Last month I wrote on the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and their decision on rather or not to increase the allowed charge limit on hydrocarbon refrigerant applications. Before their decision was made the maximum approved amount was one-hundred and fifty grams under the IEC 60335-2-8 global standard. This proposed increase would have moved the one-hundred and fifty grams limit up to five-hundred grams.
In April the IEC voted against the charge increase amendment. The decision was lost by one no vote. This ruling caused great disappointment across the industry. Many companies and organizations have been pushing to increase charge limits on flammable hydrocarbon refrigerants. The increased charge limit would allow hydrocarbons to be used in larger variety of applications.
Hydrocarbons are one of the top contenders for future refrigerants as the world begins to phase down HFC refrigerants such as R-134a, R-404A, and R-410A due to their high Global Warming Potential. While hydrocarbons can be dangerous due to their flammability they are also one of the most environmentally friendly refrigerants out there as they have no Ozone Depletion Potential and have very little Global Warming Potential.
There is a fine line that has to be walked though as if the charge limit on a propane or isobutane system is too high then the risk of catastrophic failure becomes higher.
This Week’s Recount
It was announced this week by the IEC that a recount was done on last month’s vote. It was found that Malaysia’s no vote was cast illegitimately. The Malaysian vote did not follow the proper voting procedures. In order to vote no you had to provide technical justification for your no vote. If no justification was provided then your vote would be rejected. This is precisely what happened to Malaysia’s vote this month.
While it has not been made one-hundred percent official yet it appears that there are no further roadblocks in the path of IEC adjusting their 60335-2-89 standard. A3 refrigerants will see their charge limit increase to five-hundred grams and A2L refrigerants will see their charge limits increase to one point two kilograms. (One point one pounds on A3 refrigerants and two point four pounds on A2L refrigerants.)
Conclusion
While the IEC is not a governmental organization it serves as a global standard within various industries sand it is who governments look towards for guidance. The IEC ruling to increase charge limits on hydrocarbon applications will be seen as the first steps in seeing further hydrocarbon rollouts across the world.
There is a lot of debate on this decision. Many folks have expressed concern about increasing charge limits on these highly flammable refrigerants. Obviously, the higher the charge limits the higher the chance of ignition and explosion. But, if proper precautions are taken by both the manufacturers and the service technicians then all should be fine. All it could take though is one mistake and an incident could occur.
As we move forward from the IEC’s decision we can expect to see other countries and manufacturers beginning to adopt larger hydrocarbon applications. We may first begin to see this in Asia and then in the European Union.
The United States is quite a bit behind the times when it comes to hydrocarbons. It was just a bit ago when the Environmental Protection Agency increased the approved charge limit from fifty grams to one-hundred and fifty grams. So, we just caught up to the global standard and now it has changed again to five-hundred grams. I predict it will be quite a while before the EPA approves five-hundred gram applications.
No matter how you feel about the IEC’s decision, this topic is another example of the safety versus climate balance. No refrigerants are perfect and while we all know the world wants to get rid of HFCs is it really worth moving away from HFCs if we are risking our own safety to do so? Personally, I think not. I believe we should hold onto HFCs until a more suitable and safer alternative is discovered.
Today Democratic Presidential Candidate Robert O’Rourke announced his climate action plan if he was to become president after the 2020 election. Of course, all of this is very speculative as we haven’t even gone through the primaries yet. We are still a very long ways away from the election and no one knows for sure what the landscape will look by the time we get there.What is concerning though is that these announcements and policy positions made by candidates today may be carried over towards the national stage as we progress further along. Even if Mr. O’Rourke doesn’t achieve the nomination his competitors may look at some of his policies and began to adopt them for themselves.
Now, I won’t get into all of the details of O’Rourke’s plan but instead I’m going to focus on one specific excerpt that affects us the most. Here is what his campaign website states:
“Rapidly phase-out hydrofluorocarbons, the super-polluting greenhouse gas that is up to 9,000 times worse for climate change than carbon dioxide.” – Source
What concerns mere here folks is the vagueness of his comments. HFCs are mentioned almost off offhandedly in a long laundry list of other goals and desires. Reading his comments above leads me to a variety of questions:
What does a rapid phase out look like? Notice also, that it is stated as a phase out and not a phase down. Will this be an immediate phase out? Or, will it be staggered?
In his climate plan he states that he would enact these HFC phase outs on the very first day of his presidency via executive order. Like I mentioned above, will this be staggered or he just going to shut the hose off and leave the market scrambling?
Will R-410A be included in this proposed plan? In most HFC phase downs across the United States rather it be through the EPA or individual states we have seen R-410A more or less left alone. That is because it is still fairly new as a replacement for R-22.
How will R-134a be handled in this phase out? Will all new vehicles be forced over to 1234yf?
Will this phase out be focused on no more new machines being produced or imported in the United States? Or, will it be focused also on manufacturing and import limits on HFC refrigerants?
Of course there are many other questions that come to mind after reading his campaign website. But, this is all speculative and at this point no one knows for sure what’s going to happen. The only thing I can hope for is that as we move closer to the election and the field begins to narrow that we get a more details and concise plan from candidates.
Conclusion
I try to make RefrigerantHQ political neutral. You may have seen my political leanings in differing posts, but overall I feel it’s in bad taste to advocate for one side or another on an industry specific publication. It doesn’t make sense to exclude half of your audience just because you feel a certain way.
That being said, this plan from Mr. O’Rourke does concern me for the reasons I mentioned above. It has the potential to turn the industry upside down. Imagine, if you will, that he is elected President and on his first day he bans HFCs from all new machines and puts an import/production limit on HFC refrigerants. The market would go crazy. Prices would sky rocket and shortages would occur. We would look like Europe looked like in 2017 and 2018.
O’Rourke isn’t the only Democratic candidate pushing for these types of changes though. Mr. Inslee out of Washington, whom I wrote about earlier today, is also running for President and has also voiced desire to phase out HFC refrigerants.
It’s going to be a crazy eighteen months until Election Day. Here’s hoping we get some more details on these plans and may the best candidate win!
Another state has moved forward with phasing down HFC refrigerants such as R-404A, R-134a, and R-410A. Last week the Washington State House Bill 1112 passed the Legislature with a large majority vote. This was widely expected to pass and now all it needs is a signature from Governor Jay Inslee which is expected to happen soon.
Washington is part of what’s known as the United States Climate Alliance. This alliance is a mixture of various States that came together when the Trump Administration announced that they were pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. These twenty-two states include New York, Washington, New Jersey, Oregon, and California. In fact, Governor Inslee of Washington was one of the co-founders of this alliance.
The Washington Bill 1112 is modeled and built off of the Environmental Protection Agency’s former SNAP Rules 20 and 21. It aims at phasing down HFCs across the state and to make certain HFCs no longer acceptable in newly built applications. I won’t report on the exact specifics on the bill until it is fully signed as there is always a chance that there will be further amendments or changes before it is fully passed.
But, from what I have read the Washington bill is very similar to the California bill that was passed last year. Let’s take a look at what California did:
California
The California bill adopts the rules laid out on the Environmental Protection Agency’s SNAP Rules 20 and 21. The only exception here is for automobiles. (In the SNAP Rule 20 R-134a was deemed as no longer acceptable in 2021 model years.) These prohibitions and regulations in California took effect on January 1st, of this year.
Under the new California law manufacturers can no longer produce machines that use the prohibited HFC refrigerants. Now, just like with the EPA’s SNAP, this California plan is a staggered approach. So, not all applications were phased out all at once.
California did the carrot and stick approach. Obviously, the stick is not being compliant with the new regulations and facing fines and other repercussions. The carrot though is that the government is offering incentives to businesses that begin adopting new climate friendly equipment today.
All of these changes and regulations from the Senate Bill 1013 aim at cutting California’s HFC emissions to forty percent below 2013 levels by the time we reach the year 2030. This goal is mandated by the Senate Bill 1383.
The important thing to remember here folks is that this isn’t just an on or off switch. Like I mentioned earlier, this is a staggered approach that goes by application to application. That being said, one big change that has already occurred as of January of this year is that R-404A is no longer acceptable in supermarket systems in California. Along with that 404A is no longer accepted in vending machines, cold storage facilities, and many other applications. You can read more on this by clicking here.
While R-134a and R-410A were mentioned in their table, it was only briefly and not in their primary applications. For example, automobiles were not mentioned and home/commercial air conditioners were not mentioned. So, for the foreseeable future your air conditioner for your home and car will still be using HFCs in California without issue. All of that may change though folks as you never know what new law will come down the pipeline.
Conclusion
California was the first but there will be many more to follow. Washington will be next. Who knows who will come after that?
One thing is for certain, the United States Climate Alliance is a large collection of states and it is only getting larger as time goes on. As the dominoes began to fall we will eventually see manufacturers be forced to move away from HFC machines if they want to continue selling in Climate Alliance states.
Well folks, as most of you know today is Earth Day. Personally, I don’t do anything to celebrate it besides walking around my property and enjoying the view. I just cleared an area by our pond this weekend and now I’ve got a nice quiet place to relax after a day’s work.
As I was reading the news today I saw a plethora of Earth Day stores. One that stuck out to me though was that the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) announced that they had launched a website in honor of Earth Day. This website aims at identifying retailers within the United States who have begun to use natural refrigerants instead of HFCs. The goal here is to have the companies who have started moving forward with natural refrigerants to be recognized for leading the pack.
Before we get to the website, let’s take a look at who the Environmental Investigation Agency (IEA) is. I have not heard of them before, and when I haven’t heard of something I like to research it. EIA is a non-profit organization that was founded back in 1984 out of the United Kingdom. Today they have offices in London and in Washington DC and focus on environmental crime and abuse across the globe. Their main website can be found by clicking here. They work on wide variety of things from endangered animals and poaching all the way over to climate change and refrigerants.
The new HFC website that EIA created can be found by clicking here. At first glance when looking at this website and the map that shows you where the natural refrigerant supermarkets are within the United States I couldn’t help but laugh. Nearly every location is in California or New York. This was expected as California usually leads the way in environmental progress, but still it was quite funny to see that the closest one to me is about one-thousand miles away (I’m in Kansas City).
Regardless of how far away they are progress is progress. According to IEA there are five main companies that have been pushing their locations to move away from HFCs and switch over to natural refrigerants. These companies are: Target, Aldi, Ahold Delhaize, Whole Foods Market, and Sprouts. Each of these companies has their own innovative ways of applying these alternative refrigerants. These range from:
Transcritical CO2 systems
Cascade or indirect systems using a combination of two low-GWP refrigerants
Micro-distributed systems using hydrocarbon condensing units on a chilled water or glycol loop
Stand-alone display cases using hydrocarbons
I won’t get into the details of what every company has done over the past few years to make this listing, but instead give you a quick highlight from each company. If you wish to read more on the subject feel free to visit our ‘Sources’ section at the bottom of this article to continue reading.
Aldi has been one of the leaders here in the United States. This isn’t surprising in the slightest as they are a European based company and have European ideals. (Europe is always ahead of us when it comes to environmental changes.) According to IEA Aldi has over two-hundred stores with transcritical R-744 systems with plans to add another one-hundred by the end of 2019. Along with that they have launched R-290 propane self-contained refrigerators/freezers and they have transitioned their warehouses over to R-717 ammonia based systems.
