Testing The Inficon D-Tek Stratus & D-Tek 3 HVAC Refrigerant Leak Detectors
Вставка
- Опубліковано 17 лип 2024
- Testing the Inficon D-Tek Stratus and D-Tek 3 refrigerant hvac refrigerant leak detectors in real life with a full review of what it is and what it can do to make your refrigerant leak searches faster and easier.
💥 Facebook - / hvacrsurvival
💥 Email- hvacrsurvival@gmail.com
💥 Want to help support the channel? paypal.me/RickDirmeyer
💥 WANT TO SUPPORT THE CHANNEL BY PURCHASING THE TOOLS I USE? kit.co/hvacrsurvival
💥 Amazon Store: www.amazon.com/ref=as_li_ss_t...
💥 Anything not listed in my kits can be purchased through my amazon store using the link above if you would like to support my channel without costing you a penny more.
💥 My crimper www.cleavelandtool.com/Rachet-...
Warning Notice Disclaimer - Video content listed on the channel HVAC*R Survival is for entertainment purposes only and not meant to be a substitute for not contacting a competent HVAC/R PROFESSIONAL. Do not attempt anything said or seen on my videos, The tasks that are shown are dangerous and deadly without proper training.
This page contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on the link and make a purchase, I’ll receive a small commission. HVAC/R Survival is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program.
0:00 - Intro
0:13 - What is in the box
0:45 - How it works
0:55 - Battery and sensor
1:10 - Charging jack
1:25 - Battery Life
1:59 - Filter
2:12 - Powering on
2:45 - Mute button
3:15 - Sensitivity modes
3:30 - Anti false alarms
3:58 - Sensitivity ratings
5:20 - Mode changes
5:50 - Why the sensor works better
7:00 - Investment pricing
7:22 - Big Picture Code
7:30 - Where it is made
7:53 - What is my pick
8:52 - Real leak testing videos
9:12 - Lennox mini split leak
10:02 - Milkshake leak
10:48 - Mitsubishi leak
11:36 - Walk in cooler leak
15:08 - Rack refrigerant leak
16:16 - Closer
#Dtek3,#Stratus,#Inficon,#LeakDetector - Розваги
FYI You can move your mouse around the bottom to see the description of that particular spot in the video, you can skip to see different parts on the video BUT IF YOU WILL PLEASE watch the whole thing plus the commercials it will help the channel rank higher. Thanks for taking the time to watch it! I know reviews can be boring but I did try to point out the things that I thought made this detector worth buying and what I liked most about it. I HOPE TO SEE YOU SUNDAY NIGHT FOR MY LIVE SHOW AT 8:30PM EASTERN.
Watched 100% of Vid. Good Vid. Like #159.
Thanks OC👍👍. I spent a lot of time re-doing that video last Saturday. Basically ended up rerecording the whole thing.
That was an excellent video on the D-TEK Stratus so far I’m loving mine
Yeah I've been pretty happy with it, and since the D-TEC 3 is exactly the same minus the display I don't care which one I use unless there's something weird going on. Thanks for checking it out man 👍👍
I’ve been waiting for this video! I just ordered the 3 from Tru Tech on Friday. Can’t wait to put it to work. Thanks for the videos, Rick.
You'll be very happy with it 👍👍👍.
Just got my D-Tek Stratus today....thanks for taking the time to answer my questions
Awesome 👍👍. I think you'll love it!
Both models are really nice.
My company just got me the stratus on Friday can’t wait to use it .
Lucky guy, that's a lot of money for a company tool. 👍👍
Man , that ppm feature is a real winner, at 1st I thought it was just a gimmick , but you definitely showcased how useful it can be , I hope Inficon let you keep it , you definitely earned it mate !
Btw , I have the same Bosch jacket , got it on sale too , what I tell ya eh , great minds my friend , great minds indeed !
Brilliant video , I can tell you put some effort in it , really well done 👍👍👍
Thanks my man 👍👍. I did spend a lot of time doing the video and yes they let me keep it.
Good Video Rick
Good Vid. That stratus graph looks cool for hunting in noisy environments.
The headphones are good for nosey areas, it's not a real loud beep.
Thanks man! Great review
Thank you sir 👍👍
Thanks for the informational video
😃👍
Your welcome, if you buy one because you seen it here be sure to let them know why you went with it.👍👍
Great video!!
Thank you 🤜🤛🍺🍺
Good one Rick 👍seems like a good leak detector
👍👍🤜🤛🍺🍺
This was a great one!
Thanks so much, I'm glad you enjoyed it 👍👍 hopefully it was informative.
@@HVACRSurvival it really wan man. I’ve always used the yellow jacket leak detector. It’s the one I was first given and always worked great. But it’s becoming less accurate. I have a inficon g1 and it was good too. But That ppm is super nice.
