A/C leak

Hello all, hope everyones safe and healthy. I was wondering if it's ok using a smoke machine to find ac leaks, I've heard it's ok, but wasn't sure about putting anything but freon in there. I mean the smoker uses oil to produce smoke so it's not like it's putting any water moisture in. Cheers

I don't know if a smoke machine would put out the pressure needed to find an A/C leak.

Pressurizing the system with shop air and spraying with soapy water is a tried and true method, though.

I also use shop air. One of these cheap consumer top off hoses with a quick release valve and gauge works perfect with a rubber tipped blow gun.

I use a Bleed-down tester.

As above a little air pressure Ultrasonic leak detector is very good for pinpointing leaks this is the cheap one I use

Man, this site has shown me how far behind the times I am as far as diagnostic methods and equipment goes!

As far as ultrasonic detectors go, about how small of a leak are the more inexpensive units accurate to and would they be able to pick up a leak from, say, an evaporator core? The bane of my existence has been A/C leaks lately and any extra edge I can get in finding the things I'll jump on.

A sniffer test to give you the general area then ultrasonic is very good for tracking down to within a few mm. When I got mine I tested it on a car with a really tiny leak from the LP Schrader valve -- it found it with no problem the leak was so small when I gave it a soap bubble test it was only prosducing about a single 1mm bubble every two or three minutes.

It also works on inlet vacuum leaks, no so good for windscreen and door seal water leakds.

That's perfect, I just happen to have one of those laying around, I'll do high pressure smoke. And soapy water at the same time. Good ideas. Thanks all.

Personally I wouldn't use an oil based smoke on an AC system. Water can be pulled back out with a vacuum pump but oil can't.

Maybe you could get pag oil to work on smoke machine? Lol never tried smoke in a system anymore I just charge with dye and have a look around with the UV light then evac it when I find leak

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Yeah I don't have access to ac equipment at the moment, so I'm just going to put shop air in and look for bubbles.