Is vapor coming out of my apartment AC a refrigerant leak?
Vapor coming from an air conditioner can indicate a serious system issue, but technicians often cannot confirm a leak without evacuating and recharging the entire system first. This guesswork leaves tenants facing thousands of dollars in diagnostic and repair costs before the actual problem is even found.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
Is vapor coming out of my apartment AC a refrigerant leak?
- 1Turning off the AC unitDid this help you?
- 2Adding freon repeatedly to temporarily restore coolingDid this help you?
- 3Considering a complete system recharge to measure refrigerant lossDid this help you?
- 4Planning to remove sheetrock to access and inspect hidden line junction pointsDid this help you?
- 5adding a pound of refrigerantDid this help you?
- 6adjusting superheat valuesDid this help you?
- 7performing a leak checkDid this help you?
- 8paying weekend service fees for faster emergency visitsDid this help you?
- 9having technicians top off the refrigerant temporarilyDid this help you?
- 10having a technician recharge the unit with refrigerant annually without fixing the underlying leakDid this help you?
- 11replacing the mini split system entirely with a DIY unitDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Hello, I live in an apartment and have been having issues with AC. Is this a refrigerant leak? I’ve turned off the AC but it still has vapor coming out.”source ↗
“my temp split is 22° but outdoor unit seems off. it’s a 410A system and H/O said at night it gets a little hot. i’m here for a tune up but what should i look for? also it’s a TXV”source ↗
“Now the system stopped working completely and the MKH2 flagged a low refrigerant warning.”source ↗
“Came out for the first time because the cooling performance was somewhat poor.”source ↗
“If it’s a leak, is it possible to run the fan to get circulation going in my apartment or would that be a health issue?”source ↗
“Last night I noticed it was not keeping up again, so I called them back to see about doing leak testing.”source ↗
“They proposed that we "draw out all of the freon and recharge from scratch, 20 lbs, total, that way we can see what we are dealing with" becuase he doesn't know for sure how much freon is currently in there.”source ↗
“So I would be at $2500 total cost and would not have even found a leak yet.”source ↗
“At the beginning of every summer they turn on their ac and it doesn't cool. The hvac company comes and charges up the unit and it's good for the rest of the year, next year same thing.”source ↗
“This year they had a new company come out and find that there was a leak somewhere, I'm guessing the fittings that go into the outdoor unit buti have no idea.”source ↗
“The first company said they put dye in the refrigerant to find the leak. And then every year they claim to not find it and just charge it up.”source ↗
“Oily spray nearby the outdoor unit. The unit itself has a couple of spots, but it is not covered in oil like I might expect it to be.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Is water dripping from the car AC normal?
- 2How to check refrigerant charge on a new AC unit
- 12Is my outside unit leaking oil or condensation?
- 10Why is my car AC blowing warm air and stuck on the wrong vents?
- 4Cool air leaking from gap around AC copper pipe in attic
- 8Is the black stuff in my air conditioner mold or dust?