Good vid Slick Rick and very informative ...
Thanks E-Dawg👍👍.
@@HVACRSurvival Lol ...
Nice video and job
Thanks Donnie, hopefully the video helps 👍👍
thanks, it looks like it is worth the money
I don't use my H10 pro anymore and I use to brag about it all the time. I compared them back and forth every time I would find a leak.
That's funny on the Lennox m.s. head, I found a leak on one in that exact spot. That was one of my first finds with the Accutrak ultrasonic and then I verified it with the amprobe RLD1 .
Did you whip it out Shannon?
I'm glad I don't work on Lennox anymore. There stuff is low class anymore. I should have checked that with my ultrasonic, if they do decide to repair it I'll go back and check it again with it. Thanks 4 watching Shannon 👍👍👍
@@NorCal-refrigeration Heck yeah Dave...*insert whip crack sound here* 😆👌
You look so grown up, when you stand there and review the detectors😁😂
But jokes a side, that was a banger video and a in depth review👍👍👍
Stay safe
🤣 I'm a big kid now 👍👍. Thanks I spent the whole day redoing it because the first one sounded rushed plus that footage was from months ago to sort thru.
@@HVACRSurvival we all appreciate how much time you and other Tech's put in to make great content
Great video.
Thank you Sir 👍👍
@@HVACRSurvival now I want to go buy the stratus. I’ve had the tif zx for a while. I had an H10pro but I sold it to rookie refrigeration . I didn’t like how the H10pro wasn’t as portable.
I have the zx, it's a good detector for R22 and for are 404a period but not as good on 134a or 410A. I like my pro a lot but the battery life sucks, I've been pretty happy with this Stratus but if you don't want to spend the money you'll be just as fine with the other one like I mentioned. You just lose the parts per million display.
I’m a h10 person love mine I agree with you about the heated Diode I must admit I have always been curious about the d tech I know the “big picture guy “ likes his d tech select . Th stratus is pricy though but I’m a type of tech that likes all the bells and whistles on my tools. I would like to compare it the acutrac ultra sonic and the h10.
Thanks for the great video enjoy your channel
Well I own all the above and I think I've made a video on everything but the H10. The H10 is a lot like a muscle car, it can shit and get but there's a lot of other cars that will get you to the destination at about the same time . Honestly I don't think I would spend that much for the ppm, I was strongly considering doing it but it was pretty hard to justify it, but like I said the Dtek3 has the same sensitivity, the same battery, the same sensor, everything's the same minus the display.
@@HVACRSurvival glad you confirmed my suspicions about the stratus ..i think with the H10 and Dtek select will cover 90 percent and the rest nitrogen and bubbles
I've had my D-tek 3 for about a year now and have compared it in real world conditions against my MARS H10, particularly in cloud conditions and in trace leak conditions, mostly with R404a. The H10 was donated to a new tech just starting on self contained refers, since the 120v detector is great for bench work, however my D-tek 3 did everything the H10 could and beat the H10 hands down working in cloud searches. The only machine that beat the 3 was the Bacharach PCA-IR and that was for the PPM capability to pinpoint a leak before soaping. The Stratus is my next purchase and should be worth the money in reduced stress and finding trace leaks.
Thanks for the review. Want the stratus, but can't get past the price point.
The Detek 3 is fine, the Status helps narrow things down but it's not necessary.
Seems like parts per million mode pretty much makes the extra $400 worth it. It was able to let you narrow down a leak when the whole area was contaminated when manual zeroing wasn't letting you.
Yeah, that is definitely what made it famous, but at least the sensitivity, battery life and functionality is the same as it's little brother.
The only thing left I'd love to know is , can you still use it while charging it ?
My leak detector works with regular batteries ( D type i think ) and it comes with a USB cable and I've been just using it with a portable external battery that I also use to charge my phone , and it works a charm , no more dead batteries !
Yes, you can charge it while using it 👍👍
Hi Rick,
We represent INFICON across Canada and I was wondering if I could post your video on our website? Great review, thanks for the support!
Yes, absolutely
On the D tek select i was having a very high sensitivity problem and the detector was bleeping overtime and over sensitive. A couple of techs at my supplier showed me a trick. After switching on the D-tec, let it warm up, then hold the low/high sensitivity button for 5 seconds. The orange lights start to flash very quickly and the machine switches over to a different mode which then only senses the precise location of the leak. This trick is not written in their booklet. Hope it helps.
That was in my Select book, it was a newer feature that came out later. The detector was revised a couple times. Thanks for sharing 👍👍
During the transition between detector generations, the manual had not caught up with the detector's capability. Tech support sent out an addendum sheet when requested. The newer manuals have the pinpoint mode info in them.
