Home Improvement → Possible A/C freon Leak

I was informed by 2 technicians that my A/C unit (Puron) on a house built in '07 (bought in '09) has a freon leak. When i did the home inspection roughly 1 year ago, the temperature was ~62 degrees coming out of the register, noted by the inspector on the report.

I bought the home warranty that covers A/C and they advised the technician to apply a sealant to take care of the leak. The technician called me and explained that in his opinion it is probably a problem with the installation and he's "not a fan of using sealants on these newer units." He explained my home warranty will not cover issues with installation, so if i want him to fix it the right way i would have to pay for it myself.

The home was built by Kimball Hill, they went out of business in '09 and is no longer servicing the warranty on their homes.

Should i trust the technician and pay for it myself? What's the best thing to do in this case?

I'm no A/C tech... but isn't "sealant" a last-ditch fix when all other attempts to locate and fix the leak through normal methods (ie: brazing) fail?

Directly from a manufacturer's website to support my claim:

"When should Super Seal be used?
It should be used when conventional leak detection methods are unsuccessful and all attempts to find and fix a leak have been exhausted."

How does your home warranty know this is an installation problem?

I think they're trying to pull a fast one and find the cheapest way out possible.

Have them find and fix the lead. Do not use sealant.

Home warranty companies are out to make a profit. The only way to do that is to not pay. Welcome to the real world.

Fix the leak without sealant

You technician seems pretty wise. Sealants are crap in my opinion. I won't use them. I would pay him to fix it the right way.

There is a leak. That's all the warranty company needs to know! You should push them to fix this the right way.

The fact that your technician feels it is an installation problem is his opinion- one he does not need to share with the warranty company if we wants the repair business.

They won't fix it the right way. Home warranty companies are a scam. You should see some of the hack stuff they do to "fix" things. Cheapest way out to get the home owner off their back is all they care about. We've been over this in another thread, but the fact they want to use sealant instead of even trying to locate the leak is all you need to know.

Refrigerant

With Home Warranty companies, I think they always say 3 things:

Installation error or problem
Improper Maintenance/Neglect
Damaged / Act of God

In other words: "Not covered."

For homes which closed on or after December 22, 2008 all warranty service is handled by Residential Warranty Corporation, LLC. / Home of Texas. Please call (717) 561-4480 ext. 2131.

»www.kimballhillhomes.com/

This house closed in '07.

I bought it from a private party in '09.

I think you typically measure by temperature differential between return air temps and the temp out of the closest vent to the a/c. When my a/c was low on refrigerant i got less than a 10 degree difference. Now i get close to 20, meaning when it is around 74 in the house i will get 54 out of the vent.