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Inficon Tekmate is awesome for r22. I use my h10 for r11 mostly. Would like to know who has had success on r410a, haven't found one I trust yet.

One of the things I have thought about: Get a trashed 12V tool you have batteries for (in my case it would be dewalt drills)...

Take it apart and remove the 'socket' which accepts the battery. Mount that socket in the H-10PM in a way one could stick a rechargeable battery into it.
Another thought was to take that battery socket and make a patch cable to the charging port of the H-10PM. I am leaning towards this one.
The goal is to have a means to keep the H-10 working if the battery gets weak.

Personally... I have my H-10PM (along with the combustion analyzer, the Infrared gun, the CO tester, and a host of other rechargeable tools) in my office plugged in as I type. It gets charged every few weeks whether it gets used or not. Jut got into that habit a few years ago...

On a side note: A friend of mine is a photographer. He has a shelf in a closet with a power strip at the back... He keeps all his flash batteries (big chunky things) on charge all the time. They are always ready to do a shoot.

Tool maintenance is just one of those things. (Now another of 'those things' is van cleaning... which is the project for this afternoon... something I really do NOT enjoy doing... ).

Originally Posted by ga-hvac-tech

I have replaced the battery regularly, it is one of those sealed lead-acid batteries.
The guy at a local wholesale battery place said the best way to take care of this kind of battery is to NOT let it run down... rather keep it topped off as much as much as you can. Seems to work for me.

What you said about keeping the battery charged is true. I read that you have to charge the battery at least once every few months and make sure you don't allow it to discharge much over time in case you want to keep it. Before I had like 3 H10PM in garage, new and stayed unused for 2 years. I checked them later to find that all batteries are dead and voltage accross them is around 0.5v - 1v and would not even allow charging. New batteries dead because of over discharging. I bought a smart charger called BatteryMinder from ebay which said to help maintain battery life and also revive dead batteries. I would try it and tell you guys if it would revive batteries as it says then I would not need to replace batteries too often.

Originally Posted by hvac_superman

Really curious how the battery is going to last. You will have to keep us posted on battery life. Over the years I have steered clear of battery models because I have never found one that was reliable. Plug that H10 in and you can find anything anywhere.

Originally Posted by BamaCool

Will do. That's the good part of also having an H10G. PM dies - go get the G and plug it in. I keep a 12v charger in my van for my Makita batteries. Gonna do the same for the PM, but I'll first test battery life - shelf life as well as use.

I have replaced the battery regularly, it is one of those sealed lead-acid batteries.
The guy at a local wholesale battery place said the best way to take care of this kind of battery is to NOT let it run down... rather keep it topped off as much as much as you can. Seems to work for me.

I have been using an H-10 for the past 20 yrs. and have found that it is always done a great job at making money with leaks. I have seen other techs come and go, with other units and nothing beats the H-10 corded model. I had one tech buy the H-10pm and it has a manual feature and an auto feature that stinks. The battery life is about four hours if battery is worth a darn. He did have to put in a new battery after about a year and a half. The one draw back is when it gets low on a charge, so does the sensitivity. Like I've said the H-10 corded is still the best. Oh and a small jumper lead when you don't have a 120v outlet close.

Originally Posted by hvac_superman

Really curious how the battery is going to last. You will have to keep us posted on battery life. Over the years I have steered clear of battery models because I have never found one that was reliable. Plug that H10 in and you can find anything anywhere.

Will do. That's the good part of also having an H10G. PM dies - go get the G and plug it in. I keep a 12v charger in my van for my Makita batteries. Gonna do the same for the PM, but I'll first test battery life - shelf life as well as use.

Originally Posted by BamaCool

When I was playing with mine yesterday, I used 22 and 410. Equally sensitive to both of them. I see no problems finding 410 leaks with this.

Really curious how the battery is going to last. You will have to keep us posted on battery life. Over the years I have steered clear of battery models because I have never found one that was reliable. Plug that H10 in and you can find anything anywhere.

When I was playing with mine yesterday, I used 22 and 410. Equally sensitive to both of them. I see no problems finding 410 leaks with this.

Originally Posted by ga-hvac-tech

I got my new one around April last year... I was amazed at the sensitivity compared to the 10 year old one I had.
Still a little weak with 410... however well worth it on most anything else.

BTW: The reason they work better on 22 is because they are sniffing chlorine... and that is what is NOT in the new refrigerants... like 134A and 410A.

Although I work mostly on automotive AC systems which only uses R12 and R134a, I have found that heated diode leak detector work the best on these refrigerants because they are easily sniffed rather than concentration difference detection like IR detectors. I use H10PM and by far the best for detecting R134a along with TIFZX which I believe was specifically designed for automotive AC. I am sure R11, R12, R22 and R134a are easily sniffed by heated diode detectors but it is not the case with R410a as many had already mentioned to have problems detecting with H10PM.

Originally Posted by BamaCool

Just got my new H10PM. WOW! I think the sensor in my H10G needs to be replaced. This thing is dead on! By far the most accurate leak detector on the market. I've tried them all. This PM is better than the last 2 H10's I've had.

I got my new one around April last year... I was amazed at the sensitivity compared to the 10 year old one I had.
Still a little weak with 410... however well worth it on most anything else.

BTW: The reason they work better on 22 is because they are sniffing chlorine... and that is what is NOT in the new refrigerants... like 134A and 410A.

Just got my new H10PM. WOW! I think the sensor in my H10G needs to be replaced. This thing is dead on! By far the most accurate leak detector on the market. I've tried them all. This PM is better than the last 2 H10's I've had.

