Different liquid phase epitaxial (LPE) growth methods, namely dipping and sessile drop techniques have been applied to analyze the evolution of hollow-core defects in PVT SiC crystals during LPE. Experiments were performed on (0001)/(000 (1) under bar) surfaces of 6H-SiC and 4H-SiC wafers using silicon melt under high pressure of argon. Processing at a low supersaturation allowed us to evaluate the, early stage of defects development, and long-time experiments (up to 6 hours) were aimed at the analysis of the stability of defect transformation. Hollow macrodefects 10-50 mum in diameter were found to be very unstable in silicon melt and were overgrown (filled) already at supersaturations close to zero, when growth inside the core occurs due to the Gibbs- Thomson effect. Resulting structures were found to contain a number of dislocations and micropipes. Elimination of screw-dislocation based micropipes requires a higher supersaturation, which can be established by a significant temperature difference between epitaxial surface and carbon source. Micropipes were observed to decompose into individually acting non-hollow core dislocations. After decomposition the activity of growth center based on a micropipe is usually reduced. As a result a new center may dominate the growing surface and make healed micropipes completely invisible.