Target is another big driver of change. So far they have over one-thousand stores using self-contained hydrocarbon refrigerators/freezers (R-290 and R-600a). They have also begun experimenting with CO2 applications. They are piloting a transcritical R-744 application in two stores and they have also begun using CO2 cascade systems in their larger stores. Also, just like Aldi, they are using ammonia R-717 in their food distribution warehouses.
The other stores haven’t done as much as Aldi and Target, but they are still making strides to cleaner refrigerants. Whole Foods, now owned by Amazon, has begun distributing propane stand-alone refrigerators/freezers across their entire store network. They have also been piloting a transcritical CO2 system in their Brooklyn, New York store. The company Ahold USA was the very first store ever in the United States to begin using a transcritical CO2 system. Lastly, Sprouts was the first grocery store in the United States to use a R-744 ejection refrigeration system.
Conclusion
Along with these companies being environmentally friendly and being recognized by such agencies such as the IEA they also get the added benefit of increased energy efficiency. More often than not natural refrigerants are far more efficient than your standard HFC refrigerant. Ammonia, for example, is the most efficient refrigerant out there. All of this efficiency means decreased monthly energy bills for these stores and companies. So, while there may be a larger expense up front with a natural system the business owner will make it back month to month with lower operating expenses. They also get the peace of mind knowing that natural refrigerants will never be phased out by the Environmental Protection Agency as they have no, or extremely little, impact on the climate and the Ozone layer.
While looking at the map of all of stores using natural refrigerants was comical, we do all have to start somewhere. I’m willing to bet though that the map isn’t covering every store in the country. There’s a Whole Foods and an Aldi not far from me and I bet one of those stores are using a propane based refrigerator. With each year that passes the chance of running into these systems increases. If you haven’t already familiarized yourself with them I would recommend looking into it soon.
What is interesting though was after reading this I saw very little mention of HFO refrigerants from Honeywell and Chemours. Are the HFO refrigerants being eclipsed by natural refrigerants? Will we begin to see the mass conversion away from R-404A before HFOs can be fully rolled out? Time will tell.
It is human nature. If the demand is high enough then the market will provide. It doesn’t matter if the product is illegal or not. If there are people willing to pay for it than others will provide the product, even if there is great risk involved. When most people hear the terms ‘black market’ they think of various drugs and or weapons. These items are sold under the radar of government agencies and often times at great profit.
While the above items are mostly illegal there is another kind of black market that can occur when a product is strictly regulated, refrigerant for example. By now, we all know the amount of regulations, rules, and restrictions that are in place on various refrigerants across the globe. To complicate things more these regulations can change from country to country and now state to state. Due to these regulations the price of refrigerant has risen significantly in certain parts of the world. Eventually, there was a breaking point where the increased price meant substantial profits to those who were willing to bypass the law.
Europe
The large majority of illegal refrigerants are being found within the European Union. The CoolingPost.com has done a fantastic job about reporting every one of these instances. I’m not going to go into every documented case here but to start reading on some of these scroll to the bottom of our article under the ‘Sources’ section.
Instead, in this section we’re going to focus on why and what kind of illegal trade is occurring. The biggest violation in Europe is under the ‘F-Gas’ quota system. Just like here in the United States, the EU has a quota on how much a specific refrigerant can be produced or imported into the EU. The difference here is that Europe has begun phasing down HFC refrigerants such as R-134a, R-404A, and R-410A. The phase down came with a very aggressive import/production quota similar to what we have on R-22. This aggressive phase down caused the prices on HFC refrigerants in Europe to go up hundreds of percent. I recall reading that at one point a cylinder of R-404A was going for over seven-hundred dollars.
That crazy price point was a prime target for illegal trade. Companies from outside of the European Union saw a window of opportunity for a hefty profit. Let’s think about it for a moment. A cylinder of R-404A from China could cost around fifty dollars. If you could smuggle multiple pallets of 404A into Europe and sell it for a hundred bucks less than the going rate then the reward would be huge. For argument’s sake let’s say five pallets at forty cylinders each. So, two –hundred cylinders selling at five-hundred dollars a cylinder equals out to one-hundred thousand dollars in sales. Take out your ten-thousand dollars of cost for the Chinese product and you’re looking at ninety-thousand profit. (Minus transport fees.)
I have read from a few reports that the amount of illegal refrigerants flowing into Europe equals nearly twenty percent of the yearly F-Gas quota. So, best case Europe is looking at one-hundred and twenty percent of their HFC quota. This number could be even higher as there is no good way to measure all illegal imports. It is easy to see why Europe is having such an illegal refrigerant problem. Something has to be done to shrink these smuggler’s profit margins. Only then will we begin to see the number of illegal shipments shrink.
Other EU Struggles
Another struggle that the EU is facing is on non-refillable disposable cylinders. These types of refrigerant containers have been banned in the EU since 2007. They were banned due to there always being a slight remainder of refrigerant gas leftover in the disposable cylinder. In some cases this leftover refrigerant can be as high as five percent. When disposed of this cylinder can leak out which in turn can harm the environment. The smugglers however see these disposable cylinders as another cost cutting point so that they can make even more profit on their illegal sales.
The last struggle that I have seen in Europe is online refrigerant sales. There are refrigerants being sold on sites like Amazon, Ebay, and other EU specific sites. This wouldn’t be a problem if the buyer was certified and licensed to handle refrigerant, but in many cases the sellers on these websites do not ask for any certification details. In most cases they are willing to sell to anyone who wants it. This again, bypasses EU law. There is also no way to tell if these online sales are compliant with the F-Gas quota.
United States
The United States has not seen the scale of illegal refrigerants that Europe has. This is mostly due to the US still hanging onto HFC refrigerants. As I write this article, in April of 2019, there is still not formal HFC phase down plan for the US. Heck, we still haven’t even ratified the Kigali Amendment. Because of these factors the prices on HFCs have been relatively low. In fact, this year I am seeing some of the lowest prices on HFCs that I have seen in ten years.
That doesn’t mean that everything is perfect in the United States though. We have our problems as well. The first one I mentioned already in the European section, but I’ll mention it again here. In January 1st, of 2018 there was a new regulation that added HFC refrigerants to the refrigerant sales restriction. Before this rule, you could purchase a variety of HFCs on websites like Amazon.com or Ebay.com. Shortly after the rule went into place there were a few stragglers on Amazon.com but after some more time the refrigerant listings on Amazon began to dissipate. The same story cannot be said for Ebay. I can pull up the website today and find numerous listings for R-22, R-134a, R-410A, R-404A, and more. Now, in Ebay’s defense most of these listings ask for an EPA certification number before purchasing… but there is no way to know if they all do. I am one-hundred percent certain that sales are done without collecting the proper information.
Cans
Another problem in the United States is non-compliant refrigerant cans. The Department of Transportation has four main groups of pressure ratings for aerosol cans. (Source from Cornell.edu) This includes your typical household products like furniture polish, hairspray, tire shine, etc. What determines the correct rating is the pressure of the product being filled at one-hundred and thirty degrees Fahrenheit. The required ratings are below.
<140 psig = 2N (Non-Spec)
140-160 psig = 2P
160-180 psig = 2Q
>180 psig = Special Permit
R-134a at one-hundred and thirty degrees Fahrenheit is rated at 199 psig. As you can see, this puts 134a well outside the range of the 2Q can type. Products like refrigerants that are routinely higher than 180 psig have to be packaged in either a cylinder or in an aerosol can with a special permit. There are companies who specialize in manufacturing and obtaining special permit cans. (One example is ITW Sexton.) As you can imagine, a specialized can costs more than a standard 2Q can.
In another example of companies cutting corners there have been R-134a cans imported into the United States in a 2Q can. This is not only against government regulation but it can also be quite dangerous. There is a reason for this regulation. If refrigerant is packaged in an improperly rated can then there is risk of explosion.
Now, I am not going to name company names here for legal reasons and also not to publically shame. It is distasteful to do so. Instead, I wanted to educate you , the reader, that if you are working with or purchasing refrigerants cans please ensure that the refrigerant is stored in the correct can type. Sure, you might save some money with a 2Q can but you’re in violation of DOT regulations and you are also risking safety of yourself and others.
Conclusion
In both cases, in the European Union and the United States, the majority of this illegal product is sourced from China. In the case of Europe the product is being sneaked in through Turkey or through Russia. There are many instances where trucks are stopped and searched in Belarus or Bulgaria for illegal refrigerants.
While the world knows about these illegal refrigerants the biggest struggle is enforcing the laws on the books. Many governments are failing to impose penalties on companies who are in violation. This applies both within the United States and Europe. As an example, in the US government agencies are aware of companies importing non-compliant cans, but so far, nothing has been done about it. (At least that I am aware of, if I am incorrect please let me know.)
Over in Europe, if the government does find an illegal shipment they will often charge the truck driver and fail to follow the source of the shipment and the company behind the shipment. The driver is the pawn and without tackling the source of the problems the illegal shipments will continue. There will be a new driver right away that is willing to take the risk.
The refrigerant black market is only going to flourish unless governments decide to crack down. While it can never be truly stopped we can at least make a dent in the amount of illegal refrigerants by strictly enforcing the laws on the books and punishing those who are defying said laws.
One of the very first steps when it comes to diagnosing your home air conditioner, refrigerator, or even your vehicle’s air conditioner is understanding the temperature and the current pressure that your system is operating at. Having these facts along with the saturation point, the subcool, and the superheat numbers for the refrigerant you are working on are essential when it comes to really understanding what is going wrong with your system.
After a visual inspection the very next step for the most seasoned technicians is pulling out their gauges and checking the pressure and temperature. It just becomes second nature after enough calls. I have heard stories of rookie techs calling some of the pros on their team for help on a system that they’re stuck on. It doesn’t matter what the situation is. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Miami or in Fargo. It will never fail that one of the first questions the pros ask the rookie is what is your subcool and what is your superheat? Having and understanding these numbers is key to figuring out what to do next.
But, these numbers won’t do you any good if you don’t know what refrigerant you are dealing with and what the refrigerant’s boiling point is at each pressure level. This article aims at providing you with just that information.
R-404A Pressure Chart
R-404A rose to prominence in the late 1990’s with the phasing out of CFC and HCFC refrigerants like R-12 and R-502. There had to be a replacement for the Ozone damaging refrigerants of the past and the successor was the HFC R-404A that we all know of today.
404A’s reign however was short lived. R-404A has one of the highest Global Warming Potential numbers of any modern day refrigerant and is known as a super pollutant. Because of this we are seeing various countries and manufacturers no longer using R-404A in new machinery. Instead, companies and countries are opting for more climate friendly refrigerants such as natural refrigerants, hydrocarbons, and newer less GWP heavy HFO refrigerants
If you would like to read more about R-404A refrigerant please click here to be taken to our refrigerant fact sheet.
