UV dye

[monkey spanners]

Found this today. The leak didn't show up under ofn but after a week or so was plain to see.
This was with spectraline dye and my ITE 12v UV lamp.

Cheers Jon

[marc5180]

Good find John...this proves that the UV dye does work. Job well done

[superswill]

i have always had my doubts on UV,my reasoning being we avoid moisture,none condensables and vac down with a torr gauge,making sure we add the correct charge to the letter T,but then b*llock a load of magic glowing dye in and thats fine! but on this iam prepared to go stand in the conner looking at the pics

[thermo prince]

Each method of leak detection has its pros and cons. UV dye for hard -to -find leaks is not necessarily a bad thing. I believe some commercial compressor OEM have also changed their stance on use of UV dye in right proportions and I expect use of known,legitimate brands.

Many automobile a/c systems apparently use uv dye in the original setup ex factory now. Miniscule cc volume added to a few hundred grammes of 134a but I imagine they worked out the mix ratio carefully. They require the use of the uv 'blacklight' torch - I think we all agree the 'dayglo' visible stuff leaves a filthy dirty mess for all to see, inside and outside. In large tonnage commercial systems you would still have some reservations about adding literally litres ?? of any 'external' additives to system to get a useful concentration in circulation for detection purposes.

I am open minded on UV for detection personally for once-off 'slow bleeder' problems. Is enough known on long term effects to justify factory precharge on all systems? I am not sure. I expect the jury still out. Interested to hear more on this matter....