Inficon vs dr82, vs dr58 (heated diode). I ruled out the bacherach unit after i saw enough average reviews on it, im more into the build of the fieldpiece units, but im glad the inficon is not chinese. That unit is $1900 in new zealand by the way.
It's made in New York state, I'm sure it's high priced in other countries thanks to tariffs 🤷
The stratus has me sold! Now if only i can find a way to come up with $800 plus to spend....
I hear you👍👍. I started my channel with the hopes of doing reviews like this in addition to helping others where I can. It's been a lot of work getting company's to send product's to review.
Hey replace couple of compressors and your almost in stratus territory...👍
Thoughts on the h10? I have the h10 pro. It's no longer serviceable and was thinking of the stratus or just staying h10. Saw a video where it showed h10 vs stratus.
I have the H10-PRO, I love it, I just hate the battery life, sensor warm up time, how easy it picks up water into the sensor, and the reach of the probe. I would get a quote to fix it from Bacharach? What's not serviceable?
Thanks. Can it be used to detect ac gas leakage in engine compartment of passenger car?
Yes, it detects all refrigerants and doesn't care what it's in.
Any recommendations for combustible leak dector? R290 Thanks great video, it cool to see the ppm , but $500 more ..
🤔🤔
I use the yellow inficon combustion Leak detector. But I just got the combustion sensor and the update software for my Stratus, it worked great! It will also work with the Dtek3
How about do a video h10 vs D-TEK Stratus Leak test.
On r134a the h10 found the leak at 35 lb of pressure the DTek did not, once I added extra pressure to the system then it found it. Most of the time like I said in the video I'm using the Stratus or DTek3. Whenever I can't find it I'll double check it with the h10 and usually either I don't find anything at all or I get a small little dinky signal.
now how good is either one on finding the tiniest littlest leaks ??
Both of Inficon units are equal, some micro leaks are best found with the H10. 98% of my leaks are found with these detectors. A lot of your success comes down to experience of knowing where to look and how to properly use the equipment.
👍👍👍
Thanks Harry 💯👍👍
Are the d tek filters the same? Are the probes interchangeable?
The filters are but I'm not sure on the wand, It looks like it might be.
Ist leak detector good for any refrigerant Especially R404A?
Correct, I have had good luck with 404a and all of them.
I have a friend willing to sell his lightly used his D-Tek 3 for a low price but its about 3 years old now, he's upgrading his gear. Even though its still working I'm worried about the sensor life. How expensive is the sensor? easy to replace? and is it still easy to order a new one? I mainly need to sniff out R-22. Thanks for your help.
I Judge used tools on their appearance. If the tools beat up, filthy dirty, has cuts and scratches and it dings. Obviously, the person didn't take good care of it and I would run from it. But if it looks clean, well taken care of, then I would buy it. New they were about $450 with my discount code. The battery I believe is not gonna be more than maybe $65 they could be even less. These new batteries are lithium ion so they last a lot longer than the traditional ni-cad that barely got a year or two out of them. Sensors rated for 10 years and I believe and it's around $100.
Can you get replacement parts for them
Yes. They build them in upstate New York.
Whats is the diference between stratus and dttek select?
I give several examples in the video,
Almost 400$
Sensitivity of .03 OZ per year VS .1 OZ per year. 10 hours of battery life vs 1.5 - 3 hours, capability to find small leaks in contaminated environments, The list goes on and on.
@@NorCal-refrigeration I would go with the D-Tek3, its the same detector as the Stratus minus the display, plus its the same price as the D-tek Stratus was.
You got gear atta boy. No usb c so 2019
Yeah I'm always buying something. For some reason leak detectors make me horny 🤣🤣🤣. How you been Dave, I haven't heard from you for a long time man... I was hoping you're okay 👍👍 If you ever get bored give me a call.
Love the C- chargers. 👍
I let this thing run after I did the video and it did last the whole nine or ten hours. That's the first time I've ever let it run like that just to make sure. I know my detect select was lucky if it would lasts an hour or two and my h10 only lasts maybe an hour to an hour and a half. plus the recharge time on this is at 3-3.5 hours versus eight or nine on the select. That sucked
Lol
Just curious, would you admit that Bacharach is the better “refrigeration” detector? I’m asking because I’m actually looking at going into the “light commercial” side of the industry.