Let’s take a look at our pressure chart:
°F
°C
PSI
KPA
-40
-40.0
4.3
29.6
-35
-37.2
6.8
46.9
-30
-34.4
9.5
65.5
-25
-31.7
12.5
86.2
-20
-28.9
15.7
108.2
-15
-26.1
19.3
133.1
-10
-23.3
23.2
160.0
-5
-20.6
27.5
189.6
0
-17.8
32.1
221.3
5
-15.0
37
255.1
10
-12.2
42.4
292.3
15
-9.4
48.2
332.3
20
-6.7
54.5
375.8
25
-3.9
61.2
422.0
30
-1.1
68.4
471.6
35
1.7
76.1
524.7
40
4.4
84.4
581.9
45
7.2
93.2
642.6
50
10.0
103
710.2
55
12.8
113
779.1
60
15.6
123
848.1
65
18.3
135
930.8
70
21.1
147
1013.5
75
23.9
159
1096.3
80
26.7
173
1192.8
85
29.4
187
1289.3
90
32.2
202
1392.7
95
35.0
218
1503.1
100
37.8
234
1613.4
105
40.6
252
1737.5
110
43.3
270
1861.6
115
46.1
289
1992.6
120
48.9
310
2137.4
125
51.7
331
2282.2
130
54.4
353
2433.9
135
57.2
377
2599.3
140
60.0
401
2764.8
Conclusion
There you have it folks. I hope this article was helpful and if you find that something is inaccurate here in my chart please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I have sourced this the best I could but there is always going to be conflicting data. I’ve seen it multiple times on various refrigerants. I’ll search for a refrigerant’s pressure chart and get various results all showing different pounds per square inch temperatures.
The aim with this article is to give you accurate information so again, if you see anything incorrect please let me know by contacting me here. On top of this post we are also working on a comprehensive refrigerant pressure/temperature listing. The goal is to have every refrigerant out there listed with a pressure/temperature chart that is easily available.
One of the very first steps when it comes to diagnosing your home air conditioner, refrigerator, or even your vehicle’s air conditioner is understanding the temperature and the current pressure that your system is operating at. Having these facts along with the saturation point, the subcool, and the superheat numbers for the refrigerant you are working on are essential when it comes to really understanding what is going wrong with your system.
After a visual inspection the very next step for the most seasoned technicians is pulling out their gauges and checking the pressure and temperature. It just becomes second nature after enough calls. I have heard stories of rookie techs calling some of the pros on their team for help on a system that they’re stuck on. It doesn’t matter what the situation is. It doesn’t matter if you’re in Miami or in Fargo. It will never fail that one of the first questions the pros ask the rookie is what is your subcool and what is your superheat? Having and understanding these numbers is key to figuring out what to do next.
But, these numbers won’t do you any good if you don’t know what refrigerant you are dealing with and what the refrigerant’s boiling point is at each pressure level. This article aims at providing you with just that information.
R-410A Pressure Chart
R-410A, or Puron, is one of the most popular refrigerants in today’s modern world. However, if you rewind just fifteen or twenty years you would find that very little people even knew about it. Most contractors and technicians worked with R-22 systems for home and commercial air conditioning. R-22 had been the standard bearer refrigerant for nearly fifty years. However, R-22 harmed the Ozone Layer and a replacement refrigerant needed to be found. This is where our friend R-410A came into play. New machines from 2010 and onwards were banned from using R-22. Instead, they were outfitted with R-410A.
If you would like to read more about R-410A refrigerant please click here to be taken to our refrigerant fact sheet.
Let’s take a look at our pressure chart:
°F
°C
PSI
KPA
–37.7
-38.7
12
82.7
–34.7
-37.0
14
96.5
–32.0
-35.6
16
110.3
–29.4
-34.1
18
124.1
–36.9
-38.3
20
137.9
–24.5
-31.4
22
151.7
–22.2
-30.1
24
165.5
–20.0
-29.0
26
179.3
–17.9
-27.7
28
193.1
–15.8
-26.6
30
206.8
–13.8
-25.4
32
220.6
–11.9
-24.4
34
234.4
–10.1
-23.4
36
248.2
–8.3
-22.4
38
262.0
–6.5
-21.4
40
275.8
–4.5
-20.3
42
289.6
–3.2
-19.6
44
303.4
–1.6
-18.7
46
317.2
0
-17.8
48
330.9
1.5
-16.9
50
344.7
3
-16.1
52
358.5
4.5
-15.3
54
372.3
5.9
-14.5
56
386.1
7.3
-13.7
58
399.9
8.6
-13.0
60
413.7
10
-12.2
62
427.5
11.3
-11.5
64
441.3
12.6
-10.8
66
455.1
13.8
-10.1
68
468.8
15.1
-9.4
70
482.6
16.3
-8.7
72
496.4
17.5
-8.1
74
510.2
18.7
-7.4
76
524.0
19.8
-6.8
78
537.8
21
-6.1
80
551.6
22.1
-5.5
82
565.4
23.2
-4.9
84
579.2
24.3
-4.3
86
592.9
25.4
-3.7
88
606.7
26.4
-3.1
90
620.5
27.4
-2.6
92
634.3
28.5
-1.9
94
648.1
29.5
-1.4
96
661.9
30.5
-0.8
98
675.7
31.2
-0.4
100
689.5
32.2
0.1
102
703.3
33.2
0.7
104
717.1
34.1
1.2
106
730.8
35.1
1.7
108
744.6
35.5
1.9
110
758.4
36.9
2.7
112
772.2
37.8
3.2
114
786.0
38.7
3.7
116
799.8
39.5
4.2
118
813.6
40.5
4.7
120
827.4
41.3
5.2
122
841.2
42.2
5.7
124
855.0
43
6.1
126
868.7
43.8
6.6
128
882.5
44.7
7.1
130
896.3
45.5
7.5
132
910.1
46.3
7.9
134
923.9
47.1
8.4
136
937.7
47.9
8.8
138
951.5
48.7
9.3
140
965.3
49.5
9.7
142
979.1
50.3
10.2
144
992.8
51.1
10.6
146
1006.6
51.8
11.0
148
1020.4
52.5
11.4
150
1034.2
53.3
11.8
152
1048.0
54
12.2
154
1061.8
54.8
12.7
156
1075.6
55.5
13.1
158
1089.4
56.2
13.4
160
1103.2
57
13.9
162
1117.0
57.7
14.3
164
1130.7
58.4
14.7
166
1144.5
59
15.0
168
1158.3
59.8
15.4
170
1172.1
60.5
15.8
172
1185.9
61.1
16.2
174
1199.7
61.8
16.6
176
1213.5
62.5
16.9
178
1227.3
63.1
17.3
180
1241.1
63.8
17.7
182
1254.8
64.5
18.1
184
1268.6
65.1
18.4
186
1282.4
65.8
18.8
188
1296.2
66.4
19.1
190
1310.0
67
19.4
192
1323.8
67.7
19.8
194
1337.6
68.3
20.2
196
1351.4
68.9
20.5
198
1365.2
69.5
20.8
200
1379.0
70.1
21.2
202
1392.7
70.7
21.5
204
1406.5
71.4
21.9
206
1420.3
72
22.2
208
1434.1
72.6
22.6
210
1447.9
73.2
22.9
212
1461.7
73.8
23.2
214
1475.5
74.3
23.5
216
1489.3
74.9
23.8
218
1503.1
75.5
24.2
220
1516.8
76.1
24.5
222
1530.6
76.7
24.8
224
1544.4
77.2
25.1
226
1558.2
77.8
25.4
228
1572.0
78.4
25.8
230
1585.8
78.9
26.1
232
1599.6
79.5
26.4
234
1613.4
80
26.7
236
1627.2
80.6
27.0
238
1641.0
81.1
27.3
240
1654.7
81.6
27.6
242
1668.5
82.2
27.9
244
1682.3
82.7
28.2
246
1696.1
83.3
28.5
248
1709.9
83.8
28.8
250
1723.7
84.3
29.1
252
1737.5
84.8
29.3
254
1751.3
85.4
29.7
256
1765.1
85.9
29.9
258
1778.8
86.4
30.2
260
1792.6
86.9
30.5
262
1806.4
87.4
30.8
264
1820.2
87.9
31.1
266
1834.0
88.4
31.3
268
1847.8
88.9
31.6
270
1861.6
89.4
31.9
272
1875.4
89.9
32.2
274
1889.2
90.4
32.4
276
1903.0
90.9
32.7
278
1916.7
91.4
33.0
280
1930.5
91.9
33.3
282
1944.3
92.4
33.6
284
1958.1
92.8
33.8
286
1971.9
93.3
34.1
288
1985.7
93.8
34.3
290
1999.5
94.3
34.6
292
2013.3
94.8
34.9
294
2027.1
95.2
35.1
296
2040.8
95.7
35.4
298
2054.6
96.2
35.7
300
2068.4
96.6
35.9
302
2082.2
97.1
36.2
304
2096.0
97.5
36.4
306
2109.8
98
36.7
308
2123.6
98.4
36.9
310
2137.4
98.9
37.2
312
2151.2
99.3
37.4
314
2165.0
99.7
37.6
316
2178.7
100.2
37.9
318
2192.5
100.7
38.2
320
2206.3
101.1
38.4
322
2220.1
101.6
38.7
324
2233.9
102
38.9
326
2247.7
102.4
39.1
328
2261.5
102.9
39.4
330
2275.3
103.3
39.6
332
2289.1
103.7
39.8
334
2302.8
104.2
40.1
336
2316.6
104.6
40.3
338
2330.4
105.1
40.6
340
2344.2
105.4
40.8
342
2358.0
105.8
41.0
344
2371.8
106.3
41.3
346
2385.6
106.6
41.4
348
2399.4
107.1
41.7
350
2413.2
107.5
41.9
352
2427.0
107.9
42.2
354
2440.7
108.3
42.4
356
2454.5
108.8
42.7
358
2468.3
109.2
42.9
360
2482.1
109.6
43.1
362
2495.9
110
43.3
364
2509.7
110.4
43.6
366
2523.5
110.8
43.8
368
2537.3
111.2
44.0
370
2551.1
111.6
44.2
372
2564.9
112
44.4
374
2578.6
112.4
44.7
376
2592.4
112.6
44.8
378
2606.2
113.1
45.1
380
2620.0
113.5
45.3
382
2633.8
113.9
45.5
384
2647.6
114.3
45.7
386
2661.4
114.7
45.9
388
2675.2
115
46.1
390
2689.0
115.5
46.4
392
2702.7
115.8
46.6
394
2716.5
116.2
46.8
396
2730.3
116.6
47.0
398
2744.1
117
47.2
400
2757.9
117.3
47.4
402
2771.7
117.7
47.6
404
2785.5
118.1
47.8
406
2799.3
118.5
48.1
408
2813.1
118.8
48.2
410
2826.9
119.2
48.4
412
2840.6
119.6
48.7
414
2854.4
119.9
48.8
416
2868.2
120.3
49.1
418
2882.0
120.7
49.3
420
2895.8
121
49.4
422
2909.6
121.4
49.7
424
2923.4
121.7
49.8
426
2937.2
122.1
50.1
428
2951.0
122.5
50.3
430
2964.7
122.8
50.4
432
2978.5
123.2
50.7
434
2992.3
123.5
50.8
436
3006.1
123.9
51.1
438
3019.9
124.2
51.2
440
3033.7
124.6
51.4
442
3047.5
124.9
51.6
444
3061.3
125.3
51.8
446
3075.1
125.6
52.0
448
3088.9
126
52.2
450
3102.6
126.3
52.4
452
3116.4
126.6
52.6
454
3130.2
127
52.8
456
3144.0
127.3
52.9
458
3157.8
127.7
53.2
460
3171.6
128
53.3
462
3185.4
128.3
53.5
464
3199.2
128.7
53.7
466
3213.0
129
53.9
468
3226.7
129.3
54.1
470
3240.5
129.7
54.3
472
3254.3
130
54.4
474
3268.1
130.3
54.6
476
3281.9
130.7
54.8
478
3295.7
131
55.0
480
3309.5
131.3
55.2
482
3323.3
131.6
55.3
484
3337.1
132
55.6
486
3350.9
132.3
55.7
488
3364.6
132.6
55.9
490
3378.4
132.9
56.1
492
3392.2
133.3
56.3
494
3406.0
133.6
56.4
496
3419.8
133.9
56.6
498
3433.6
134
56.7
500
3447.4
134.5
56.9
502
3461.2
134.8
57.1
504
3475.0
135.2
57.3
506
3488.7
135.5
57.5
508
3502.5
135.8
57.7
510
3516.3
136.1
57.8
512
3530.1
136.4
58.0
514
3543.9
136.7
58.2
516
3557.7
137
58.3
518
3571.5
137.3
58.5
520
3585.3
137.6
58.7
522
3599.1
137.9
58.8
524
3612.9
138.3
59.1
526
3626.6
138.6
59.2
528
3640.4
138.9
59.4
530
3654.2
139.2
59.6
532
3668.0
139.5
59.7
534
3681.8
139.8
59.9
536
3695.6
140.1
60.1
538
3709.4
140.4
60.2
540
3723.2
141
60.6
544
3750.7
141.6
60.9
548
3778.3
142.1
61.2
552
3805.9
142.7
61.5
556
3833.5
143.3
61.8
560
3861.1
143.9
62.2
564
3888.6
144.5
62.5
568
3916.2
145
62.8
572
3943.8
145.6
63.1
576
3971.4
146.2
63.4
580
3999.0
146.7
63.7
584
4026.5
147.3
64.1
588
4054.1
147.9
64.4
592
4081.7
148.4
64.7
596
