AC Coil & Refrigerant Leak Repair in Lexington, SC

Refrigerant leak repair in Lexington, SC starts with one fact many homeowners never hear: an air conditioner doesn't use up its refrigerant. The same charge circulates for the life of the system. If yours keeps coming up low, refrigerant is escaping somewhere, and adding more only buys a few weeks or months.

We find the leak first. Sometimes it's a loose valve core that takes minutes to fix. Sometimes it's a pinhole deep inside the indoor coil that someone else missed. Either way, you see what we found and get honest options before we recharge anything.

Signs your AC is losing refrigerant

Low refrigerant tends to show up gradually, and it's easy to mistake for an old system "just getting tired."

A frozen evaporator coil has two main causes: low charge or poor airflow from a dirty filter or weak blower. We check airflow first, because adding refrigerant to a system with an airflow problem makes things worse.

What leak and coil work covers

This service picks up where a routine repair call stops: the system is low, and someone needs to find out why. It covers the indoor evaporator coil, the outdoor condenser coil, the copper line set between them and every valve and joint along the way. The goal is a sealed system holding its factory charge, not a refill that leaks out by August.

• Confirming the system is truly undercharged, not starved for airflow
• Locating the leak with electronic detection, bubble solution and nitrogen pressure tests
• Repairing valve cores, brazed joints and rubbed lines in place
• Replacing evaporator coils matched to your refrigerant and outdoor unit
• Recovering, evacuating and recharging the system to specification
• Advising on replacement when the coil or the refrigerant makes repair a poor deal

Where leaks start in Midlands systems

Most leaks we trace fall into a few groups.

• The indoor coil. Copper evaporator coils can develop tiny pinholes from formicary corrosion, a slow chemical attack driven by household vapors from cleaners, adhesives and building materials. These leaks are small, slow and hard to find.
• Valve cores and caps. The Schrader valves on the service ports work like a tire valve. A worn core or a missing cap can seep refrigerant.
• Rubbing copper. Where a line vibrates against a cabinet edge or another tube, it can wear through over the years.
• Joints. Brazed connections can crack, particularly where a line set was stressed during installation.
• The outdoor coil. String trimmers, mower debris and pets can puncture condenser fins and tubing.

Attic air handlers add a twist. The coil sits in a space that can run well past 120 degrees in July, then sweats heavily when the system cools. Access is tight, so leaks there need patience to trace. Our air handler service covers the rest of that indoor cabinet.

How do we find and fix the leak?

Detection is a process of elimination, not a single test. The whole job runs in six steps:

1. Confirm the undercharge with gauges, superheat and subcooling.
2. Search the likely spots with an electronic detector and bubble solution.
3. Pressure-test with nitrogen when the leak hides.
4. Show you the leak and price the repair, coil or system options below.
5. Repair, then hold nitrogen pressure again to prove the fix.
6. Evacuate and recharge with a deep vacuum, refrigerant weighed in and readings checked under load.

The first three steps take the most skill:

Confirm the problem

Gauges and line temperatures tell us whether the system is truly undercharged. Superheat and subcooling readings separate a leak from an airflow or metering problem.

Search the likely spots

We look for oil staining, then run an electronic leak detector slowly along the coil, line set, valves and joints. Suspect spots get bubble solution, which foams where gas escapes.

Pressure-test when it hides

If the leak doesn't show itself, we recover the refrigerant, isolate sections of the system, and pressurize them with dry nitrogen. A gauge that drops over time points to the section with the leak. This is how slow coil leaks finally get pinned down.

Repair the leak, replace the coil, or replace the system

Once we know where the leak is, the choices usually come down to three.

Repair in place

Valve cores, accessible joints and rubbed lines can often be repaired directly by replacing the core or brazing the joint. This is the least expensive outcome and common on newer systems.

Replace the coil

A leaking evaporator coil is rarely worth patching. A replacement coil has to match your system's refrigerant and be compatible with the outdoor unit. If the equipment is still within the manufacturer's parts warranty, the coil itself may be covered, while labor and refrigerant are billed. A damaged outdoor coil usually means replacing the outdoor unit.

Replace the system

For R-22 equipment or a system past about 12 to 15 years, the money spent on a coil and refrigerant often makes more sense going toward a new system through our AC installation and replacement service. Existing R-410A systems can still be serviced and repaired with R-410A; brand-new systems now use A2L refrigerants such as R-454B and R-32.

After any repair, the system is pressure-tested, pulled into a deep vacuum to remove moisture, charged to the manufacturer's specification by weight, and checked under load.

Refrigerant rules and what affects the cost

EPA Section 608 prohibits knowingly venting refrigerant into the air and requires anyone who opens a refrigerant circuit to be certified. Refrigerant removed from your system is recovered, not released. R-22 production ended in 2020, so that refrigerant now comes only from reclaimed stock. At the state level, LLR licenses HVAC contractors and lists them in a public lookup; we are fully licensed and insured. A coil swap normally needs no permit, but replacing the condenser or the whole system usually does.

What moves the price of leak work

A leak search is open-ended, so here are the variables:

• Where the leak is and how hard it is to reach, especially in an attic or crawlspace

• How long it takes to locate, since a slow coil leak takes more testing than a cracked valve

• The type and amount of refrigerant your system needs, with R-22 the most costly

• Whether a coil is needed and how quickly a matching one can be sourced

• Manufacturer warranty coverage on the part

• Whether the outdoor unit or line set is affected as well as the coil

You get the price for the repair before we start. To spot a slipping charge early next year, a spring AC tune-up checks pressures every visit.

Why homeowners bring us the leak someone else missed

Finding a refrigerant leak that another company had overlooked is one of the things our reviewers single out. That comes from method, not luck: confirming the charge before blaming it, then testing section by section until the gauge stops moving. The owner still does this work himself, backed by more than ten years in HVAC and NATE certification, and you see the bubbles or the falling needle before any money is spent. Our Google rating is 5.0 across 29 reviews. Coil and system replacements get free estimates and can be financed.