Professional Refrigerant Services in Galveston, TX

The most likely reason your AC is blowing warm air in Galveston is low refrigerant, and the most likely cause of low refrigerant on the coast is salt corrosion eating through your copper refrigerant lines. This is the number one refrigerant-related issue we diagnose in Galveston County — pinhole leaks in copper tubing caused by years of salt air exposure. It's a problem that barely exists in San Antonio or Dallas but accounts for a significant percentage of our service calls on the island and throughout the coastal communities.

How Salt Destroys Refrigerant Lines

Your AC system circulates refrigerant through copper tubing that runs between the indoor evaporator coil and the outdoor condenser. These lines are typically 15-50 feet long, depending on the distance between units, and they're exposed to outdoor air along part of their run. On the Gulf Coast, that outdoor air carries salt particles that deposit on the copper surface.

Copper and salt don't mix well. Salt accelerates a corrosion process called formicin corrosion — named after formic acid, which forms when salt and moisture react with copper in the presence of organic compounds. The result is tiny pinhole leaks that are almost invisible to the eye but large enough for refrigerant to escape over weeks or months.

You won't hear a dramatic hiss or see a spray of gas. Instead, your system gradually loses cooling capacity. The air from the vents gets less cold. The system runs longer to reach the set temperature. Your CenterPoint Energy bill creeps up. Ice may form on the indoor coil as the remaining refrigerant expands too much in the evaporator. By the time the system stops cooling entirely, you may have lost 30-50% of your refrigerant charge.

Why "Just Topping It Off" Doesn't Work

Many homeowners — and unfortunately some HVAC technicians — treat low refrigerant by simply adding more. This is like putting air in a tire with a nail in it. The leak is still there, and the new refrigerant will escape at the same rate. On the coast, the corrosion that caused the first leak is still actively creating new ones.

We see systems that have been "topped off" two or three times in a single season. At $50-$150 per pound for R-410A and $150-$300 per pound for the phased-out R-22, those recharges add up fast — $500 to $3,000 per year — and they don't solve anything.

The only proper approach is: find every leak, repair or replace the damaged section, pull a vacuum on the system to remove air and moisture, and then charge the system to the manufacturer's exact specification.

Our Leak Detection Process

Finding pinhole leaks in copper tubing requires more than spraying soapy water on connections. Our process uses multiple methods:

Electronic leak detection. Refrigerant-specific electronic detectors can sense concentrations as low as 0.1 oz per year. We trace the entire refrigerant circuit — indoor coil, outdoor coil, line set, and all connections — with the detector to identify active leak points.

Nitrogen pressure testing. We pressurize the system with dry nitrogen to 300-400 PSI (well above normal operating pressure) and monitor for pressure drop over time. This confirms whether leaks exist and helps isolate which section of the system is compromised.

UV dye injection. For leaks that are difficult to pinpoint with electronic detection, we can inject UV-reactive dye into the refrigerant. The dye escapes at the leak point and fluoresces under UV light, making even microscopic leaks visible.

Repair vs. Line Set Replacement

If we find one or two isolated leak points on an otherwise sound line set, spot repairs make sense. We braze the damaged sections with silver solder and apply protective coating to the repaired area.

But on coastal systems — especially those over 7-8 years old — we often find multiple corroded areas along the line set. Repairing three or four spots only to have new leaks open up in six months isn't cost-effective. In these cases, replacing the entire line set with new copper protected by a corrosion-resistant sleeve or transitioning to aluminum line sets (which resist salt corrosion better than copper) is the smarter investment.

The R-22 Phase-Out and Coastal Impact

R-22 (Freon) was banned from new production in 2020. Existing supplies are finite and increasingly expensive — current prices run $150-$300 per pound, with 5-10 pounds needed for a typical residential recharge. That's $750 to $3,000 for a single recharge.

This hits coastal homeowners harder than anyone else. Your R-22 system is aging faster due to salt exposure. It's leaking refrigerant more frequently due to corroded copper. And each recharge costs more than the last as supplies dwindle. If you're running an R-22 system in Galveston and it needs refrigerant more than once per season, the math strongly favors replacing the entire system with a new unit running R-410A or the newer R-454B.

R-410A and Next-Generation Refrigerants

R-410A has been the standard residential refrigerant since the mid-2000s. It's more efficient than R-22, operates at higher pressures, and is still readily available — though prices have climbed from $30/lb to $50-$150/lb in recent years. Systems installed after 2010 almost certainly use R-410A.

The industry is transitioning to R-454B (marketed as Opteon XL41) starting in 2025 for new equipment. R-454B has a lower global warming potential and operates at similar pressures to R-410A. If you're replacing a system, newer models using R-454B will have lower long-term refrigerant costs as production scales up.

We provide refrigerant services across Galveston, Texas City, League City, Dickinson, La Marque, and Santa Fe. Our $129 coastal tune-up (regularly $225) includes a refrigerant level check and leak inspection — catching slow leaks before they drain your system and your wallet.