AC Refrigerant

ToxicBill

Well-Known Member
My Texas/Houston folks, anyone have any contacts for a person or company that would come to my home to recover the R134?

Why is it so hard to do the right thing?
 

JBINTX

Goblin Guru
It is. I had a local guy that I have known for a while do it for me. I had to take the running car to him. The machine that recovers it was pretty big. Like, roll around cart big. The refrigerant has value, but not sure it is enough to offset 30 minutes of labor at a place where you do not know anybody. Funny thing is, I still had a little of the green oily stuff drip when disconnecting things, so it did not get 100%.
Maybe RTtoys has a connection?
@Rttoys
 

Rttoys

Goblin Guru
I thought your car was hit in the front end, causing a leak in the condenser. ;)

Bringing home a recovery machine is a pita.

Oh and the green stuff is refrigerant oil. It‘s not suppose to come out with the refrigerant, but some will.
 
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Lonny

Administrator
Staff member
A lot of our customers message me about not being able to get their donors to a repair shop and can't find anyone that can come to them.

I have spent hours trying to find the laws that govern the release of 134 A into the atmosphere and have found none.

The only information I have found is of its uses.

134 A (1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane) uses include Automotive A/C units, plastic foam blowing, as a cleaning solvent, a propellant for the delivery of pharmaceuticals (e.g. bronchodilators), wine cork removers, gas dusters, such as Dust-Off, and in air driers for removing the moisture from compressed air. 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane has also been used to cool computers in some overclocking attempts. It is the refrigerant used in plumbing pipe freeze kits. It is also commonly used as a propellant for airsoft airguns. The gas is often mixed with a silicone-based lubricant.

It's also sold as self fill kits for refilling your own car a/c system at Walmarts and auto part stores.

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100 % of all of the 134-A that gets produced will eventually be released to the atmosphere.

If it is dangerous for the environment we need to stop producing it until a safe alternative is found.

I hope someone can post a link to the regulations that govern the release of 134 A into the atmosphere. If they do we will create a sticky page in Disassembly and Prepping that has that link.
 
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Ross

Goblin Guru
I read an article once, that mentioned the old R12 Freon uses 1800x the ozone, and R134a uses 600x.
So an ounce of released R12 uses 1800 ounces of ozone to react with.


A little research shows that I was wrong... Glad to be wrong, for the sake of the environment. Here is what I learned:

R134a possesses the zero potential destruction of the ozone layer (PDOL), and its potential of global warming (PGW) of carbonic acid is 1 300, which is much more lower than the PGW of R-12, which is 8 500.
 
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Parson Green

Well-Known Member
I read an article once, that mentioned the old R12 Freon uses 1800x the ozone, and R134a uses 600x.
So an ounce of released R12 uses 1800 ounces of ozone to react with.
R134a does not degrade ozone. At all.

OTOH, R134a has been assigned a global-warming-potential (GWP) rating.

Methane (cow farts) has also been assigned a GWP rating. And, in fact, the GWP rating for R134a is about 20 times higher than the GWP for methane. So let's say a Cobalt is involved in an accident which ruptures an a/c hose and that 3 pounds of R134a is released into the atmosphere. Would this be the equivalent of 60 pounds of cow farts being released into the atmosphere? Inquiring minds would like to know.
 

Ross

Goblin Guru
R134a does not degrade ozone. At all.

OTOH, R134a has been assigned a global-warming-potential (GWP) rating.

Methane (cow farts) has also been assigned a GWP rating. And, in fact, the GWP rating for R134a is about 20 times higher than the GWP for methane. So let's say a Cobalt is involved in an accident which ruptures an a/c hose and that 3 pounds of R134a is released into the atmosphere. Would this be the equivalent of 60 pounds of cow farts being released into the atmosphere? Inquiring minds would like to know.
Thanks for setting me straight. I corrected my earlier statement.
 

Parson Green

Well-Known Member
Thanks for setting me straight. I corrected my earlier statement.
You da man, Ross. And yup, the ozone hole won't be getting any bigger as a result of R134a.

That still leaves R134a's contribution-to-warming factor; which is why us peons have to jump through quite-bothersome hoops to keep relatively tiny amounts of it from being released into the atmosphere. Like. so the glaciers won't melt and cause the sea levels to go up; and all that.

Because, anyone in their right mind realizes that the sea-level-rise thing is real and should be regarded with the utmost seriousness.

 

Motoracer110

Well-Known Member
I am a licensed HVAC contractor for commercial and Residential systems and maybe i can shed some light on coolants. Currently I work with R-22 coolant (the old) and R-410A (the new) coolants in A/C systems. Everyone in my industry talks about Dupont used to own the patent on R-22 and when the patent ran out was the same time the government said it was bad on the atmosphere and could no longer be produced. Well Dupont already had their new product R-410A conveniently ready to go and is now the industry standard.

Other companies filed a lawsuit and Dupont could not patent R-410A so the same refrigerant goes under different names with different manufactures.

Im saying all of this because personally I dont think that the atmosphere has been affected by refrigerants and I feel that studies are greatly influenced by big money corporations gaining an upper edge in the market.
 

Karter2026

Goblin Guru
I am a licensed HVAC contractor for commercial and Residential systems and maybe i can shed some light on coolants. Currently I work with R-22 coolant (the old) and R-410A (the new) coolants in A/C systems. Everyone in my industry talks about Dupont used to own the patent on R-22 and when the patent ran out was the same time the government said it was bad on the atmosphere and could no longer be produced. Well Dupont already had their new product R-410A conveniently ready to go and is now the industry standard.

Other companies filed a lawsuit and Dupont could not patent R-410A so the same refrigerant goes under different names with different manufactures.

Im saying all of this because personally I dont think that the atmosphere has been affected by refrigerants and I feel that studies are greatly influenced by big money corporations gaining an upper edge in the market.
That sounds just about like the R134a being fazed out and the new R1234YF being introduced. And the same kind of 1 manufacturer. I can not remember if it is DuPont or not.
 

JBINTX

Goblin Guru
I am a licensed HVAC contractor for commercial and Residential systems and maybe i can shed some light on coolants. Currently I work with R-22 coolant (the old) and R-410A (the new) coolants in A/C systems. Everyone in my industry talks about Dupont used to own the patent on R-22 and when the patent ran out was the same time the government said it was bad on the atmosphere and could no longer be produced. Well Dupont already had their new product R-410A conveniently ready to go and is now the industry standard.

Other companies filed a lawsuit and Dupont could not patent R-410A so the same refrigerant goes under different names with different manufactures.

Im saying all of this because personally I dont think that the atmosphere has been affected by refrigerants and I feel that studies are greatly influenced by big money corporations gaining an upper edge in the market.
I have heard the same story from another. Money. Lobbyists. Politics. Keeping competitors out of the marketplace and profits up.........
 
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