Lifespan of Filter-Driers in Home AC units

[beiland]

Under normal circumstances what should be the lifespan of a filter/drier piece of gear inside a home AC unit?

I have a 5.5 year old York (Luxaire) unit hooked up to my trailer home here in St Augustine Fl. I do NOT live near the beach. I keep my whole trailer and surrounding property very clean and washed down.

A week ago I lost all refrigerant from my AC unit. At fault was a VERY RUSTY filter/drier that ended up letting all the refrigerant escape. I looked up the manufacturer of this filter-drier (Sporlan) and found they were a USA company, who had been in this business since the late 1940's. They were NOT a Chinese company that I would have been immediately suspicious of manufacturing such a substandard product.

Take a look at this filter-drier (some photos attached), and give me your opinion. My opinion is that this filter-drier was NOT properly undercoat painted/prepared prior to the outer paint coating. The water readily got under that outer coating (paint layer) and the rust began from day one. Look at how that outer layer just peels off in layers while still holding together as an entity.

I'm going to attach some photos. I would welcome other's comments/views.

I come from years in the boating industry (and ocean going boats as well), and I have seen my share of improperly prepared hulls, machinery, etc that allowed water to penetrate the outer layers of paint. This is just such a case. The outer layer of paint is not damaged, and the item has not been abused such that the water would have penetrated the coating. This is a classic case of an item that WAS NOT prepped correctly prior to the finish coat during manufacturing....my observation.

If this is the case there must be some goodly number of similar items/failures out there? This item is ID as a #407G filter-drier from Sporlan. and installed in a York (LUXaire) AC unit. Have there been other recorded failures, or any recalls on these filter-drier parts?? There should be as it might prevent some poor customer from loosing all his ***** before theirs fail.

This repair has cost me $850, most of that in the cost of the ***** replacement I'm hoping that Sporlan will step up to the table and reimburse a goodly portion of my repair cost. But I am not so hopeful when I read about some of the filter driers that have been sent back to them for review, but have not been reviewed for months, or years?

(I'm going to post this now, then come back and add the photos, otherwise I fear losing the text)
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