Can you service an HVAC system with leak seal in it?
Stop leak products can gum up recovery machines, valves, and gauges, leading technicians to give conflicting advice ranging from attempting a recharge to replacing the entire system. Because leak seal reacts with moisture and components inside sealed lines, many pros refuse to work on treated systems, leaving homeowners stuck between expensive full replacements and unserviceable cooling.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1Paying for a diagnostic pull down to see if the system holds pressure
- 2Replacing the entire system or affected components due to the presence of stop leak
- 3inspecting and clearing clogged condensation lines themselves
- 4calling a local mom and pop shop for a yearly tune-up or professional inspection
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“R410a system that had a evap pin hole leaks all over. It was leak sealed 3 years ago. The system now cant pull down past 78F with 98F outside temp.”source ↗
“Ive had two techs out one tech wants to pull down the system and see how it holds and go from there. But i dont think you can pull down a system with stop leak in it?”source ↗
“The other wants to replace everything saying once stop leak is in the system you cant pull it down and recharge.”source ↗
“Just changed my air filter and noticed these stains on one of the edges.”source ↗
“Is this more of an immediate thing I should have looked at? I don’t know that my AC will run much more this season, but also don’t want things in there to get worse and cost more later.”source ↗