There were no leaks in the system. Both the locking circuit and the shut off circuit were checked and ran independently of each other to no avail. No leaks were detected with a gauge or vacuum pump (snap on). That's what was so frustrating. Everything checked out and it was still slow to shut down. One thing's for sure now. I'm not touching anything!
Oh, cold for us is 50 F so it will never get THAT cold I guess.