Gonna piggyback on this thread for an issue I'm having with my central AC unit...
On June 1 my AC was freezing up (snow and ice accumulating in the coils)...had a guy come look and said that my system was slowly leaking freon as it was low. Said that eventually I'll need to get full unit replaced for around $2,500 because he can't pinpoint where the leak is coming from. (Note I'm in a condo building...my unit is 4th floor out of 6 total floors and piping for all furnaces run up to the roof)
His options were to get new unit right away for $2,500 or he could fill up with freon for $200+....that could last 2 days or 2 years....he had no idea how fast the leak is. I chose the cheaper freon refill option and hoped for the best.
Past 4 months of hot summer weather went by and all worked great. Now over this past weekend, the AC wasn't blowing out cold air again...went to go check unit and expected to see it all frozen up again. But wasn't the case...now the copper tubing running into the unit was scalding hot to the touch. When it was running right this copper pipe was lukewarm and the pipe right next to it going into the unit created minor condensation droplets (guy said that was the good sign to look for)
Now the copper pipe can't be touched without practically burning your fingers and the other pipe next to it is dry (and fan just blows out stale warm air). Anybody know what could be happening here?
I know we have had a slow leak the last few years, to the point we think we're going to make it through the summer, and the last week of August or so need to get a recharge. So called this year, and this time instead of working for another year, it worked for about a week, and is blowing mildly cool air again. Pretty sure the leak got worse, my guess is from over-pressure. It's possible that instead of leaking over a year or so, yours just took 4 months to leak out this time.
No idea about the hot/cold pipes.
And if anyone has any thoughts on Stop Leak - from what I read it does nasty things to your compressor and will basically kill your AC. That said, if your AC already doesn't work and is likely in need of replacement, what's the harm?