Pierced the evaporator!

[Porcupinepuffer]

Silly me! I was installing this big beautiful coil in the plenum, and while being rushed to slap it in and buttoned up all nice and pretty, I didn't notice a sheet metal screw on the backside of the supply poking in. With just a little bit of wiggling while sliding the coil in, the screw slide up against it and pierced right through one of the aluminum U tubes at the back of the coil. I heard the dreaded hiss sound of the pre-charge of 15psi of nitrogen escaping the coil. No big deal, the coil's only worth a little over $300.   :banghead:   I was actually surprised at just how easily it had gone through something made to hold such high psi values. But I suppose soft aluminum tubing and a  mega ultra sharp sheet metal screw made of unobtanium is just no match.



I looked at a couple of videos from suppliers showing off their rods that melt at a lower temperature for fixing such problems. I'm wondering if anyone's ever had any experience with brazing on an aluminum coil with any such product. It looks very easy in the video, just wondering how it translates to real world experiences.

[Admin]

I would attempt the repair in your case.  I would use a turbo torch or B-tank instead of oxy-acetalyne torches and a product called ChannelFlux.  It's a brazing alloy and flux that works well on aluminum.  WWG in Ottawa stocks it or has similar products for low temperature brazing.

[Porcupinepuffer]

That's that place right in the left corner? We were just in there yesterday. When the boss is done crying about it, I'll have to encourage him to try it.

[Porcupinepuffer]

I was just looking at some replacement gauges for our oxy/ace tanks at princess auto, and on the website I found these:

http://www.princessauto.com/en/detail/1-8-x-18-in-self-fluxing-aluminum-brazing-rods/A-p8471088e

Seeing as their dirt cheap, does anyone think they'd be worth trying to fix the evaporator with? They seem to be quite a bit cheaper than the suppliers.