Refrigerant is a non-flammable gas that is used in almost every air-conditioning unit in the world. Rather it be cars, trucks, refrigerators, your home AC unit, even grocery store freezers use it. Want to keep something cool? Then you need Refrigerant!

It’s been around for almost a hundred years now and it’s here to stay! Over the years the types of Refrigerant have expanded exponentially with varying boiling points and chemical compositions. There are four primary types Refrigerant that you will run into R-12, R-22, R-134A, and R-410A. These four types make up 90% of the Refrigerant market.

No, refrigerant will not go bad. As long as you have a fully sealed cylinder and there are no leaks on the cylinder you refrigerant will last indefinitely. The only risk that you have is if your cylinder or valve gets compromised. Other than that your cylinder is a sealed unit and will not deplete or leak any refrigerant over it’s life time.

There are many people who will purchase a few cylinders of refrigerant that is about to be phased out. Once they have they cylinders they will sit on them for years. They either want them for ‘just in case,’ or to potentially sell down the road when the price goes up.

HFO refrigerants, or Hydrofluro-Olefins, are a new class of refrigerants that have a much lessened global warming potential than it’s HCFC alternatives. One example being the 134a alternative, 1234YF, which is 335 times lower on the global warming potential scale and only four times higher than standard carbon dioxide.

HFOs are the refrigerant of the future… for now. I say for now because we’ve been through this before. A new refrigerant is introduced and then something is found to be harmful in that chemical and the refrigerant is replaced with a new and better line. Maybe HFOs are the perfect refrigerant, but I have a feeling we’ll be going through this again and sooner rather than later. Let’s keep everyone on their toes…