I'm being honest in the video, there's goods and bads to both detectors. Most of the bads are on the H10 but at this point I'm pretty well used to them. The H10 can be a little more sensitive on certain refrigerants when it has a new sensor but the battery life sucks, the sensor potentially getting damaged from real strong hits of refrigerant sucks, the wand is very short and hard to get into tight spots sucks. You can suck water into the machine, that really sucks and the sensor costs about $120 to $130 and they recommend replacing it every year although you can sometimes get two or more years out of it but who knows what refrigerant sensitivities you've lost by then. I'm the only one that uses an H10 at my workplace, everyone else uses the DTek Select. Which is why I finally decided to buy one after trying so many other detectors. The Dtek-3 came out about two months after purchasing it. Because the detector has a two year over-the-counter warranty they swapped it out for me and that's how I got the new version.
ive been using the H-10's that u Plug into a 115 volt outlet. H10G ive never used the rechargeable models. ive been using the h10's for 40 Years. in my opinion thier is nothing better. ive bought 4 in forty years. Had 2 serviced in 20 years. ive never had to repalce a sensor unless i sucked water into it. that is the only drawback with h10's imo. these days i just dry an area a bit before sniffing if it has water around it. i just take a rag to it a bit. For best operation they need to be plugged in for 15 minutes before using. My h10's normally last about 10 years and then they loose some sensitivity. then u just turn up the sensitivity screw in the back of the unit a bit. Like i said i've never had to Repalce a Sensor unlss i dunked it in water in 40 years. The Trick with h10's is they MUST be warmed up for 15 minutes to get that sensor good and hot for it to work the best. if i know im going to be using the h10 i just plug it in right away and set it on medium , crank dial all the Low and let it warm up while i unload my tols etc. Yea, i know 15 miuntes is long time to wait for a leak detector to warm up on the front side but, it pinpoints the leak in seconds versus alot of other leak detectors playing with your mid for 15 miuntes. so, id rather wait the 15 and find the leak right away.
www.toolsource.com/leak-detectors-c-1321_1_4/refrigerant-leak-detector-h10g-p-50966.html
Cheaper at supply houses. johnstone or united
@@OcRefrig I had the H10pm and now I have the H10-PRO, I have nothing major bad to say about the H10, I'm not happy with the battery life and I hate waiting For it to warm up but otherwise it finds the really small weird leaks. It's just more convenient with the Inficon. I normally need two minutes for mine to warm up and then it's usually effective unless it's really cold outside.
@@HVACRSurvival Have u used a h10 G . it's a totally different animal than the battery units ? Thats why i put the link to the " G" above so u or other people can see a "g "vs a pro model/ battery unit.
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Thank you 👍👍
i know there is a big price difference between these 2, but i want to invest in the Stratus. I know this video is from 3 years ago. Is it really worth the price?
It’s used in every video I make. I rather have the Stratus but the Detek 3 is just a sensitive. I use the ppm a LOT to help find my leaks.
@@HVACRSurvival Thank you for such a quick response.
@SpeedyA0704 I’m passionate about leak detection. 😂🤦
my dtek stratus was great until it gave up on me after 3 years.
Contact the factory directly, they know there was some small issues with the first batches, if they don't do anything let me know and I'll see what I can do.
1st
Awesome man, watch the whole thing including the commercials if you want to help the channel out LOL. I spent all mother flipping day on this son of a biscuit. I should have been out riding the bike on the last halfway warm day 🤣🤣🤣
@@HVACRSurvival i am a really huge fan of your videos and knowledge, even from your old channel will always watch the ads and every second.
Wow thanks man I really appreciate that 💯 and especially you watching the live streams 🌟 it's viewers like you that make it worth my time.
62nd
Thanks Jeff 👍👍 you guys are awesome 🤜🤛🍺🍺
Shame you cant use your own lithiums to make sure you are using quality batteries and not knock offs.
I re-recorded the intro video this morning and I let the detector run the remaining of the day and it lasted 8.5 or 9 hours. The batteries aren't priced too bad, I spent a lot of time on the phone with inficon asking a lot of questions, they put a lot of time into this machine that's why they didn't release it right away when they were supposed to because they wanted to make sure it worked.
Whats the mAh rating of the cell pack? About 9 hours seems pretty decent if the detector's amp usage is low. There are times that China does provide decent batteries so its possible they got a good provider. - Well i looked it up, doesnt say much but it does say that battery life is 8-10 hours depending on the mode so thats not bad at all.. With it being rechargeable you could keep a small USB power bank with you to keep it going if you arent near your vehicle.
Well surprisingly this battery is (UR) rated, 3.63V 3.35AH, 12.16Wh. I asked them about it honestly it looks like a 18650 battery in a plastic case. I asked my contact person about it and I can't remember if the batteries were truly made in China or if just it was assembled there. But so far it's not been bad at all. More than adequate. That was the biggest improvement to me in addition to the sensitivity and the display readout
Sounds pretty good then. 3.6v is nominal voltage, when fully charged it'll be 4.2v. I would think there would be at least 2 cells but it looks like it would only be 1 going by size.. Unless they are using a 26650 or similar which is the same length of an 18650 but much fatter, that would definitely give the battery life you're seeing from only 1 cell, i cant see a single 18650 going 8-10 hours even if the unit only used 150mA or so depending on the mode. But either way, not bad.