak usually isn't a DIY thing, but they will charge a lot for that service. It takes a good torch to solder a leak with the kind of solder that they use.
 
no dye used here
tech needed full access to system to check with a leak detector.
you denied him the ability to properly check the system.
expect to have someone out to recharge again sometime. maybe tomorrow, maybe next week ,maybe next year.
That refrigerant went somewhere and that system needs properly checked over with a sniffer and bubble solution

Ron
 
If it had leaked down to zero, there is a significant leak.

Shouldn't be too hard to find now that there is a charge in it. Better look quick though! If you want to try to find it, get some dish soap or kids blow bubbles and start soaping the lines and fittings.

Look for the obvious first. Charge valves and isolation valves are a good place to start. Any connections, rub points, unprotected lines that the lawn mower gets near, lines in the attic that get stacked or stepped on, etc. Any carpentry work been done near the lines, nail or screw penetration?

If you can find it, even if you can't fix it, you can show the next repairman where it is leaking, save paying them by the hour to find it!
 
Be GLAD he didn't use NASTY die.

Air circulates with the refrigerant and a leak will show as an oily mess at the leak or dirt will stick to it.
 
If leaks are as in my Rheem evaporator, the tech would have never found anyway. The little 180 elbows on both ends of evaporator, of which there are dozens, were found to have many, many small leaks. None large enough to register on a 1ounce/year sensitive leak detector. Even if leaks larger, couldn't have gotten close enough to both ends with it installed. Found by removing evap & rigging to pressurize while submerged in water........a bubble sometimes took several minutes to form at each leak point. Problem was that there were so, so many of such points! You don't solder this paper thin crap, you replace. This unit was needing a re-charge once a year and getting worse every year, so that when it couldn't make it through the season without another topping off, it was past time to act.
 
or someone STOLE your refrigerant!
check with local sherriffs office to see if a rash of thefts are going on .with a zero charge sounds like it got sucked dry
they make tamper-proof seal caps
after having some lowlife suck several dry at church we had the valves put in side the unit and left the old ones in place (hooked to a sensor that sets off an alarm )
 
You need a new tech. He's too expensive, not entirely honest, and or just lazy. No "0%" refrigerant and he would have had to purge the system with nitro and then find the leak and fix it before he pulled a vacuum and recharged it. Nameplate tells you how much is in there. You use dye when it isn't an easy leak a scanner or your eyeball can't pick up. I woulden't dump in 4 lbs and not try to find where it went.JMO
 
Can't say whether you were over charged or not. Not enough info.
Haven't heard of anyone using dye for a very long time. They use a sniffer.
 
Thanks to all! I should have mentioned 2 years ago the system was charged. It didn't work at all when weather warmed up. Last year was the weird one! At first start it didn't cool at all. Called a tech, & next day when he came. It worked + plus showed a full charge. He left it untouched, & it worked all year at 100% without fail. Cant explain that one either.
 
Why did you call a tech in the first place?

If a/c wasn't working, then you may have lost all Freon.

I know a service tech that got called out 3 times, no Freon each time. Third time he put die in, no leak found. Few days tech get called out again to gas up unit. The die showed up on owner's son face and hands.

Arm chair quarter backs guessing you got screwed doesn't know how long service tech looked for leak. How expensive Freon is, especially R22, how far he had to drive.

SO, WHY DID YOU CALL TECH?
 

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