I used to use a can or two of that all the time in the wife's old Dodge and it
worked fine. Now if somebody would come up with a similar product that
replaces R-22 I could top off the boat's units when they need it!
You can still buy R-22, it's not slated to be phased out completely
until 2020, 2010 is the cutoff for new equipment produced with R22. You
can't buy it without an EPA certification, why I can't tell you since
the rules to my knowledge have never been enforced, but R-22 was about
$180 for a 30# cylinder when I bought it in May before closing up shop.
I'm sure it's up around $200 for a single jug. If you really want to
get some, cozy up to an HVAC guy and offer him something he'd really
like in exchange for one of his partial jugs. <G>
There is a drop-in for 22, BTW. It's an azeotrope, so you must remove
all the R22 first, then replace it with the drop-in 417A. Because it's
an azeotrope, it must be charged as liquid to maintain the zeotropic
blend. The bad news is that if your system has a slow leak, when it
leaks enough, you can't top off, gotta start from empty, because the
components of that blend leak at different rates, altering the chemistry
and enthalpy of the refrigerant.... "Drop-in" is an
over-simplification. Solve one problem, create five!
Same with the 410a new "green" refrigerant. So it's all going to be more
expensive to buy, maintain, and even to junk. Such is the price of progress!
steve sipe
Jim Fisher wrote:
> I used to use a can or two of that all the time in the wife's old Dodge and it
> worked fine. Now if somebody would come up with a similar product that
> replaces R-22 I could top off the boat's units when they need it!
>
>
You can still buy R-22, it's not slated to be phased out completely
until 2020, 2010 is the cutoff for new equipment produced with R22. You
can't buy it without an EPA certification, why I can't tell you since
the rules to my knowledge have never been enforced, but R-22 was about
$180 for a 30# cylinder when I bought it in May before closing up shop.
I'm sure it's up around $200 for a single jug. If you really want to
get some, cozy up to an HVAC guy and offer him something he'd really
like in exchange for one of his partial jugs. <G>
There is a drop-in for 22, BTW. It's an azeotrope, so you must remove
all the R22 first, then replace it with the drop-in 417A. Because it's
an azeotrope, it must be charged as liquid to maintain the zeotropic
blend. The bad news is that if your system has a slow leak, when it
leaks enough, you can't top off, gotta start from empty, because the
components of that blend leak at different rates, altering the chemistry
and enthalpy of the refrigerant.... "Drop-in" is an
over-simplification. Solve one problem, create five!
Same with the 410a new "green" refrigerant. So it's all going to be more
expensive to buy, maintain, and even to junk. Such is the price of progress!
steve sipe
