Cars are awesome, until they’re not. I call it the absence of malice problem: I only notice something is wrong because I take for granted how often everything is right. Turn the key and go; it’s what we demand of today’s cars, and it’s what we overwhelmingly get. When things do go awry, it’s always interesting to see how people cope. When your brakes go from spongy to making that funny grinding sound, you call your mechanic or drive straight to the dealership. If the engine suddenly starts cutting out, or a tire blows and you thwap to a halt by the side of the road, same thing. But if your air conditioning starts blowing hot air, you do other things. You punch the dash; you adjust the little vents. You jam away at the settings. You turn it off and turn it on again. Then you leave the car in the driveway overnight, and go out the next day and actually believe it might be OK, like it just needed a little rest so it could become air conditioning again. My Dad didn’t believe in air conditioning, so we stuck to the plastic seat in the back of the station wagon, our small legs requiring skin grafts when we tried to move.

There was a choice, of course. We could sit on a blanket instead; the temperature at sweltering levels, and we could pick between itchy wool and molten plastic. We’d fight over the windows and stick our heads out like puppies, which was fun until Mom and Dad did up their windows and my father would yell “buffeting!” and make us close them. my ac unit won turn onI liked that sound, the suction of air that whumped around the interior of the car, making me think this was what outer space must sound like. best ac heating unitsChildren without air conditioning develop excellent imaginations.window ac unit reviews If your car is older and blowing hot air, you might want to give your next steps a hard think. The voyage to the root of a dead air conditioning system can be exasperating, exhausting and expensive.

Your coolant has leaked out, and you can’t just top it up. It’s illegal to add a gas to your system that depletes the ozone (in Canada, usually R134A); you have to find the leak, and this is where the fun begins. Very basically, your car’s air conditioning system is made up of three major components: the compressor, the evaporator and the condenser. There are lots of hoses, tubes, valves and sensors connecting them all. A technician has to figure out where the leak is occurring, and will pressurize the system with nitrogen to find out. This diagnostic isn’t the expensive part. Several shops told me it’s about an hour at shop rate to tell you what’s going on. Find the leak, fix the problem, easy. These are expensive parts and systems, and one of them – the evaporator – is usually behind the dash which requires a lot of rip-apart work. When the kids were small, I had a 10-year-old car. The air conditioning went, I foolishly let an eager young mechanic talk me into letting him fix it.

I committed to Phase One believing it was Phase Done. While the 600 bucks was huge to me at the time, having the A/C working again seemed like a necessary one. Until a week later, when I once again had vents blasting hot air. I slammed back into the garage with no good grace, demanding that he fix the fix. And that is when I learned the most valuable lesson, ever, about old cars and air conditioning. All of the parts of that system are the same age, which means if one goes, why shouldn’t the others? Finding the leak and replacing one is zero guarantee that you can’t develop another leak in another part in a week or a month. Was I prepared to go perhaps $1,500 dollars in to get back my arctic air? On a car that was maybe worth $2,000? I told the kids we were now driving like in olden times. I’ve watched mechanics explain this to a customer. I’ve witnessed the truth of the term “shooting the messenger” more times in places that specialize in auto air conditioning than just about anywhere else.

My theory on expensive mechanical repairs to older vehicles is pretty simple: if a car you trust has cost you little in recent years and needs a couple grand to keep it going for another year or two, that’s cheaper than new car payments while you take some time to consider your next purchase. My theory on air conditioning? It’s a nice-to-have, not a need-to-have for most of us. Drop the windows, find a nicer blanket and stick your head out the window. Besides, this is Canada. Snow is just around the corner. Originally published July 30, 2015Posted June 17th by We have all experienced this, either first hand or from a friend telling us about their experience. But how does a freon leak occur? When a freon leak happens, where does it go? Is a freon leak safe for the environment? Can a freon leak be repaired? All of these questions (and more) often arise with home ownership. In the heating and air conditioning trades there has been a common misconception that freon leaks often and needs to be “topped off” from year to year.