4109.3
149
65.0
600
4136.9
149.5
65.3
604
4164.4
150.1
65.6
608
4192.0
150.6
65.9
612
4219.6
151.2
66.2
616
4247.2
151.7
66.5
620
4274.8
152.3
66.8
624
4302.3
152.8
67.1
628
4329.9
153.4
67.4
632
4357.5
153.9
67.7
636
4385.1
154.5
68.1
640
4412.6
155
68.3
644
4440.2
155.5
68.6
648
4467.8
156.1
68.9
652
4495.4
156.6
69.2
656
4523.0
157.1
69.5
660
4550.5
157.7
69.8
664
4578.1
158.2
70.1
668
4605.7
158.7
70.4
672
4633.3
159.2
70.7
676
4660.9
159.8
71.0
680
4688.4
160.3
71.3
684
4716.0
160.8
71.6
688
4743.6
161.3
71.8
692
4771.2
161.8
72.1
696
4798.8
Conclusion
There you have it folks. I hope this article was helpful and if you find that something is inaccurate here in my chart please do not hesitate to reach out to me. I have sourced this the best I could but there is always going to be conflicting data. I’ve seen it multiple times on various refrigerants. I’ll search for a refrigerant’s pressure chart and get various results all showing different pounds per square inch temperatures.
The aim with this article is to give you accurate information so again, if you see anything incorrect please let me know by contacting me here. On top of this post we are also working on a comprehensive refrigerant pressure/temperature listing. The goal is to have every refrigerant out there listed with a pressure/temperature chart that is easily available.
R-125 is one of the most common refrigerants across the world yet so many people have never heard of it. While it is rare to find a direct R-125 refrigerant application, it is very common to find some of the blended refrigerants that R-125 contributes to.
The ever popular R-410A and R-404A are blended HFC refrigerants and one of the ingredients in both of these blends is R-125. Along with these there are a variety of other refrigerants comprised of R-125. So, while you may not actually see R-125 in a direct use application you will see it’s blended version of 410A, 404A, and other refrigerants in nearly every modern application.
In this article we’re going to take a deep dive on this refrigerant looking at the facts, points of note, the past, present, and what we can expect in the future for R-125.
The Facts
Name:
R-125
Name - Scientific:
Pentafluoroethane
Name (2):
Freon™ 125
Name (3):
HFC-125
Name (4)
Genetron HFC 125
Name (5)
Khladon 125
Name (6)
Suva 125
Name (7)
FC-125
Classification:
HFC Refrigerant
Chemistry:
C2HF5
Status:
Phasing Down Across The World
Future:
Will Most Likely Be Phased Out in 10-20 Years
Application:
Supermarkets, Gas Stations, Vending/Ice Machines
Application (2):
Refrigerated Transport, Industrial Refrigeration, and Much More
Replacement For:
Mainly R-22 and R-502 Through Blends
Ozone Depletion Potential:
0
Global Warming Potential:
3,500
Global Warming Risk:
VERY HIGH
Toxicity Levels:
A (No Toxicity Identified.)
Flammability Levels:
Class 1 -No Flame Propagation.
Lubricant Required:
Synthetic Oil - Polyol Ester Oil or POE
Boiling Point:
-48.5°C (-55.4°F)
Critical Temperature:
66.18°C (151.124°F)
Critical Pressure:
3,629 kpa
Auto ignition Temperature:
Unknown
Molar Mass:
120.02 g/mol
Density:
1.53 g/cm3 (liquid at -48.5 °C)[1]
Melting Point:
−103.0 °C (−153.4 °F; 170.2 K)
Vapor Pressure:
1414.05 kPa (at 25 °C)
Manufacturers:
Various Including: Honeywell, Chemours, Arkema, Mexichem, Chinese, etc.
Manufacturing Facilities:
All Over Including: USA, Mexico, EU, China, and others.
Form:
Gas
Color:
Colorless Liquid & Vapor
Odor:
Faint Ethereal Odor
EPA Certification Required:
Yes, 608 certification required by January 1st, 2018.
Require Certification to Purchase?
Yes, 608 certification required by January 1st, 2018.
As we all know there are no perfect refrigerants out there. Across all of the various refrigerant classifications and types there are always going to be pros and cons. Look at ammonia (R-717) for example. It is widely accepted as one of the best refrigerants out there, but it has a safety rating of B2L. That rating means that ammonia is not only slightly flammable but is also toxic. So, while you have an amazingly efficient refrigerant you also have a extraordinary safety concern when using ammonia.
When determining a refrigerant to use there are a variety of factors that are considered. These can be efficiency, safety flammability/toxicity, climate Ozone/Global Warming Potential, and operating pressures. Whatever refrigerant that checks the most boxes will usually end up on top.
With those factors in mind let’s look at the pros and cons of R-125:
Pros
The big reason R-125 took off in the late 1990’s and early 2000’s was due to it NOT having any Ozone Depletion Potential. Remember folks, that the R-125 blends replaced the Ozone damaging HCFC and CFC refrigerants such as R-22 and R-502.
R-125 is very versatile and it can be found in nearly twenty different blends including R-410A, R-404A, and R-407C. Even today engineers are trying new blends of R-125.
The other big Pro with R-125 is it’s safety rating. It is rated as an A1 from ASHRAE. The A1 rating signifies that R-125 is not toxic and is not flammable. Please note though, that while R-125 is non-toxic if enough vapor is leaked into an enclosed area it can displace oxygen which can eventually lead to asphyxiation.
Cons
The only con that I know for R-125 is a big one. In the last decade or so there has been a lot of focus on Greenhouse Gases and the overall Global Warming Potential (GWP) of those gases. R-125 is a Greenhouse Gas and has a GWP of thirty-five hundred. It is known as a ‘Super-Pollutant.’ R-125 has one of the higher GWPs of any modern refrigerant. For a comparison the HFC R-32 refrigerant has a GWP of only six-hundred and seventy-five.
Notes on R-125
Alright folks so we’ve got the pros and cons out of the way now let’s take a look at some points of note on R-125.
R-125 came about in the mid 1990’s and early 2000’s when the world was looking for replacements to the popular CFC and HCFC refrigerants R-502 and R-22. These previous refrigerants were found to be harming the Ozone layer and were phased out by the Montreal Protocol. R-125 was safe, it was cheap, and it was efficient. R-125, and it’s many blends, were the solution to the phasing out of CFCs and HCFCs.
As I had mentioned before, R-125 is the building block of many refrigerants that we see and use throughout the world today. We’ve mentioned some of the more popular blends like 410A and 404A but now let’s take a look at all of the other blends that are out there:
As you can see from the listing above there are a variety of blends and applications that can be used within these blends. R-125 is by far one of the most versatile refrigerants out there today. This is why this refrigerant can be found in nearly every home and building that utilizes air conditioning or refrigeration.Along with being used as a refrigerant R-125 is also used in fire suppression systems. This is mainly used when water is not advised as fire extinguisher option. This could be in laboratories with expensive equipment, in museums, or banks.
There was a worldwide shortage of R-125 during the summer of 2017. The majority of R-125 is sourced from China and something happened over the spring and summer of 2017 that caused the shortage to ripple across the marketplace. The most common explanation that I found was that the chemical Flurospar experienced a forty percent price increase towards the beginning of 2017. (Flurospar is a main ingredient in the R-125 refrigerant.) This price increase caused a direct effect on the price of R-125 raising it by one-hundred and thirty percent. The price increase on Flurospar was blamed on China’s strengthening of environmental laws that directly affect the mining industry. Depending on where you were in the world when this shortage hit you could have seen your prices raise by forty or fifty percent on 125 blends. In some cases though, especially over in the European Union, prices shot up hundreds of percents.
While R-125 doesn’t deplete the Ozone it does have an extremely high Global Warming Potential (GWP). The GWP’s zeroing scale is Carbon Dioxide (R-744). Carbon Dioxide has a GWP of one whereas R-125 has a GWP of thirty-five hundred. Obviously, the higher the GWP number the more damage the refrigerant does to the environment.
It is due to high GWP number that we are beginning to see various R-125 blends being phased down and in some cases completely phased out. While most countries and municipalities have focused on R-404A it is only a matter of time before everyone sets their sights on R-410A.
R-125 Past, Present, & Future
I won’t get into all of the details here, instead I will give a brief overview of what happened, where we are today, and what will be happening in the future. Firstly, let’s look at the rise of CFCs and HCFCs. These refrigerants rose to prominence in the 1950’s and 60’s. They were safe, cheap, and efficient. It was in the 1980’s that it was discovered that these refrigerants were also harming the Ozone layer. To put a stop to this the world introduced the Montreal Protocol. This signed treaty aimed at phasing out Ozone damaging refrigerants as well as other chemicals.
With the CFCs and HCFCs refrigerants going away an alternative, non Ozone depleting, refrigerant was needed. This is where the HFCs came into play. In the mid 1990’s R-12 was phased out and replaced with the HFC R-134a. A few years later is when we began to see the blended refrigerants (Made of R-125) start to replace R-22 and R-502 applications.
