It's always something -- geothermal heat pump leaking gas

[EricU]

This one isn't mine.  A friend has a geothermal heat pump, and it stopped working. It's 13 years old.   Mechanic fills it up with gas and an hour later it's gone.  They can't figure out where it's going.  There are only so many places it could go, so the fact that they can't tell where it's leaking seems to indicate more of a problem with them than the unit.  They just want him to spend $12k and get a new one.  Very convenient for them, I have to say. Unfortunately, there is nobody here in town that has built a reputation above hack level as far as I can tell.  

Is this a legitimate diagnosis?

[mad_planter]

Hard to believe they can't put some of that tracer chemical in it and use a sniffer.

I've used PCBI-Allen and had pretty good luck, I've had to make them come back and 'clean up' the job a couple of times, attention to detail isn't necessarily the tech's strong suit, but the the guys in charge have always come through on that and never had any issues getting things they way I want with a follow-up.

Who's currently looking at it?

[fredhargis]

I'd say the diagnosis is legitimate, but their inability to find the leak not so much. I share your problem of local guys being hacks, but it sounds like your friend needs to keep looking. If he does decide to put in a new unit, I'd get quotes elsewhere. What about a contractor that installs that particular brand of equipment (if the mechanic isn't one of them).

[EricU]

I'm pretty sure he went with the people that originally put it in.  They want to replace it with a bosch

Personally, I couldn't stand to spend $12k without knowing that an economic repair wasn't possible.

[daddo]

Get someone else to find the leak.

[Chipper_Jr]

What type of Geo unit is it?  Open loop, closed loop vertical well or ground loop? Copper Ni heat exchanger of just copper.
Sounds like the leak is in the heat exchanger. Some units offer a extra warranty on the CoNi exchanger but not the copper.