Can someone please point me to a source where I could buy locking guards to protect against casual pilferage of refrigerant through the "Service Ports" on the refrigerant lines of outdoor AC compressor units?
Here's the reason:
Until today, whenever I've hear someone say that an HVAC tech came out and added some refigerant to their central air system my immediate reaction was to ask them, "You know, that's supposed to be a completely sealed system, did the tech look for, find and repair a leak before he/she added refrigerent?
This morning I was watching the Fox News channel and their medical consultant Dr. Manny Alvarez started talking about how teen agers have taken to filling plastic bags with what he just called "freon" from the service ports on outdoor AC compressors. Then they go off and breath in the gas to "get high".
Thinking about that, it'd take little more than a pair of pliers to remove a service port cap and something to push the valve down with, leaving no sign of what they've done until enough gas is gone and your AC stops cooling well.
Dr. Alvarez warned about the serious medical dangers of breathing freon and mentioned that in some cases it can cause death. He also said frostbite to kid's faces has resulted from their releasing the refrigerant directly (without a plastic bag) and trying and suck it in as its spraying out.
I've been hearing lots of stories about the rising price of copper resulting in an increase in thefts of the copper components of outdoor AC equipment, but this is the first I've heard about the freon swiping thing.
Dr. Alvarez mentioned that locking service port protectors are available for "about $30.00". Those might be good enough to make the kids want to go away and look for someone else's "unlocked" AC system.
Jeff (Who asks, what next?)