A refrigerant leak is one problem that can develop in your condenser pipes inside your air conditioner that can render the whole appliance useless. This makes it something that needs to be addressed on a priority basis for which you have to find an AC repair service. Here are all the steps involved to solve the refrigerant leak of your air conditioner.

Confirm that you have a refrigerant leak problem in the AC

The most obvious sign of a leak is that your air conditioner will fail to cool the room, even after a long time with all the settings cranked up to the max. This, however, does not automatically confirm that you have a leak, as there are other reasons as well for the air conditioner not working, such as compressor problems, so you will rule those out first before proceeding.

Disconnect power & let the unit rest before approaching it

When determining a leak, you need to let the air conditioning unit stabilize so that you can reliably detect the leak in the system. The way to do this is to make sure that any power going into the unit is cut and that the system is allowed to rest so that it can go back to its original state, before you take it apart for an inspection.

Determine the root cause of the problem before a gas refill

This is important. Just refilling the gas one more time, while the leakage is still present means wasting both time and effort, not to mention some expensive refrigerant gas, which can by the way, also pose serious health hazards if it’s allowed into the atmosphere. Common sense dictates that you must fix the leak first before refilling the gas in the air conditioner.

Check the entire piping of the air conditioner for the cause

Once you believe that the air conditioner has rested enough to stabilize, you are now ready to disassemble in and pinpoint the exact spot of the AC leakage, as well as what caused it in the first place, so that such a situation can be avoided to the best of your abilities in the future.

Remove any dust accumulated onto the condenser drain

When you disassemble the top cover of your air conditioner, chances are you will see that the piping is caked in dust. You must vacuum this out so that the work area where you will be observing for the leak is free of any hindrances.

Use a halogen bulb to zero in on the leak in the AC unit

Obviously, a leak like this will be impossible to detect from the naked eye. That is why you need some special apparatus to determine the location of the puncture. Now since you are not a professional with the right tools, you will need to do some improvisation, and that is to use a halogen bulb instead to light up the pipe from the inside and see where there is a leak or a hole.

See if the leak is repairable or a replacement is needed

Once you have determined exactly where the refrigerant leakage emanated, you are ready to patch it up if possible. If not, you might have to get a replacement. Afterwards, just fill up the unit with gas again and you are good to go.

Every minute that passes by with a refrigerant leak in your condenser coils can be deadly for the appliance, and so in order for you to be able to fix the problem in time, you first need to diagnose it. Unfortunately, the signs of such an HVAC issue are not immediately apparent, and it is not until a considerable amount of the gas has leaked that you will notice that your air conditioner is not functioning as intended.

In order to remedy this scenario, you need frequent AC or HVAC inspection and servicing by trained and certified air conditioning companies Fairfax only. This will not only enable you to find and fix any issues in time, it will also play a significant role in allowing you to perverse the overall lifespan of your AC, and ensure that it keeps working as expected for a long time to come.