Originally Posted by ga-hvac-tech

Something else AlliedAir does... which I did not see at other factories: They have a cardboard punch-out hole (cut, not punched out) strategically placed in the lower side of boxes holding AC's and HP's. A guy randomly goes around the warehouse with a hand-held leak detector (yes, they used an H-10) and probes boxes. Now here is the cool part: EVERY box that goes out the warehouse door gets probed... NO exceptions. And given the warehouse is 250,000 ft... and they only make AC, HP, and small package units at this plant... that is a LOT of boxes to probe.
Seems AlliedAir is a lot more concerned with no leaks than, say, Goodman... which was the factory with a hand-held--on a moving assembly line--with a fan blowing on the worker.

I like to see good quality control but I have just never really cared much for the step children of Lennox. All the Armstrong and Concords around here seem to give alot of trouble and I despise Ducane. But, they do know good quality - They're using an H10!

Originally Posted by Elfshadow

Yup our company used to use handheld leak detects but where getting a high volume of package unit being dry on arrival. We switched to these maybe 4-6 years ago there about. These do a great job of isolating leaks. You can put them into a cloud of refrigerant and the wand will measure across two ports to determine if you are near a leak or just in a cloud of gas. Yeah, companies should be OCD about leaks. Nothing like being on tap for 200+ pounds of refer from a 60ton RTU.

200# of juice in a 60T RTU...

Reminds me of a chemistry lab I used to do service for... they had two 50T Trane's on the roof... Each had 2 compressors the size of 20-gal trash cans... Manufacture date was 1989, used R-22. I say past tense... they were replaced a while back.
I can imagine the cost to re-charge that beast...

Something else AlliedAir does... which I did not see at other factories: They have a cardboard punch-out hole (cut, not punched out) strategically placed in the lower side of boxes holding AC's and HP's. A guy randomly goes around the warehouse with a hand-held leak detector (yes, they used an H-10) and probes boxes. Now here is the cool part: EVERY box that goes out the warehouse door gets probed... NO exceptions. And given the warehouse is 250,000 ft... and they only make AC, HP, and small package units at this plant... that is a LOT of boxes to probe.
Seems AlliedAir is a lot more concerned with no leaks than, say, Goodman... which was the factory with a hand-held--on a moving assembly line--with a fan blowing on the worker.

Originally Posted by ga-hvac-tech

Reminds me of last year when I went on a couple of factory tours of HVAC equipment.
On the assembly line of AC and HP units... all but one factory used hand-held leak detectors.... the stuff we buy at the supply house... checking the unit while it traveled down the assembly line with fans blowing to keep the employees cool...
That one factory which stood out: they had a plexiglass enclosure with curtain doors. The unit went in there and stopped. They had a Hewlett Packard Gas Cronometer.... a $25K Chemistry lab piece of equipment around 2 cubic feet size... with a wand on a hose. And yes, it is probably at least 100 times more sensitive than one of the $295 hand-helds. The co was truly OCD about NOT letting any equipment go out the door with refrigerant leaking.
BTW: The co is AlliedAir ( www.alliedair.com )

Yup our company used to use handheld leak detects but where getting a high volume of package unit being dry on arrival. We switched to these maybe 4-6 years ago there about. These do a great job of isolating leaks. You can put them into a cloud of refrigerant and the wand will measure across two ports to determine if you are near a leak or just in a cloud of gas. Yeah, companies should be OCD about leaks. Nothing like being on tap for 200+ pounds of refer from a 60ton RTU.

I know some don't like it for 410a but it has yet to fail me with 22 or 410a. It is the only leak detector for me.

Originally Posted by Elfshadow

http://www.inficonrefrigeration.com/...tor/index.html

We use these in the shop. They will actually detect down to .01 oz a year. Of course they cost 10 grand a pop and can't be used for prolonged periods in the sun, and they suck to move around so probably not really relevant to the discussion.

Originally Posted by Elfshadow

Mainly because I was bored, and they are very nice leak detectors.

Reminds me of last year when I went on a couple of factory tours of HVAC equipment.
On the assembly line of AC and HP units... all but one factory used hand-held leak detectors.... the stuff we buy at the supply house... checking the unit while it traveled down the assembly line with fans blowing to keep the employees cool...
That one factory which stood out: they had a plexiglass enclosure with curtain doors. The unit went in there and stopped. They had a Hewlett Packard Gas Cronometer.... a $25K Chemistry lab piece of equipment around 2 cubic feet size... with a wand on a hose. And yes, it is probably at least 100 times more sensitive than one of the $295 hand-helds. The co was truly OCD about NOT letting any equipment go out the door with refrigerant leaking.
BTW: The co is AlliedAir ( www.alliedair.com )

Originally Posted by AirTechMech

You are right, not relevant to the conversation.....So why post????

Mainly because I was bored, and they are very nice leak detectors.

If I find a link I will post can't remember where I bought mine.

Originally Posted by Elfshadow

http://www.inficonrefrigeration.com/...tor/index.html

We use these in the shop. They will actually detect down to .01 oz a year. Of course they cost 10 grand a pop and can't be used for prolonged periods in the sun, and they suck to move around so probably not really relevant to the discussion.

You are right, not relevant to the conversation.....So why post????

http://www.inficonrefrigeration.com/...tor/index.html

We use these in the shop. They will actually detect down to .01 oz a year. Of course they cost 10 grand a pop and can't be used for prolonged periods in the sun, and they suck to move around so probably not really relevant to the discussion.