Ever since then HFCs and R-125 have been the standard bearer for a variety of applications including home and commercial air conditioners, supermarket refrigerators/freezers, vending machines, ice machines, refrigerated transport, and so much more.
While the Ozone was fixed the new HFC refrigerants were found to have a large effect on Global Warming due to their high Global Warming Potential (GWP). The higher the GWP the more damage the refrigerant did to the atmosphere. Pressure began to mount in Europe, Asia, and in America to slow the use of HFCs and to begin looking for alternatives.
In the European Union there are regulations in place already that are phasing down and eventually completely out HFC refrigerants such as R-134a, R-404A, and eventually R-410A. While here in America there isn’t an exact plan on when HFCs will be phased down. At one time there was through the Environmental Protection Agency, but their proposed rules were overturned by a Federal Court. There is hope though. A select few states have begun moving forward with their own HFC phase down regulations. Some of these states include California, New York, and Washington.
It doesn’t matter if we have a federally backed phase down program through the EPA or if we have a patchwork of policies and regulations that vary state to state. Whatever happens we can be assured that HFCs will be a thing of the past very soon.
Conclusion
While R-125 may be in nearly every household and commercial building it’s future is anything but bright. With each passing year more and more pressure is put on the use of R-125 and it’s blends. The Global Warming Potential is just too high, especially when there are alternative refrigerants coming out every year.
We may be stuck with R-125 for another decade or so but it’s time is limited and the countdown has begun. R-404A is the first target and then once that has been phased down the world will set it’s sights on R-410A.
For now, in 2019, we will stay the course of R-125 usage.
Greetings folks! Another month is nearly wrapped up and we are slowly inching towards spring. We’ve got a few more hard weeks here in Kansas but I’m looking forward to the day when I can start planting some trees.
I’m writing this article today as I was informed of more volatility in refrigerant pricing. Even though we’re only two months in, 2019 is certainty turning out to be an interesting year. In late fall early winter I always take the time to do my refrigerant pricing prediction articles. In these articles I do my best to predict what prices will be the following year by weighing a variety of factors and considerations. Some years I miss and other years I hit the mark. It looks like this year is going to be a miss.
Towards the beginning of January a notification went out to various refrigerant distributors from two refrigerant manufacturers. I cannot and will not names here, but the notification stated that there would be a six percent increase on your everyday refrigerant including R-134a, R-410A, and R-22. I had assumed that this increase would be the start of a trend of upward momentum for the year. I was wrong, very wrong.
Pricing
What surprised me is that prices are going down and down. They are at levels I haven’t seen in years. Let’s take a look:
R-134A – Thirty Pound Cylinder Pricing:
Fall 2017 – $140
Fall 2018 – $85
Jan 2019 – $88
Feb 2019 – $70
Most people had thought we had reached the bottom of the barrel when it came to R-134a pricing. This was especially the case when that notification was sent out in January stating that prices were going up. People were used to paying around $90-$100 a cylinder.
This new price of $70 is the lowest I have seen in years. In fact it’s close to where it was when I used to buy R-134a in bulk back in 2008. Back then I was paying around $61-$65… but that was before tariffs. I am really amazed to see the price back to almost pre-tariff levels. Who knows how much lower it will go.
R-410A – Twenty-Five Pound Cylinder Pricing:
Fall 2017 – $140
Fall 2018 – $65
Jan 2019 – $68
Feb 2019 – $56
Just like R-134a, R-410A is going down and down. At this point it’s difficult to forecast what will happen. I honestly don’t know folks. Will we keep going down, or will we start creep back up as the summer season sets in?
R-22 – Thirty Pound Cylinder Pricing:
Fall 2017 – $550
Fall 2018 – $350
Jan 2019 – $410
Feb 2019 – $300 or Under
Obviously, the big story here is R-22. There are only ten months left until R-22 is completely phased out across the United States (January 1st, 2020). Everyone had assumed that the price would go up and up as we approached closer to that deadline. What actually happened is that we saw a spike in pricing hit in the summer of 2017. At certain points it was $600-$700 a cylinder. However, in 2018 the price started to go down and down.
There could be a resurgence in pricing as the summer season sets in and people began to realize that R-22 will be going away. But, we may also have just too much overstock in the market place which is causing prices to stay low.
Conclusion
The refrigerant market is anything but stable this year folks. It is tough to tell when the right time to buy is. You don’t want to get stuck with overpriced product but you also want the opportunity to buy low and sell high. Time will only tell. It’s as much as a guessing game for you as it is for me.
If you are interested in purchasing refrigerant please check out our bulk refrigerants page by clicking here. We are partnered with one of the leading distributors in the country and will get you a competitive price in today’s marketplace.
Today the HFC R-404A is one of the most commonly used refrigerants in the United States and in the world. You can find it most commercial refrigerators/freezers, in vending and ice machines, in refrigerated transport, and in specific industrial applications.
404A was originally implemented as a replacement option for the now banned CFC R-502. R-502 was widely used throughout all of the applications we mentioned above until 1995/1996 when it was phased out entirely due to it’s Ozone Depletion Potential (ODP). While 404A has been around for decades it’s future may be short lived due to it’s high Global Warming Potential (GWP).
In this post we are going to take an in-depth look at R-404A. In our first section we’ll cover all of the facts, then the pros/cons, points of note, and the history of R-404A.
The Facts
Name:
R-404A
Name - Scientific:
Blend of R-125, R-143a, & R-134a
Name (2):
404A
Name (3):
HFC-404A
Classification:
HFC Refrigerant - Blend
Chemistry:
Pesudo-Azeotropic Blend
Chemistry (2):
R-125 Pentafluroethane (44%)
Chemistry (3):
R-143a 1,1,1-Trifluoroethane (52%)
Chemistry (4):
R-134a 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane (4%)
R-125 Chemistry:
44±2% C2HF5
R-1143a Chemistry:
52±1% C2H3F3
R-134a Chemistry:
4±2% C2H2F4
Status:
Phasing Down Across The World
Future:
Will Be Phased Out in 10 Years
Application:
Low to Medium Temperature Systems
Application (2):
Supermarkets, Gas Stations, Vending/Ice Machines
Application (3):
Refrigerated Transport & Industrial Refrigeration
Replacement For:
CFC R-502, R-12, & R-22
Ozone Depletion Potential:
0
Global Warming Potential:
3,922
Global Warming Risk:
VERY HIGH
Toxicity Levels:
A (No Toxicity Identified.)
Flammability Levels:
Class 1 -No Flame Propagation.
Lubricant Required:
Synthetic Oil - Polyol Ester Oil or POE
Boiling Point:
-46.6° Celsius or -51.88° Fahrenheit
Temperature Glide:
0.8
Critical Temperature:
72.14° Celsius or 161.852° Fahrenheit
Critical Pressure:
3.735 MPA or 541.716 PSI
Auto ignition Temperature:
Not Determiend
Manufacturers:
Various Including: Honeywell, Chemours, Arkema, Mexichem, Chinese, etc.
Manufacturing Facilities:
All Over Including: USA, Mexico, EU, China, and others.
Form:
Gas
Color:
Colorless Liquid & Vapor
Odor:
Faint Ethereal Odor
EPA Certification Required:
Yes, 608 certification required by January 1st, 2018.
Require Certification to Purchase?
Yes, 608 certification required by January 1st, 2018.
Regardless of what refrigerant you are looking at they all have their own pros and cons. There is no perfect refrigerant. There may never be. Ammonia for example is deemed one of the best refrigerants in the world… but it’s extremely toxic and can be deadly in high amounts.
R-404A has it’s own pros and cons. Let’s take a look at some of them:
Pros:
R-404A provided an immediate replacement product for both R-12, R-22 and R-502. This allowed the world to stop using Ozone depleting refrigerants. R-404A operated at comparable physical and thermodynamic properties that R-502 did which made transitioning to new systems or retrofitting older systems a much easier task.
404A is rated as an A1 from ASHRAE. That means that it is non-toxic and non-flammable. While this may not seem like a big deal for HFC refrigerants, this rating is becoming more and more important when it comes to looking for a more environmentally friendly replacement refrigerant.
Cons:
The biggest con with R-404A is it’s extremely high Global Warming Potential (GWP). It’s GWP rating is three-thousand nine-hundred and twenty. This number makes it one of the absolute highest GWP refrigerant that is widely used in the world today.
In some applications 404A is not the most efficient. There are other refrigerants that can save five to ten percent efficiency. (R-134a for example.) The lost efficiency with 404A can translate into more energy and more money spent when compared to other refrigerants. Refer to our ‘R-404A Potential Replacements’ section for some of these more efficient refrigerants.
Notes on R-404A
Just like with our other facts sheets I’d like to take some time in this section and go over some facts and other points of note on R-404A refrigerants:
R-404A began seeing usage in 1996 after the phase out of CFC R-502 due to it’s Ozone Depletion Potential.
R-404A is a ternary refrigerant blend consisting of the HFC R-125 (forty-four percent), HFC R-143a (fifty-two percent), and HFC R-134a (four percent).
R-404A is used across a variety of low and medium temperature applications including super market freezers/refrigerators, vending machines, ice machines, refrigerated transport, and industrial refrigerant systems.
Starting in 1996, 404A was the primary refrigerant for the above mentioned applications for over twenty years.
R-404A is non toxic and non flammable and has an A1 rating from ASHRAE. Note that if 404A is pressurized after being mixed with air the chance of flammability increases. You should never mix 404A with air under.
R-404A is heavier then air and will displace oxygen in a room if a large enough quantity is leaked. This can be said for various types of refrigerants though and is not unique to 404A.
When charging systems with R-404A the refrigerant must be in a liquid state. If done in a gaseous state you risk damaging the entire system.
In some cases R-404A can replace R-22 systems when the proper retrofitting is done, but this may not make sense in the long run due to my next point.
R-404A is being phased down and in some cases completely phased out due to it’s high Global Warming Potential and it’s detrimental effect on the climate.
In many cases R-404A is the first HFC refrigerant targeted for phasing down HFCs due to it’s extremely high GWP of nearly four-thousand.
Some refrigerant manufacturers and distributors have already announced they will no longer be making or selling R-404A.
Europe will input a ban on any new stationary 404A systems in the year 2020. (Along with any other refrigerants that have a GWP higher then twenty-five hundred.)
Along with the ban on new systems the European Union has also issued import and production limits on R-404A.
Due to these production/import limits Europe has seen crazy prices come on R-404A. At some points in the past few years it rose over seven-hundred percent in one season.
Prices in the United States have remained relatively stable the past year or so, but in 2017 there was a large increase due to a shortage of flurospar in China.
R-404A Possible Replacements
In the initial switch from CFC/HCFCs over to HFCs in the 1990’s there was a rush to find a quick and fast alternative refrigerant. Before HFCs a lot of supermarkets were using both R-12 and R-502 for their systems. (R-12 was used for the refrigerators and R-502 was used for freezers.)
At the time the world switched over to R-404A there was little other choice and most business owners and contractors consolidated their refrigerators and freezers over to one refrigerant to simplify things. That is why you see 404A nearly everywhere in these types of applications.
