05/01/2026
Found this bad flare during a leak test. Client has been chasing performance issues since their system was installed by another company. The flare on the right tells the story: cracked, off-axis, and never going to seal. A flare connection is only as good as the prep behind it. Square cut, deburr, proper flaring tool, correct torque. Skip a step and you get a slow refrigerant loss that nobody can find until somebody actually looks.
If your heat pump or mini-split has never run right since day one, the install is the first place to check. We’re the only Mass Save Heat Pump Leader Network contractor on Nantucket, and we see this more than we’d like to.
Nantucket runs on a compressed clock. Things need to be right from day one.