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Be extremely thorough. The homeowner will expect the entire system is running and operating perfectly after you leave if you do not note it otherwise on the invoice. If the system is not operating perfectly fine the homeowner will generally want the additional repairs that were not noted or caught during the first visit repaired for free.
The homeowner may even insist that we pay for their electrical bills thinking that our negligence caused them to be too high during the summer months.
The customer is paying to have their system cleaned whether or not you clean it.
They are paying more in electricity usage and lack of cooling if it remains dirty.
Always check the filter and blower motor. If they are dirty, pull the blower motor and check the evaporator coil by looking up through the heat exchanger. If the system is dirty then give them a price to clean it and bring it back up to factory standards.
It is not possible to adjust the Freon levels of a system correctly without having:
1. A clean evaporator coil
2. A clean filter.
3. A clean blower wheel.
4. Properly sized ducting.
5. All registers open.
6. A clean condensing unit coil.
Advantages of using the TIF 8800 gas leak detector
1. Very easy to use. Almost no training is required.
2. No water and no mess to clean up after using. No electrical shot circuits due to water.
3. Audible detection leaves no doubt of where leak is at.
4. Very quick.
5. The customer can easily acknowledge the presence of the leak.
Disadvantages of using the TIF 8800 gas leak detector:
1. It will give you a false leak reading when exposed to new pipe dope. This can be a problem if your customer wants you to go over the system after you have repaired it to ensure that there are no more leaks.
2. If you turn or bump the control knob during your examination the meter will tend to give you a false signal of a leak. If your customer sees this they will lose faith in the equipment unless you quickly explain it to them.
To use the leak detector you must turn it on and let it warm up for about 30 seconds. It is very important that you let it warm up and become acclimated to the environment away from the gas leak. It will be measuring the difference in the concentrations of gas in the air. Once the meter is making a ticking sound you can use the adjustment knob to sensitize the unit. Turn the dial clockwise until the ticking becomes very rapid. It should slow down after a couple of seconds. The faster the ticking the more sensitive the device. The beeping should occur more than 3 beeps per second. Now you can simply go over the system looking for leaks. If the device is going off repeatedly in a general area you simply need to turn the control knob counter clockwise to desensitize the device and the gas leak will leave a smaller footprint enabling you to more accurately pinpoint the leak.
The most common places for a furnace to leak gas at are:
The gas valve normally leaks due to a failure in the membrane of the pressure regulator. The member fluctuates up and down to control the pressure of the gas that enters the burner compartment. This fluctuating will eventually wear the diaphragm membrane out. A small pinhole leak will let the gas escape. The easiest avenue for that gas to escape from inside the valve is through the penetration where the on-off dial is.
Proper furnace inspection can keep the home from burning down. This is a picture of a furnace that burned a home in Torrance.
Gas Leak Testing Furnaces and Package Units
Gas leak testing is very simple. Soap and water is a very good method to test for gas leaks on piping, but when it comes to HVAC equipment the devices that are most likely to leak are electrical in nature. For this the use of soap and water would be very detrimental to the appliance. It is for this reason that we use the electronic gas leak detector ( TIF 8800)