Sub zero 561/s Evap Coil leak?? R134a recharge? HELP!

[eightball]

Okay, post accidentally got deleted so I'll try and reconstruct my question/status  - apologies for the repetition.

 

Here's my situation, I've got a 2002 Sub-zero 561/s with a r134a and a serial number of P1954219.

 

Unit wasn't cooling at all on the fridge side.  Tested a bunch of stuff (top fan was working, evaporator fan was working, compressor tested good) but discovered that there was zero frost on the evaporator coil. 

 

Left a couple frantic posts and then gave in and called a repair guy - fearing the worst.

 

Repair guy shows up says the unit has zero freon and . . . wait for it . . . best thing to do is to change the evaporator coil out at a price somewhere north of $1k (ughh!)

 

Long story short I don't have the spare cash to drop on the fridge at the moment so I told him to fill it with r134a and I'd roll the dice till I have some spare cash.

 

So young tech, puts on a valve hooks up his tank and 'fills' the unit.  I'm glancing at his gauges occasionally and it keeps dipping down after a few minutes.  I ask him if it's holding, he says, "yeah, yeah no problem" but I see he's concerned because he goes back and examines/tightens the screws on the valve.  So a few minutes pass he says it's totally full - unit should cool down in a couple hours charges me $260 and walks out.

 

So, I know I haven't fixed the problem but I figure I've bought time.

 

I reload the fridge and wait.  Nothing in an hour.

 

I figure give it over night.  Wake up in the morning and my laser thermometer still says 52° at the back wall.  It feels a little cooler but the thermometer tells a different story.

 

I give it a couple more hours and then decide it's time to see if there is frost on the coils.  Open it up - nada.  Zero.  Coils are free of frost.  Drain is bone dry.  Fridge is 52°.

 

So I call the company - they reschedule a 'senior' technician for this afternoon. But not after before trying to sell me on $1k in service (ughh!)

 

So here are my urgent questions:

    

Could the unit leak out a full charge of r134a that quickly if it was an evaporator coil leak?  And if it did wouldn't it ice up?

 

My understanding is that when the r134a leaks it creates an ice ball on the wall of the fridge/coils.  Is that correct?

 

I know that ultimately I probably need to replace the coil but I just don't have the cash right now to do it.  I'm trying to figure out if this repair company is either scamming me or is radically misdiagnosing the problem.

 

Is it reasonable to think I could buy a month or two of time refilling this thing with r134a?  Or am I nuts?

 

Any help would be greatly, greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks, 

 

Anthony

 

[northeastappliance]

Believe it or not, a little over $1000 sounds about normal. Keep in mind that you have one of the most high end fridges out there. So the repairs are typically a bit higher than the standard fridge.  if they filled the system and the next day you had absolutely 0 frost pattern on the evap then I would be a bit more concerned you have an issue with the compressor(or a huge leak in the evap). Did they tell you how deep of a vacuum the system was in or how much freon was put in to get the pressure up? Did they put dye in the system?

Edited January 15, 2016 by northeastappliance

[eightball]

No dye.  Didn't tell me what the level of the vacuum was but he suggested it was pretty significant.

Would the leak have iced up if it was on the evaporator coil?

 

[northeastappliance]

I think sub z recommends a full sealed system rebuild if the system is in a 10" vacuum. I always put dye in the system if the customer questions my diagnosis.