When we do completely phase out R-404A it will not be like it was in the 1990’s again. No folks, this time we are going to go about it smarter. (This is me being optimistic.) Instead of superseding every machines and application to a new specified refrigerant we will be looking at each application specifically an determining the best refrigerant for it’s needs. This is why we’ll see R-290 propane used in some 404A applications and an HFO refrigerant used in a different 404A application. When it’s all said and done we should see a diversified refrigerant market in place of the standard 404A that we see today.
At this time it’s impossible to list every 404A alternative or option out there. Things are always changing and evolving. The ‘perfect’ replacement may be discovered one month from now.
All that being said, let’s take a look at some of the possible R-404A replacements listed below. Just keep in mind that none of these are a ‘fix all’ solution. These refrigerants range from natural refrigerants, to HFOs, and the occasional HFC.
R-448A
R-449B
R-449A
R-448A
R-452A
R-455A
R-407A
R-407F
R-442A
R-290
R-744
R-404A History
The Past
To understand the history of R-404 we first have to travel back to the 1960’s. It was then that the CFC refrigerant R-502 was invented. R-502 was a blended refrigerant using HCFCs and CFCs. It was comprised of of R-22 (48.8%) and R-115 (51.2%). This new refrigerant R-502 offered a lower discharge temperature and improved capacity when compared to R-22.
Once invented R-502’s usage exploded across low and medium temperature applications. Over the next thirty years R-502 was the dominant refrigerant for a variety of applications including super market refrigerators/freezers, industrial refrigeration, vending machines, and in refrigerated transport.
For thirty-five years R-502 reigned supreme, but like all good things it had to come to an end. In 1995 and 1996 R-502 was phased out for all new machines. 502 was just another one of the many CFC and HCFC refrigerants that have been phased out over the past twenty to thirty years.
These refrigerants were phased out due to the chlorine that they contained. When the refrigerant was vented or leaked it would move into the atmosphere where the chlorine would damage the Ozone Layer. While there wasn’t an official ‘hole’ in the Ozone there was a thinning of the layer above Antarctica. The Ozone layer protects us from radiation and a thinning of said layer can result in a whole host of problems including various cancers.
Scientists noticed this thinning in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s. Once the seriousness of the problem was revealed world leaders got together in Montreal and signed a treaty that most all of us know by now, The Montreal Protocol. This treaty aimed at phasing down and eventually completely out Ozone damaging chemicals. This included insulation, pesticides, refrigerants, and many other applications.
When R-502’s turn for phase down came in 1995 a new alternative refrigerant needed to be chosen. At this time the world turned towards HFC refrigerants. One of the very first phase outs was R-12 for automotive applications. It’s replacement was the HFC R-134a. It was a logical move to use R-404A as R-502’s replacement as 404A was an HFC and it partly blended from R-134a.
Once R-404A was implemented in the 1990’s it was the standard bearer for the next thirty years. But now, just like R-502, it’s time has come.
Present Day
Today, as I write this article in 2019, R-404A is being phased down and in some cases completely out across the world. The European Union has import and production limits set on R-404A and have plans to completely phase it out over the next few years.
This time though folks the phase out has nothing to do with the Ozone Layer. This time it has to deal what’s known as Global Warming Potential (GWP). GWP is a measurement of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps within the atmosphere. The higher the number the worse the product is for the environment. Like with every scale there has to be a zeroing measurement. In this case it is Carbon Dioxide (R-744). The GWP on R-744 is one. The GWP on R-404A is nearly four-thousand.
That number alone is why the world is pushing to get rid of R-404A as fast we can. Out of all of the HFCs R-404A is one of the absolute highest when it comes to GWP. While the European Union has already begun taking steps of a complete phase out the United States is quite a bit behind.
Originally, the Environmental Protection Agency issued a rule in 2015. This new rule was under the EPA’s SNAP and was titled, ‘Rule 20.’ This new rule aimed at phasing down HFCs across the country. They did this by deeming certain refrigerants would no longer be acceptable in specific applications. As an example, one of the stipulations was that R-134a would no longer be acceptable in 2021 model year vehicles. R-404A, along with R-134a, was one of the prime targets in these new regulations.
Over the next few years the industry moved on expecting these changes laid out in Rule 20 to take effect. It was in the summer of 2017 that a surprise ruling by a federal judge overturned all of the EPA’s SNAP Rule 20. The judge ruled in favor of Mexichem and Arkema (Two refrigerant manufacturers). While other companies, such as Chemours and Honeywell, appealed the ruling they eventually got nowhere and the judge’s ruling stood. It went as far as going to the Supreme Court but the Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Now, as of 2019, there is no set phase down schedule of R-404A or other HFC refrigerants. The only bright spot is what’s known as the ‘United States Climate Alliance.’ This alliance formed after Trump pulled the US out of the Paris Climate Accord. Their goal is to have a gathering of states that will enforce their own climate policy.
Future
Regardless of the politics across the United States and the world we can all be assured of one thing: R-404A is going away. When exactly it goes away is a different story though. Within the United States I predict us having a patchwork of different laws and regulations across the various states. While this is disorganized and confusing it does have some positive effects as well.
With the lack of a central federal policy on HFCs we have states taking matters into their own hands. If enough states get on board with these HFC phase down changes then air conditioning and refrigerator manufacturers will eventually throw in the towel on HFCs and began transitioning over to lesser GWP refrigerants. After all, it wouldn’t make sense to make a system that could only be sold in half of the country. Instead these companies will start manufacturing based on the states that have HFC phase down policies. This will allow them to still sell into all fifty states and prevent them from doing double work.
As we mentioned in our potential replacements section, there is not yet a perfect R-404A replacement option. Instead, we are having a variety of refrigerants show up as replacements for specific R-404A applications. As an example, instead of 404A in vending machines we will start using propane or isobutane. But, these refrigerants will not work for refrigerated transport or in larger charged systems.
Among these alternatives to 404A a war is brewing between natural refrigerants and HFO refrigerants. While HFOs have significantly lower GWP then HFC refrigerants they are still not perfect and still do have a GWP that is higher then the neutral carbon dioxide point. It is this reason why groups are pushing to skip HFOs and go with natural refrigerants entirely. At this time there is no saying what refrigerant will win the ‘war,’ but the predicted outcome I see is a good mix between the two. We’ll see all of the smaller to medium charged systems start using natural refrigerants and the larger systems still using fluorinated refrigerants such as HFCs and HFOs.
There may come a time in the not too distant future that a ‘perfect’ 404A alternative is discovered. But, for now, we are all stuck with our patchwork of alternative refrigerants. If you haven’t run into some of these already it’ll only be a matter of time.
Conclusion
Well folks, that about covers it for R-404A. I tried to cover absolutely everything that I could when it came to this refrigerant. If you find that I missed something or that if something is inaccurate please reach out to me and let me know.
Just over two years ago there was a final meeting on what is known today as the ‘Kigali Amendment.’ This amendment added to the existing Montreal Protocol. As you all know, the Montreal Protocol originated in the 1980’s and aimed at phasing down CFC and HCFC refrigerants. This phase out aimed at stopping any further damage to the Earth’s Ozone layer. While the treaty did what it set out to, it also directly led to the rise of HFC refrigerants such as R-410A, R-134a, and R-404A. Now, no matter where you go you’re going to find HFC refrigerants. The good news is that the Ozone damaging Chlorine refrigerants are a thing of the past. The bad news is that HFCs aren’t perfect though and now this latest amendment has HFCs in it’s cross hairs.
It took seven years of meetings and careful planning but an agreement was made in October of 2016 in Kigali, Rwanda. The amendment aimed at reducing HFC emissions by over eighty percent over the next thirty years. While it was signed by over one-hundred and sixty-seven countries, in order for the treaty to come into effect it had to be ratified by twenty separate countries governments before January 1st, 2019. This number was easily met and as I write this article today there are sixty-five countries that have ratified the HFC reducing amendment. There are many more expected to ratify over the next coming weeks and months.
That being said, there is some concern about this amendment. While sixty-five countries have ratified another one-hundred and thirty-two have not. Adding more worry about the amendment is that the United States and China fall into the listing of countries that have not ratified the amendment. I cannot imagine the overall effectiveness of a treaty like this if you do not have China and the US on your side. I do not know enough about the Chinese side of things, so in this article I’ll stick with the United States.
Since Trump took office there has not been a clear message on what will be done with the Kigali Amendment. In order for it to be ratified in America it has to go through The Senate, but in order for it to get to The Senate President Trump, or The Executive Branch, has to provide the amendment to The Senate. So far, over the past two years the Trump Administration has sat on the amendment and done nothing with it. There were a few times where it looked like progress would be made. An employee of the Trump Administration would say something positive about Kigali but then a few weeks later they would backpedal and we would be back at square one. I had predicted that by 2019 hit we would see nothing different from them either. There isn’t a flat-out refusal. The amendment is just in purgatory here in America and I predict it will stay that way.
If the pressure increases on the Trump Administration to adopt this amendment (Say if China ratifies the amendment before we do) then I can very well see Trump nixing the whole thing. That just seems to be his modus operandi. If you push too hard then he’ll go the other way. I think for now it is best for everyone to stay quiet and let the pressure build naturally. If there is too much pressure or if it seems genuine then we may get the exact opposite reaction that we are hoping for. I know it sounds a little far fetched but I believe that is how it is with this current administration.
The Good News
It’s not all bad news around here folks. No, there is a shining light when it comes to phasing down HFC refrigerants across the United States. Around the same time that the Trump Administration announced that they were pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord a group of Governors from various states formed an alliance. This alliance, known as the Climate Alliance, aimed at upholding the goals laid out in the now defunct Paris Climate Accord. Along with these goals they have also targeted similar climate and environmental changes and regulations.
Some of these specific targets have been HFC refrigerants. In fact, last year California passed a bill that closely imitated the Environmental Protection Agency’s SNAP Rule 20. This EPA rule was meant to be the first step in phasing down HFC refrigerants across the country. While the EPA’s rule was overturned by a Federal Court it is still being used as a template for various states such as California, New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and Washington State.
In fact the first part of California’s new law known as ‘The Cooling Act,’ went into effect January 1st, 2019. This first step is targeting supermarket systems, condensing units, and self-contained units. The rule states that R-404A, R-507A, and other high Global Warming Potential refrigerants would no longer be acceptable in new machines. Along with the stick there is also a carrot that gives incentives for those businesses that adopt lower GWP systems earlier then the required deadline.
Conclusion
I mentioned this above in the previous section but I just do not see the Trump Administration pushing this amendment to The Senate for ratification. It goes against everything else that the Administration has done. In fact, we are all waiting patiently on new HFC rules to be released from the Environmental Protection Agency. Some of these ‘new’ rules could end up rescinding HFC rules that were put in place during the Obama Administration. If these are rescinded then we could see recycled refrigerant being used in different machines, HFC leak repairs plummet, and unregulated HFC purchasing. (End users could purchase HFC refrigerants without licensing.)
