Older AC refrigerants and repair decisions

Common thing that people get wrong on these refrigerants is they think that they're propane based. Whereas propane based refrigerants will come around. Many of us already have them in our house. If you have a brand new refrigerator, there's good chance that it's using propane. I get a lot of people say, "Well, that new propane refrigerant." And I'm always hesitant on kind of correcting them. But let me tell you, these are not propane based refrigerants. [Music]

There are different types of refrigerant, especially as we move into the new regulations where we're moving to R32 and 454B. There still R22 systems out there using the old R22. There are supply shortages that up the prices, but usually when you're looking at refrigerant, our cost towards the customer is anywhere from about $100 to $200 per pound at this point.

the EPA has recently put out some regulations that say that 410A has too high of a global warming potential so they're phasing 410A down as opposed to the phase out that happened with R22 they're only phasing this down by 2036 it's going to be phased down to 15% of what they are currently making right now

So you've probably heard the term R22 or Fortunea. So R22 was phased out. Fortune was phased out in 2025. And so they're they're stepping down on their global warming potential uh refrigerants. And so Fortunea has a higher glob global warming potential. And so they came out with R454B and then R32 has been around for a while. And so they came out with these these refrigerants have to meet the uh the minimum global warming potential rating. And what that resulted in is manufacturers again having to retool their existing systems so they can utilize the new refrigerants that's now mandated by the EPA. And so that has been the result of a lot of our our price increases uh up until 2025. [Music]

You've seen a lot of changes happen within the last couple years about refrigerant and you've seen a lot of information on YouTube, internet, friends, peers complaining about all the refrigerant changes. And how this applies to you is your system utilizes a specific type of refrigerant to keep you comfortable. And if you have an older system, an older system would be if you have R22 or 410A. Those two refrigerants have been phased out and so the cost of those refrigerants are getting very expensive. We've had to switch from R22 to another refrigerant called 407C as a replacement. Uh 410A has a timeline in which it's being scaled down as far as production is concerned. So it's going to make that refrigerant a lot more expensive. And so if you've got a refrigerant leak on your system and you've got 410A or R22, putting refrigerant back in that system over time is just going to the rising cost of the refrigerant, it's not going to make sense for you to keep doing that. And so often times if that happens to you, then it it's going to make more sense to do a replacement and get updated refrigerants to get updated warranties on equipment at that point.

Red flags. What are some red flags? You make that phone call, technician comes out, they just want to top you off of refrigerant with no leak search. Your system should not leak. I'm going to say this again. Your system should not leak. If you have a refrigerant leak on your system, that means that you have a leak and it's going to run out. It and and you shouldn't have to keep filling it up. You know, you got to fix the hole, fix the leak, figure out why it's happening. If you got someone that's just saying, "Hey, we'll just top you off and you year over year and you nickel nickel and dimed yourself into, you know, gosh, a $3,000 repair when each time they came out it you know, it was only 200 and something bucks. But, you know, if they're not doing a full diagnostic and they're not figuring out a full solution to fix the leak, then that's a big red flag. HVAC systems should not have leaks. They are closed loop systems. If you have a leak, there's a problem and it should be fixed. >> Your pros. >> [singing] [music]

we're looking at about $1,000 price increase on a $10,000 system they've got a government mandate to where we're getting rid of the refrigerant that we are currently using that we've been using for the last several years and going to a more green friendly refrigerant the refrigerant that we're using now is our 410A the end of this year they have to quit making units that have 410A in it and we're going to a new refrigerant which is a 454 the new refrigerant is supposed to be more green and ozone friendly but they're stopping production on the equipment that we have that we're using right now so we were talking about you know when to when to replace your air conditioner so any equipment that they've got they can continue to sell until the end of the year and then after the end of the year they can't sell it anymore so by doing that price increases are coming