Friday, July 23, 2021

New Refrigerant Coming to Town

 For you diy'ers out there who do your own refrigeration repairs, the type of freon to be used in new vehicles is changing again.

Years ago, when A/C units were new to the auto industry, R-12 freon was used. That was good stuff, inexpensive, readily available. The powers that be didn't like that, so they mandated a change to R-134A freon, which is not as good as R-12. I think. Others may know more about that.

Anyway,the new stuff is R-1234yf. The european union is already using it in new cars. The US 2021 model year is mandated to use this stuff. And apparently chrysler started using it in 2017.

And the good part? It's many times more expensive than the R-134A. R-134A is about $14 lb, plus can core charge. The new stuff is about $70 for 1/2 lb. Don't know about the core charge. 

Plus all of the connections are different than R-134A, so you will have to purchase new recovery machines for the auto shop. Or for the diy'ers a new charging hose. 

And this new refrigerant is mildly flammable. As opposed to what? Easily flammable? Like gasoline?

Anyway, here is a link to peruse: Real World Experience with R1234yf: The New Refrigerant is Finally Here; Are You Ready?

3 comments:

  1. Ya know, no one can tell me why we had to give up R12. It worked, was cheap (maybe I answered my own question) and was plentiful. This is what happens when you get eco-freaks running bureaucracies that can rule on a whim and make their insane rules apply with out a law made by congress.

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    1. Yep. I did some looking on the net and it was banned because of global warming. Has a high global warming potential. Every time I fart I warm the globe. They gonna ban my ass?

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    2. You know Fred, entropy... everything eventually will be turned to heat before it burns itself out to deep cold. So we enjoy some slightly warmer days. All the entire human existence up to date has not incurred 1/1,000,000th of the amount of pollution that the earth itself creates. Los Angles had smog way back before the Mexicans took it over from the Paleo Indians that use to live there, when deer, antelope and horses and I am sure some cows were farting methane...

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