Has anybody found anything that can beat an H-10?

[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.

[ga-hvac-tech]

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.

[JoJoMix]

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.

[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.

[hvac_superman]

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.

[BamaCool]

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.

[Lifer]

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.

[ga-hvac-tech]

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.

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.

[JoJoMix]

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.

[ga-hvac-tech]

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... ).

[psycho-metric]

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.