Our 21 year old SubZero Model 561 side by side has stopped cooling properly on the freezer side. The technician that just looked at it said the pressure in the sealed system was negative and recommended a charge with 404 at a cost of about $165 (parts and labor). To search for the leak and repair it (likely the evaporator coil he said) would be considerably more. Does anyone have a recommendation of which route we should follow? Can I possibly charge it myself with R12 from an automotive supply, even if partially just to see if the charge will hold for a while? Thanks for the help!

it's "likely the evaporator" is an understatement. i would say that 99.8% of freon leaks in sub-zero refrigerators and freezers are somewhere on the evaporator coil. Most Sub-Zero's have the radiator style evaporator and the evaporator simply needs to be replaced. We typically charge anywhere from $800 to $1500 for such a job, depending on the model and difficulty of the job. On an older style subzero, where the evaporator is more of a coil (looks like a bake element) than a "radiator", there is a good chance the leak can be sealed and repaired for much less $$ vs. replacement.

You will want to make a decision soon, as running your sub-zero refrigerator without a proper level of freon can be destructive to the compressor, and once that happens, then you've pretty much doubled the repair costs....

It is an expensive job, but it's still a lot less than buying a new built-on fridge for $3-5k ...

Good luck.

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and yes you can charge it yourself... just make sure you use a pressure gauge as you dont want to over-do it.

Sometimes a freon re-charge can last a year, sometimes it only lasts 1 day.... its hit or miss on that one and i would never call that a repair...

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A leak in the evaporator on the freezer side is very rare, its more common to find a leaky evap in the fresh food side. I see that a lot. Check the heater loop underneath the unit before changing the evaporator in the freezer. Pull the drain pan out from underneath the unit, its behind the toe plate. Look at the condition of the loop and see if the pan is oily, or shoot some gas in it and listen, if the leak is bad enough freon will spew out from underneath. The charge won't last long if its a high side leak.

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R-404A is used with polyesther oil (higly suseptable to moisture), where as R12 uses mineral based oil.Therefore you would have to flush-out the lines, change the drier and evacuate the system.
Do not try this garbage that is being sold as a leak-sealant.

Good call on the oil, forgot about that. If the cosmetics are in tacked on the unit go ahead and have it repaired by a pro that can flush the system, change what ever is necessary and recharge it with r414 which the SubZ factory authorized substitute for r12.

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