Classic example. I had a guy come out to look at this unit before I decided to replace it. I showed him the unit and went inside. I saw him from my office and he grabbed his gauges and an orange bottle of refrigerant off the truck. Orange is 407c which is a direct replacement for the old R-22 (light green bottle)
I gave him a few minutes and went out to check. He had his gauges hooked up and said the unit was really low so he'll add some refrigerant. I asked if that should take care of the problem. "Yeah we'll get you fixed up". I asked if it had any refrigerant left in the unit and he replied "it was abut half empty." He grabbed his bottle to hook it up to his gauges to fill the unit and I asked if he was going to take out the old refrigerant first. He responded "This is the new stuff that's a direct replacement for the old 22 stuff that's banned". ( I let that slide for a minute) I asked if he located where the leak was. It was at this point he realized and just kind of stood there. I asked if it would do any good to add refrigerant if we didn't fix the leak. He said "what I likes to do is top it off then wait to see if it leaks and how fast." I'll translate that "I'm going to make it blow cold air then collect my money and leave, You'll call me back in a few days, maybe in a month, but I'm not going to actually fix the problem today just take your money" I told him I don't want to add refrigerant to a leaky unit without locating the leak. If he can find the leak and repair it then we'll go with the replacement 407c refrigerant once the R-22 has been recovered.
I didn't say this but here's the rub on 407c, "Direct replacement" for R-22. It's just that, a replacement, not a "top it off and mix it".. They are two different gasses with similar properties. You can put 407c in a unit AFTER you've recovered the remaining r-22. If they mix it, despite being illegal, there would be no way to correctly set the pressures without knowing how much 22 was in the unit, how much 407 was added and even then there wouldn't be a way to pull an accurate subcool on the unit to determine the correct refrigerant pressures. Dude was simply looking to slap a band-aid on it, get his money and off to the next sucker.
I wasn't trying to be an ass, but I wasn't looking to get screwed out of $450+ on a half ass service call either. He went and got his leak detector out of the truck, went upstairs and located the leak in the A-coil, which isn't repairable and would require both the A-coil and outdoor compressor to be replaced. He said I need a new unit. I paid him which was his service call fee and labor rate and off he went.
.
