There is no doubt we are fans of this little gem here at Highgate Air. Just about like everyone else in the A/C industry is who has come in contact with it. We have raved about its multiple benefits compared to conventional leak detection methods in the past. To put more claim to the fame, we have set up the ‘balloon experiment’.

 

It’s very simple. Due to the unique ability to detect the hydrogen in the tracer gas that is to be injected into the A/C system, Vulkan Loktracer is able to shine where conventional methods struggle. It entirely eliminates the possibility of false alarms through cross-sensitivity with other gases due to ‘sniffing’ for the unique tracer gas only, and to which the tool is highly sensitive to. Moreover, it takes advantage of the characteristics of hydrogen. Hydrogen molecules are extremely small and lighter than air. This means, it rises upwards and therefore makes finding the location of the leak in spots that are hard to access a lot easier. It also means, being so small, Hydrogen can fit through the smallest of holes. Holes so small you wouldn’t think they exist.

 

The Loktracer issues an audio-visual alert when detecting hydrogen. Sniffing for the tracer gas around the hoses and potential weak points such as hose connections, in this experiment, no alert was set off. When approaching the skin of the balloon (no direct contact with the balloon required), the audio-visual signal appears and increases when moving towards the top of the balloon (remember, hydrogen is lighter than air and rises upwards), demonstrating the high sensitivity of the tool to even very small amounts of the tracer gas. It’s detecting the gas that escapes through the intact surface of the balloon. Stay tuned for a video recap on the balloon experiment which we will release soon.