The Kigali Amendment may be seen as a disappointment for those of us in the United States but we have hope with the Climate Alliance. While only a few states have come out with a HFC phase down plan it is just a matter of time before more states come forward. In fact, the newly elected governors of Michigan and Wisconsin have already signaled that they would be joining the alliance. We may end up with a piecemeal of states that phase down HFCs but if enough states jump on board then manufacturers will be forced to use lower GWP alternative refrigerants.
The New Year has only just begun and already we are seeing refrigerant price changes coming to the market. Earlier today one of my contacts within the refrigerant industry reached out to me to share price increases that are coming down the pipeline. While so far these changes are from one or two manufacturers, I have seen from experience that other manufacturers typically follow suit. These price increases or decreases have reasoning behind them such as raw materials costing more, a shortage on materials or refrigerant, unexpected increased demand, logistics/freight issues, or a whole host of other possible issues. The point though is that if one manufacturer is experiencing a price increase then the others will usually be close behind them.
Now when I do articles like these that go into upcoming pricing changes I make sure to leave things anonymous to not only the source of the information but also to the company that has announced the pricing increases. It is not my place to share and publish internal company documents. By doing it this way I can protect myself and my business as well as still provide you, the reader, the much needed information on upcoming price changes.
The Changes
Ok folks, without further ado let’s dive in and take a look at the changes that were announced. Yesterday, a mailer was sent out by a leading refrigerant manufacturer. This mailer stated that as of next week, January 8th, prices would be going up six percent on HFC and HCFC refrigerants. The increase targets all of the most commonly used refrigerants today including R-22, R-134a, R-410A, R-404A, R-507A, R-407A, and R-407C.
While six percent doesn’t sound like a lot it really depends on the refrigerant that you are looking at. R-134a right now is trending between eighty to ninety dollars for a thirty pound cylinder. Six percent of that would be around five dollars more a cylinder. Not too much of an increase. However, if we take that same logic and look at R-22’s price which is hovering around four-hundred to four-hundred and fifty a thirty pound cylinder we can begin to see a larger impact. Lets take the four-hundred dollar price as an example. With that base price we’re looking at around twenty-four dollars more per thirty pound cylinder. Now we can begin to see a slight impact.
One more thing folks on these increases. The announced price increase on HFCs have only been from one manufacturer. The R-22 price increase though has now come from two different and distinct refrigerant manufacturers. Just like I stated above, most manufacturers are in tandem with each other and have their ears to the ground watching the trends. The chances are R-22 is going to go up around six percent across all manufacturers.
2019 is a big year for R-22 as this is the LAST year that any quantity can be physically produced or imported into the United States. When January 1st, 2020 hits that’s the end. Fin. No more. The only way to acquire R-22 then is either purchasing from distributors who have stockpiles on hand or purchasing form a certified refrigerant reclaimer.
Because of this upcoming rule change on R-22 the market in 2019 is unpredictable. No one knows for sure what’s going to happen. Could this six percent increase be the start of a snowball effect? Will the price keep going up and up this year as more and more people buy up everything they can? There was a time in 2017 where R-22 cylinders hit seven-hundred dollars a cylinder. Will we repeat this year? Or, is this six percent increase an anomaly or correction and the price will stabilize for the upcoming spring season?
Conclusion
Refrigerant pricing is unpredictable. Sure, I have written many articles trying to predict what will happen in the next year… and sometimes I’m right and other times I am way off. One thing I am certain of though is that these winter months are the absolute best time to buy. Prices are deflated and the demand is quite low. As spring edges closer the prices will begin to rise.
I remember back in the day when I was in charge of purchasing R-134a by the trailerload. We would always wait until the first week of February to place our orders. We’d do our negotiations in the middle/end of January and then send our purchase orders over that first week in February. Most of the time this ensured that we had a competitive price throughout the entire season and we didn’t have to scramble in the hot months to try and find a source of R-134a.
If you are interested in purchasing refrigerant please don’t hesitate to reach out to me by filling out the contact information below or by visiting our bulk refrigerants page. Please remember that we only sell in pallet and trailerload quantities. A pallet typically contains around forty cylinders.
There is no better indicator or barometer within the industry then the Carrier Corporation. After all, they are one of the biggest and most stable air conditioning manufacturers out there. They are one the ‘trend setters’ within the industry. When a business decision is made everyone watches, observes, and they may even imitate. The same can be said when they choose a new refrigerant.
That is exactly what happened. The Carrier Corporation along with Chemours announced today that Carrier would be transitioning their ducted residential and commercial air conditioning products away from R-410A and over to R-454B. This new refrigerant R-454B, also known as XL41, is an HFO refrigerant from Chemours under their Opteon brand name. The transition for Carrier is scheduled to begin by the year 2023. This is a big deal folks. This could very well be the beginning of the end for R-410A. Especially if other companies began to follow suit.
As most of you know there has been a battle going on for the past few years as to what refrigerant will be the golden choice to replace R-410A. It seems like Puron has only been around for a few years but now there are already companies and countries pushing it out and wanting a better more climate friendly alternative. As I write this article today there is still not one clear and defined winner. None of this isn’t for lack of trying though. There are all sorts of 410A alternatives out there, the problem is none of them were gaining significant traction. This news from the Carrier corporation adds fuel to the fire for R-454B. Along with Carrier some other prominent companies have announced their support for XL41 including Johnson Controls and York. With Carrier coming on board I wouldn’t be surprised if we begin to see more companies announce their support in the not too distant future.
The big distinction here and the reason companies are switching to XL41 is that it has a significantly lessened Global Warming Potential then the other alternatives out there. R-454B has a GWP of only four-hundred and sixty-seven. That is nearly eighty percent less GWP then R-410A and even thirty percent less then the proposed R-32 alternative. This very low GWP gives companies and manufacturers peace of mind knowing that they will meet future climate targets today if they make the switch. I would be apt to purchase one of these machines if I knew it was going to stand the test of time and not have to go through a phase down/phase out period.
The downside though with this newer HFO refrigerant is that ASHRAE has it rated as an A2L. The 2L is what may worry some of you, as that means that the refrigerant has lower flammability rating and a lower burning velocity. While some of you may already have experience working with lower or even mildly flammable refrigerants others may not. In reality though folks, flammable refrigerants are perfectly safe as long as you follow all of the proper precautions and safety procedures.
Conclusion
For more information on R-454B please click this link to be taken to our official fact and information sheet on the refrigerant. This sheet attempts to provide any and all information you would ever need on 454B. Rather it’s the GWP, the chemistry, what’s in the blend, the temperature glide, or anything else we aim to have it in our fact sheet. If while reading you find something that isn’t accurate or if you found that we missed something please do not hesitate to reach out to me and let me know. I want RefrigerantHQ to be a great resource for those of us in the industry and I can’t do that if I have mistakes up!
It was announced last week that the State of Washington would be joining four other states in having their own HFC phase down plan. The announcement came from the desk of Governor Jay Inslee. While it is still preliminary and needs to be approved by the State Congress the hopes are high that this will be the first step in reducing HFCs across the state. The proposed plan outlines over two-hundred and seventy million dollars aimed at reducing Climate Change across Washington. Out of this allotment the HFC phase down will receive just under one million dollars. The end goal here is having HFC usage across the state down to twenty-five percent below 1990 levels by the year 2035.
As I said above, Washington will now make the fifth state with a targeted HFC phase down plan. California, like in many cases, was the first state to introduce their HFC plan and then not too much after New York announced a similar plan. The very next week after New York announced Maryland and Connecticut announced their plans. (I wrote a story about this that can be found by clicking here).
As you can see, this is the beginning of a domino effect. With each state that moves forward with an HFC phase down plan there is more and more pressure applied to manufacturers and distributors throughout the country. It doesn’t matter if you are a car manufacturer based out of Louisiana. If you’re making cars you want those cars to be able to be sold throughout all fifty states. It wouldn’t make much sense to have cars specifically targeted to one set of states and then a different car targeted to another. It’s not good business sense. Manufacturers want uniformity.
This line of thinking by manufacturers is what will allow the United States to push forward with HFC phase downs even without the Kigali Amendment ratified or the EPA’s SNAP Rule 20 in place. While we have seen quite a bit of turmoil at the Federal level we are still able to see results due to individual states pushing forward. In the case of this latest article on Washington we should also note that Washington was a founding member of what’s known as the ‘Climate Alliance.’ The Climate Alliance is a collection of sixteen states that have all agreed to work towards reducing their carbon footprint and to fighting Climate Change/Global Warming. This alliance is set to grown next year when newly elected Democratic governors from Michigan, Wisconsin, and Illinois come to office.
This alliance is the first step in phasing down HFC’s across the country. It seems to be the only feasible strategy at this point. Everything else has failed and even if we only get twenty states on board, that should be enough. All we need is enough population and buying power on board with phasing down HFCs. The moment that happens is the moment we will begin to see manufacturers switching over to alternative refrigerants. The ones that do not make the switch will see their sales and margins drop. They may have to be dragged along kicking and screaming, but in the end we all know that money talks. If you can’t sell a R-404A system to your customer in California then you’re going to look for an alternative. It’s that simple.
The only downside here I can see by having states do this on their own is that the timeline will most likely be extended. As an example, let’s look at R-134a. In the case of 134a the EPA’s targeted phase down on new vehicles was set for 2020. (2021 model years.) That regulation date has since been removed due to court rulings.
The question now though is how close will we come to EPA’s original date? Will we be a few years past, or will it take a decade for enough states to get on board? Time will tell, but if the past few months have been any indicator then I would say we can expect many more states announcing their plans to phase down HFC refrigerants.
A few years back there was a lot of debate between varying refrigerant manufacturers and distributors on rather there should be tariffs installed on Chinese imported refrigerant. The argument was that China was dumping very low priced, often government subsidized, HFC refrigerants into the United States. The constant supply of imports caused the prices to shrink and shrink. This price depression ended up hurting American companies.
I remember a specific instance about eight years ago where I was working on a trailer load purchase of R-134a. (Forty cylinders to a pallet and twenty pallets on a trailer.) I called around to all of the usual players looking to get the absolute best price. Often times I would leverage one distributor against the other trying to get them as low as I could. Well during this time I was receiving quotes around the sixty dollar range. Some were high sixties, some middle, and others towards the lower end. If I was lucky I could find a distributor selling at a fifty-nine or fifty-eight dollars a cylinder.
During this same time the company I worked for was experimenting with importing their own product. We hadn’t officially done any imports, but we were testing the waters. In the case of this trailer load purchase of R-134a we went ahead and requested quotes from China. The quotes I received back were astonishing. I had three to four quotes and each and everyone was hovering around forty to forty-five dollars a cylinder. Yes, we had to pay freight to get the product over the ocean… but it was negligible when looking at that forty dollar price range. In the end we ended up going with an American distributor and paid the higher price. The import process wasn’t worth the headache to us, but to many others it was.
These drastic price differences between US and China refrigerants caused the overall price to drop and drop. This dropping price began to eat into the pockets of local distributors and manufacturers. As the years passed their margins shrunk and shrunk. If the price depression kept up then it wouldn’t make business sense to continue producing and selling domestic refrigerant. In order to correct this price depression suits were filed with the United States International Trade Commission. These suits requested an anti-dumping tariff on R-134a as well as other common HFC refrigerants. The aim was to install tariffs on Chinese imported refrigerant that would inflate the cost of these refrigerants so that they would be more in line with the American market price point. In essence, it would level the playing field and put China product on equal footing with American.
