After 43 years in the HVAC/R industry, Paul Greene, admits he’s “old school,” when it comes to repairing and maintaining refrigeration systems ranging from multiple ton chillers and walk-in coolers to rooftop air conditioners and appliances.
“I don’t like anything in my refrigeration systems except refrigerant and oil,” said Greene, who owns service company, Greene’s HVAC & R, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and teaches HVAC courses at nearby Kirkwood College.
So it came as a shock to peers and students of Greene when he started touting refrigerant sealants as viable solutions to leaking refrigeration systems. Greene is an advocate of conventional leak detection and repair, but recently several inaccessible refrigeration leaks in local flower shop and restaurant walk-in coolers gave him no alternative but to try a new sealant, Super Seal 3 Phase™ by Cliplight Mfg., Toronto. A year later, both systems are performing to manufacturer’s specifications to Greene’s surprise.
Greene’s use of the sealant is steadily adding new business. For example, Pierson Wholesale Florist, a Cedar Rapids-based wholesale/retail cut flower, tropical plant and garden center, has promised long-term business to Greene after he fixed a 20 x 20-foot walk-in cooler other contractors couldn’t repair. In more than two years, the 78-year-old family-run business had spent more than $2,000 on service calls from various HVAC contractors for a 25-year-old, 20 x 20-foot floral cooler. Rollie Pierson, vice president and co-owner, saw a bottomless pit of repair costs because contractors couldn’t find or isolate the leak. “One contractor spent over three hours searching for the leak when I told him to stop and get out,” Pierson recalls.
On a recommendation from his brother Al, whose cross-town flower shop cooler was previously sealed from leaking, Pierson tried Greene. Since other contractors couldn’t find the leak, Greene skipped his usual leak detection routine. After checking system pressures, Greene injected one 3-ounce can of Super Seal 3 Phase into the former R-12 system and topped the system off with Hot Shot 414b refrigerant from ICOR International, Indianapolis, Ind. The service call cost Pierson less than $100 in labor and materials and the system has been running up to manufacturer’s original performance specifications for over one year. “I would think most florists are faced with these same problems as older flower coolers develop refrigeration leaks from age, so the fact that these systems can now be sealed is good news,” added Pierson.
Pierson’s shop was the third sealant application for Greene. All three systems are running flawlessly for over one year. Greene is so impressed he’s carrying sealant regularly on his truck. He also covers sealant application in his Eastern Iowa Plumbing, Heating, Cooling Contractors Association-sponsored (PHCC) HVAC/R class curriculum at Kirkwood College. “There must be thousands of refrigeration systems just in Cedar Rapids that are leaking refrigerants into the atmosphere, not to mention what’s happening across the globe, that I think is due mostly to poor brazing or soldering techniques on the part of installation technicians,” estimated Greene. “Think of the impact sealants could have on our environment, however a lot of contractors don’t trust them yet,” Greene said.
After several years of successful lab and field testing, Cliplight launched the sealant in 2003 as Super Seal 3 Phase specifically for flower coolers, industrial chillers and other large refrigeration systems over 5 tons. Two other formulas handle smaller systems such as small appliances and residential air conditioning. Inventor Paul Appler, director of research and development, Cliplight, said Super Seal is a low viscosity, particle-free formula that’s compatible with all refrigerants. When it leaks out of a system with the refrigerant, it crystallizes into a seal as it mixes with atmospheric moisture. When properly applied, the agent does not affect other system components.
The first time Greene tried a sealant, he had few alternatives. A leaking evaporator in a 125-square-foot walk-in cooler was a choice between losing over $1,000 in product or sealing it while waiting a week or more for a replacement evaporator for his client, the Cedar Rapids restaurant icon, StarLite Room. Greene, who uses a LS-3000 electronic leak detector by CPS Products, Hialeah, Fla., targeted the evaporator because of refrigerant traces in the evaporator’s condensate drain hose.
Luckily, a counterman at the Cedar Rapids branch of Johnstone Supply talked Greene into trying it after reading several magazine success stories on the product. Since he had no prior experience, using the sealant was just an attempt to buy time until the replacement evaporator arrived.
Cliplight recommends triple evacuations down to 300 microns accompanied by drier replacement before recharging and injecting the system with Super Seal. Since Greene didn’t see moisture in the sight glass, he simply added the sealant with plans of cleaning the system once the evaporator arrived. The system worked so well afterward that Greene abandoned replacing the evaporator coil and saved the owner another $500 to $1,000 or more in repair costs. The $148 service bill included Greene’s one hour of labor injecting the sealant, topping off the system with R-22 refrigerant from DuPont, Wilmington, Del., and one can of sealant. “I fully expected to replace the evaporator, but the system has been running flawlessly for over one year with just the sealant,” Greene said. “The restaurant owner (Jim Aossey) owns many rental properties in town and has vowed to give all future HVAC work to me.”
After 43 years, Greene now believes there can be something other than oil and refrigerant in a refrigeration system.
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