Refrigerant leaks are the rare maintenance failure that is simultaneously a performance problem, a cost problem and a regulatory problem. A system down on charge loses capacity long before it stops running, so the customer feels it as a comfort complaint rather than a fault. Meanwhile the leak rate on an appliance above the regulatory charge threshold is something you are expected to have calculated, documented and acted on — and the only way to calculate it is to have logged every addition and recovery as it happened.
The steps ChatterFix schedules for this PM. Every step is a checkable item on the work order — a technician can speak their way through it without touching a keyboard.
Refrigerant leaks are the rare maintenance failure that is simultaneously a performance problem, a cost problem and a regulatory problem. A system down on charge loses capacity long before it stops running, so the customer feels it as a comfort complaint rather than a fault. Meanwhile the leak rate on an appliance above the regulatory charge threshold is something you are expected to have calculated, documented and acted on — and the only way to calculate it is to have logged every addition and recovery as it happened.
The pattern is always the same: a unit gets 'topped up' on three or four service calls across a year, each one written as a separate small charge, and nobody adds them together. The system is quietly running at reduced capacity the whole time, the compressor is running hot, and the paperwork that would prove the leak rate does not exist. When the compressor finally fails, the customer is looking at a capital replacement and asking why nobody flagged it.
Quarterly suits appliances over the regulatory charge threshold and anything with a history. Smaller systems can go annual, tied to the seasonal visit. The trigger that matters is not the calendar — it is any call where refrigerant was added. That should start the clock regardless of when the last inspection was.
This procedure — and every other PM for your industry — is already built into ChatterFix. Pick your industry and it lands on the right equipment, on the right interval, in about three minutes.