2018 Honda accord Lx 1.5 Ac blowing hot air HELP!

I own a 2018 Honda Accord LX 1.5. I'm reaching out to see if any of you have experienced similar issues with your Honda Accords. Over this past week, I noticed that my AC has been gradually getting less cold each day, and now it’s just blowing hot air. When I turn on the AC, I can hear a soft sound coming from the vents. A couple of days ago, before it completely stopped blowing cold air, I parked my car, went into a store, and when I started my car again, I noticed mist coming out of the AC vents. However, that only happened that one time.


I took my car to a mechanic, and he diagnosed it as a leak in the evaporator. He quoted me between $3,500 to $4k to fix it since he would need to remove the entire dash to replace it. He also advised against using any stop-leak products from O'Reilly’s, saying it could ruin my whole AC system.


Has anyone experienced anything like this? Are there any alternatives I could consider that wouldn't involve replacing the entire evaporator but could help restore my cold air? Any advice or shared experiences would be greatly appreciated! Thanks!