Hello all. I hope you can help. My very pregnant wife is trying to handle this problem while I'm away on business. I *think* our unit is a Carrier. Its 6 years old, and sized to cool a 1400 square foot house. It started icing up, so we called a service to look into the problem. He said it was our compressor coil. Yes, he said "compressor coil". Anyway, he said we had a leak in our coil and said it would cost about $1100 to fix.

From reading this group, I know that other likely problems are dirty filters or dirty lines. I told him I needed a second opinion and to just add freon. I'm assuming he cleaned the filters and lines.

Anyway, here's the thing. He added 11 pounds of refridgerant. My question is...Is that a lot, or a little? Or is it too much? I mean, if a unit holds 22 pounds, then I lost half, and know that I have a slow leak. If a typical unit holds only 5 pounds, then I'm going to call the better business bureau.

How many pounds are there in a smaller central heat pump? How likely is it that I needed 11 pounds of freon without a leak? How do you lose freon if you don't have a leak?

Thanks in advance for any and all assistance. This is a great website.

Steve

 

I'm sure some of the other folks here will correct me if I'm wrong, but _11 POUNDS_ of r-22 in a residential system is an absurd charge unless you have miles of tubing between the condenser and evaporator.

A leak in a compressor coil is possible, but unlikely in a unit of that age. Freon can and does leak out of systems. It shouldn't, but the valve cores in the service valves do die from vibration and thermal stresses (but they are inexpensive and very easy to replace; they are the same device that's in a car's tire stems).

On the whole, get a second opinion, and diss this joker to the BBB when he verifys the rip-off.

 

Ron,

Thanks so much for the information. Hopefully others will chime in on the subject. If what you're saying is true, I'm P.O.ed. As far as I know, the condensor and compressor are in the same unit. I guess my next step is to verify how much refridgerant it will hold from empty based on the model number, then call his company and demand a refund or I'll take him to small claims court. I'm not going to take any action yet. How many pounds of freon do you think would have been reasonable for a typical system when it was empty?

Again, thanks.

Steve

 

Depending on the SEER rating of your unit, freon can get up there. A typical 10 SEER 3ton condenser is 4 to 5 lbs. 12 SEER 7 to 9 lbs. 13 SEER and above, over 10 lbs.
If he is going to replace the coil, it could cost 1100..And the tech who charged the system, more than likely did not use a scale to measure the amount of freon he put in your system. Carrier lists the amount of freon it was shipped with for a typical installation/with a 25ft line set on the condenser nameplate. With a condenser coil leak, you may have lost all the freon in the system.

 

Go outside,read name plate info.This will give you almost procise charge amount.I have never heard it called compressor coil.A heat pump coil outside is termed the "outdoor coil".If the "outdoor" has a leak it was senseless for him to add gas.The gas would leak back out in 24 hours if not sooner.MrRonFL is correct.That is too much freon,considering the fact that coil icing up means you still had a good amount of freon in system.PLEASE give us a holler back so we know the outcome.PDF