Refrigerant leaked out

[john999]

I am a home owner with a new Trane heat pump. The system developed a leak shortly after installation and as a result, ran for over a month with almost no refrigerant. Would this have done any harm to the system?

Thanks

[tlcartman]

it depends on what was done when the leak was found and repaired. how much refrigerant leaked out. type of refrigerant. how much run time?

[contactor]

Most new systems dont just suddenly develope a leak,It was probably done during installation .If the system was evacuated with a leak,you have air and moisture in the system. You may have other probs as well now.
Hopefully the problem was followed up and corrected ASAP,correctly. If not solved correctly, you may have problems.

[Shophound]

Originally posted by john999
I am a home owner with a new Trane heat pump. The system developed a leak shortly after installation and as a result, ran for over a month with almost no refrigerant. Would this have done any harm to the system?

Thanks

I would say it ran for over a month with a slowly diminishing amount of refrigerant.

If it was a large leak and the charge blew quickly, the compressor would've likely gone out on internal protection and you would've noticed the loss of performance quickly rather than gradually.

Nevertheless, a proper repair to the leak, new liquid line drier, and evacuation to 500 holding-steady-at-blank-off microns is called for before the system is recharged and returned to service.

[Wild Leg]

And buy the extended warranty, if it is offerred.

[berad]

If it was a model better than the entry level builder's model it will have high and low pressure switches to protect the unit. So if it was one of the middle end or higher units it probably leaked slowly. Most likely the leak was there from the beginning. The Trane units that are leaking from the installation are usualy leaking at the evaporator end. There is a compression fitting on the liquid line side that the installers don't always properly tighten. Also the suction lines are a bit tough to braze at the evap coil, they tend to have a tiny hole on the bottom of the joint. My personal theory is that this leak is caused by the soft solder that Trane uses to put the cap on the end of the tubing. After you heat it up to pop the cap off it settled in the bottom and causes the braze joint to not take well. I always braze with nitrogen. Then I pressurize the system with nitrogen to 150 psi(the max my regulator goes) and use big blue to check all of the fittings and joints. It works very well for me.