Don’t Get Scammed: Did They Add Freon to my AC System?

Freon Scam

Dean:         All right, we’re gonna talk about how you can get scammed on Freon charges. You call the heat and air company. You don’t know them, you don’t have a history with them. You just moved here from New York and now I’m trying to find somebody I can trust, right?

George:     That’s right.

Dean:         So he comes out here for $49.95. Not sayin’ that they do this all the time. Just sayin’ this is how you get scammed. $49.95, they put the gauges on it and then what do they do?

George:     “Pressure is a little bit low. You need some Freon.”

Dean:         That’s the first thing, right?

George:     Yeah.

Dean:         So what’s it gonna cost to tap it off with Freon for the $49.95 deal?

George:     Well, if it’s R-22, at least 150 to 200 dollars, at some places.

Dean:         If you don’t know anything about heating and air units and they say, “Oh we just need to cap you off “with a little Freon. “It only took about half a pound to a pound, “but I’m gonna cut you a break. “I’m only charge you $100 a pound.” How do you know they put Freon in here?

Weighing Scale

George:     It’s an electronic scale, a weighing scale. This shows exactly how much Freon has left this jug. So you as the homeowner can sit down and look and watch the numbers count off on that scale. So they say, “I put a pound of Freon.” And that scale should show a pound of Freon.

Dean:         What happens if they show up out here and they don’t have this fancy gizmo here? And they just show up out here with a tank and set it on the ground and shake it a little bit?

George:     That’s really, I mean–

Dean:         What if they didn’t open this? They act like they put Freon in, but they didn’t open the tank.

George:     Yeah. Whatever the pressure is in the unit, say this unit was running at 65 PSI suction pressure. The tank pressure is gonna be higher than that. So when they hook the tank up and they open that valve on the top of the tank and you have to bleed the air out, so they should be cracking the line to bleed what air may be in that line because you don’t wanna put air into the system. So they bleed their lines and then when they open this valve here, they turn this handle. This pressure should go up way higher and then that Freon will start flowing in and you also have a scale that tells you, that’s counting how much Freon is leaving that tank.

Dean:         Now, with the weighing scale, you’re looking at a professional. You’re looking at a guy that’s documenting this. This is how much Freon that went in there. I’ve documented what I found wrong with the unit and if we go back 3 years from now and you have trouble with your unit and you go, well this worked perfect for the last 3 years, Mr. Casey. Well that’s good. But every year, if we have to come back and put Freon in, a pound every year, then what have we got?

George:     You got a leak.

Dean:         You got a leak. So that’s why you have documentation and go with a company that’s reputable, okay? Go with a company that you can trust, whoever they are, wherever they are. They’re out there. Word of mouth, Better Business Bureau. Check around and find out, okay? Because if he walks like a duck and he talks like a duck, he’s what?

George:     He’s a duck.

Dean:         He’s a duck.