Many homeowners believe that a freon leak is what is causing their system to not turn on during the hot summer months. Like air in a car tire, when it’s low it needs to be filled up. However, if the hole isn’t addressed, then the air will continue to leak out and cause other problems with the vehicle. The same is true regarding a freon leak. Once a freon leak occurs, a service technician can add more to correct the charge but until the cause of the leak is diagnosed and resolved, the freon leak will continue. In many instances, freon leaks will gradually get worse as time goes on. Leaks often start out as “pinhole leaks”. The industry has coined these as “champagne leaks” because the freon leak will often show up as tiny bubbles. A freon leak will often show up in the evaporator coil. This is the most common spot. The freon is mostly a superheated gas while in the evaporator coil and can therefore leak from smaller holes. Freon is part gas and part liquid, depending on where the chemical is in the process and in the system.

When freon leaks as a liquid, this often occurs outside. This is a more uncommon place for a leak to show up and will often cost more when it does. Freon leaks are unsafe for the environment because of the capability to deplete the ozone layer. More important than that though is the possibility for freon to enter the airflow inside the interior of the home. This chemical can be sensed by some and will often report a foul-smelling odor coming from their hvac system when it kicks on. All that being said, the common idea that freon leaks over time is a myth and is simply not true. The system does not consume the freon over a period of time. Nor does it get absorbed into the copper tubing. The only place for the freon to go is out- through a leak in the system. One of our past articles dives into WHY some service companies would say the freon is bad… A freon leak can happen from a variety of different methods. I’ll cover the most common ones here.What about a lesser known cause?

This corrosion will advance at quicker stages when their is more moisture present on the evaporator coils. Moisture develops from the air traveling across the coil and being condensed-just like rain clouds in the atmosphere. Undersized ductwork or dirt filters can cause a freon leak to develop at quicker rates. The long term solution is to insist that evaporator coils made from all-aluminum be installed in your home. Trane began manufacturing all-aluminum coils in 2005 and have great success with this material. Through extensive testing and engineering, Trane has found that aluminum is resistant to formicary corrosion. They carry exclusive patents on their all aluminum evaporator coils and a wise choice when needing to install a new coil. We have been testing repair methods that allow a freon leak to be temporarily taken care of but not permanently resolved. We have not found enough success in our early testing to offer this as a recommended repair solution for our customers.

In most cases the most permanent repair solution is to replace the entire evap. coil instead of trying to weld the pinholes throughout the system. Welding a small leak can cost several hundreds of dollars and most of the time more leaks will show up later; costing more money in the long run. Trane coils are the best long-term solution if you want to avoid any freon leaks in the future. I think we can all imagine lots of ways to spend our hard-earned cash instead of dumping it into freon and evaporator coils… What to do if your air conditioner is leaking freon Our service technicians will locate the leak of the freon, upon your approval, and will then provide options to repair. If the leak can be repaired as a cheaper solution, we will provide you the cost. If more work is entailed, we will let you know all costs upfront before proceeding on the work. Our goal is to fix something once and for all. We always look for the root cause and seek to address that before repairing parts…

Our service technicians have a variety of methods available at their disposal, such as: If you think your system is low on freon or is leaking, look at the repair history of the unit. Often times your air conditioner will have oil stains around the service ports outside if it is leaking freon. If the freon leak is in a tough spot, it can sometimes cost $1000’s to have the issue resolved. That being said, we guarantee to provide you with options for getting your system resolved for what works for your budget. Take immediate note of any changes in operation from season to season. Since you live in the home, you are the best judge of how well your system is working. Also, if you notice ice buildup around the copper tubing outside, this can often mean that your air conditioner has lost freon during the season and should get looked at immediately by one of our professional service technicians. The best action is prevention- our annual maintenance plans can keep you cool during the hottest months and avoid costly repairs from failures.