There was quite a bit of debate on these suits and they took quite a while to come to fruition. I remember watching the headlines and the moment any potential ruling would come out the price on refrigerants would jump up or down overnight. Eventually, a decision was made by the Trade Commission. In the summer of 2016 the Commission agreed to install anti-dumping tariffs on HFC refrigerant blends. The big ones here are R-410A and R-404A. While having the tariff approved was great news… there was a small problem. The tariff was ONLY on the specific blended refrigerants, so only on R-410A and R-404A. (Other blends as well.) The tariff was NOT on the components of those refrigerants. In other words, if I imported Chinese R-410A refrigerant today I would pay the tariff. However, if I import Chinese R-125 and R-32 into the US then I face no tariffs. (R-125 and R-32 blended equals R-410A.) Begin to see the problem here?
Once this ruling was announced there was a change within the industry, but it was only slight. Now all of the Chinese importers moved from purchasing R-410A over to purchasing the component refrigerants and then blending the refrigerant in house. We are now back to square one due to a governmental oversight. The good news here is that R-134a is not a blend and an anti-dumping tariff was levied against it in spring of 2017.
The Future
In an effort to change the ruling from 2016 an additional suit has been filed with the International Trade Commission. This additional suit has requested tariffs be placed on imported refrigerant blend components as well. This would include your R-125, R-32, and other similar refrigerants. What’s unique about this is that manufacturers that are usually at odds with each other are working together to stop the flow of Chinese refrigerants. Arkema, Chemours, and Honeywell have all joined and pushed this suit forward to the Trade Commission.
At this point in time we are all still waiting on a ruling from the Trade Commission. It was announced last week that the Commission needs an additional two months before a decision can be made. (Link) They gave themselves the deadline of March 11th. We’ll see if that comes to fruition or not.
While we all sit patiently and wait to see what happens here I can only imagine what will happen to the prices of these refrigerants if a tariff is installed. Yes, it may be for the good of American companies but are American consumers and contractors happily going to pay the increased price? Will the price points with tariffs be perfectly in line with what the American market is? Or, will we price the Chinese product so far out of market that we consumers will buy American be default?
In an effort to build our refrigerant fact and information sheets further we have taken the time today to put together some details on the HFC R-32 refrigerant. Like in our previous fact sheets we will first go over all of the details about this refrigerant and then we will touch on some of the most notable points. Without further ado, let’s take a look:
The Facts
Name:
R-32
Name - Scientific:
Difluoromethane
Name (2):
HFC-32
Classification:
HFC Refrigerant
Chemistry:
CH2F2
Chemistry (2):
Carbon fluoride hydride
Chemistry (3):
Methylene difluoride
Chemistry (4):
Methylene fluoride
Status:
Active & Growing Market.
Future:
May be Phased Out in Next Ten-Twenty Years Due to GWP.
Application:
Residential & Commercial Air-Conditioning.
Application (2):
Industrial Refrigeration
Application (3):
Key Ingredient in the R-410A Puron Blend.
Application (4):
Key Ingredient to other refrigerant blends such as R-407A, R-407B, etc.
Replacement For:
R-22 Freon & R-410A Puron
Ozone Depletion Potential:
0
Global Warming Potential:
675
Toxicity Levels:
A (No Toxicity Identified.)
Flammability Levels:
Class 2 - Lower Flammability
Lubricant Required:
POE
Boiling Point:
-52.5° Celsius or -62.0° Fahrenheit.
Critical Temperature:
78.11 Celsius or 172.60° Fahrenheit
Critical Pressure:
5.72 MPA or 829.62 pound-force per square inch.
Auto ignition Temperature:
648° Celsius or 1,198° Fahrenheit
Manufacturers:
Various Including: Honeywell, Chemours, Arkema, Mexichem, Chinese, etc.
Manufacturing Facilities:
All Over Including: USA, Mexico, EU, China, and others.
Form:
Gas
Color:
Colorless Liquid & Vapor
EPA Certification Required:
Yes, 608 certification required by January 1st, 2018.
Require Certification to Purchase?
Yes, 608 certification required by January 1st, 2018.
You may not know this but R-32 is one of the most popular refrigerants in the world. While you may not physically see it everyday I can assure you that it is riding in the back of your service van as you travel from customer to customer. Not sure what I mean? Well R-32 is one of the key ingredients to form R-410A Puron. So, while you may not be carrying around a cylinder of R-32 you are carrying around Puron that was made from R-32. In fact, R-32 is used in quite a bit of blends in today’s world. It is used to create various refrigerants such as: R-410A, R-407A, R-407B, R-407C, R-407D, R-407E, R-407F and R-410B. R-32 along with R-125 are some of the most versatile refrigerants used today.
While we are used to using R-32 as a blend it is also seeing a rise of usage in residential and commercial air conditioners. This rise started in the eastern countries like Japan, Korea, India, and now Australia. Japan alone has over ten million R-32 units installed and running. These countries are using R-32 as an alternative to the higher Global Warming Potential (GWP) R-410A Puron. In fact some of them just skipped right from R-22 over to R-32 and didn’t even bother with R-410A. While R-32 isn’t perfect with it’s six-hundred and seventy-five GWP it is significantly better then R-410A’s GWP of two-thousand and eighty-eight. That’s a nearly seventy percent decrease in GWP just by using R-32 over R-410A. This switch from R-410A over to R-32 has also begun to pick up speed over in the European Union.
Over here in America though the move from 410A to 32 has been much slower. In fact you would be hard pressed to find a full residential or commercial R-32 air conditioning unit. This is mainly due to R-32 not being SNAP approved for larger air conditioning units. (SNAP approval list can be found by clicking here.) Now, I’ll be honest with you folks here. I was a bit confused when writing this article. When I looked through the EPA’s listing of refrigerants approved for home and light commercial air conditioning I didn’t find R-32 listed. However, I did find articles where R-32 units are being manufactured and used right here in the United States. The only difference that I could find was that these units being manufactured here are very small air conditioning units mainly for hotel rooms. The story from the CoolingPost can be found by clicking here. The distinction I can see here is that the smaller air conditioners used for hotels were approved by SNAP under a different application category.
While R-32 may not be listed in the EPA’s SNAP approved refrigerant it’s usage is spreading across the world. I have read many articles stating that R-32 is expected to be the standard refrigerant for home and commercial traditional split air conditioners. There are a lot of benefits to R-32, number one being reducing the carbon footprint and Global Warming Potential. Another point is that R-32 doesn’t require as high as a charge as 410A does. (Twenty percent less) So, you save money on efficiency and also when replacing the refrigerant in case of a leak or repair down the road. Another big pro on R-32 that not a lot of folks realize is that 32 is a single refrigerant. It is NOT a blended refrigerant. That simple fact can make a big difference when you go to recover, recycle, or even try to reclaim a blended refrigerant. I’ve been told by a few reclaimers that R-410A is nearly impossible to reclaim as a recovered cylinder may only contain eighty percent of one refrigerant. The reclaimer then has to tap into a virgin bottle of the missing refrigerant to get the blend back to the proper ratios. You will not have this problem with R-32.
It’s not all a bed of roses though folks. As with any refrigerant there are always upsides and downsides. In the case of R-32 the big downside is it’s safety rating. Unlike Ammonia R-717, it is not the toxicity that we need to worry about. No, in the case of R-32 it’s the flammability. Depending on where you look R-32 is either rated as a 2 or a 2L on the refrigerant flammability scale. (Our official ‘Refrigerant Toxicity & Flammability,’ article can be found by clicking here.) What this means folks is that there is risk of ignition when working with or using R-32. I’m not going to sugarcoat it here and try to sell you the refrigerant. If the refrigerant is handled improperly or if it is in too enclosed of a space then there is risk of ignition. It’s as simple as that. Obviously the larger the load of refrigerant you are dealing with the greater the risk there is. For more information on the risk of R-32 igniting click here to be taken to AirAH.org.au’s R-32 common questions page. The excerpt we’re looking for here is on page 2 under, ‘How easy is R-32 To Ignite?’
Tests carried out by Daikin and Suwa ,Tokyo University of Science show that even if combustion of R32 occurs (at concentrations of more than 320g/m3), it is not explosive and the possibility of fire spreading is extremely low. – Source
Over in the Asian countries this risk doesn’t seem to bother them and they more or less do just fine with R-32. Sure, there are always accidents but even these accidents can be non-events if everything is done properly and safely. Over here in America though there seems to be an aversion to dealing with flammable refrigerants such as R-32 and R-290. I’m not sure if this is just a fear of the unknown, resistance to change, or if there just no market for it. Perhaps in the future, the EPA will lift some restrictions on R-32 and techs will begin to get a feel for these flammable refrigerants.
I may have mentioned this before, but it should be brought up again. While R-32 is being marketed as a great alternative to R-410A you should know that R-32 cannot be dropped in as a replacement in an existing R-410A system. If you or your customer wants to go the R-32 route then they will need to purchase a new system specifically designed to run R-32. If you do not then you risk damaging your entire system by putting the wrong refrigerant in it. You wouldn’t put diesel in a Ford Focus would you? The same principle applies. Your 410A air conditioner is specifically made to handle 410A and your 32 system is specifically designed to handle 32. It is also worth mentioning that you should NOT attempt to retrofit a 410A unit over to 32. It is simply not safe. This is because of the 2L flammability rating. The components of an 410A machine were simply not built to safely handle flammable refrigerants. You can read more about reasons NOT to retrofit by clicking here.
The last thing I want to mention on R-32 is that it is not a miracle refrigerant. As we all know each refrigerants has it’s ups and downs. The only reason R-32 looks so sexy right now is it’s lower Global Warming Potential when compared to R-410A. But, when we are done with 410A, or when something sexier comes along, the world will drop R-32 just like it is beginning to drop R-410A. I don’t see 410A lasting another fifteen years with the ways thing are going. R-32 will be close behind it as well. While everyone is pushing for R-32 right now I am stand back from the crowd with skepticism. I predict R-32 will be gone in another twenty years. Is it worth it to the climate, the business owners, and the consumers to purchase a whole new generation of R-32 machines just to see them phased out in another ten or fifteen years?
As to what R-32 will be replaced with, I have no idea. Your guess is as good as mine. Perhaps we will see a natural refrigerant come to rise. There is always new technology being developed to accommodate these natural refrigerants and with these new technologies we are able to easily apply natural refrigerants where it was once impossible. One example off the top of my head is Daimler using R-744 Carbon Dioxide in automotive applications. Rewind ten years ago and no one had heard of such a thing. Now it is in quite a few Daimler model vehicles. Maybe instead of natural refrigerants the next generation of home and commercial air conditioners will see a refrigerant that just hasn’t been invented yet. Perhaps it is a new HFO refrigerant being developed in a lab right now by Chemours or Honeywell. Time will only tell.
Conclusion
Well folks that about covers it for R-32 refrigerant. No matter where you are in the world the chances are you or someone near you are using R-32 or they areusing an R-32 origin based blend. While it does have a much less Global Warming number then 410A I still do not see it standing the test of time. Six-hundred and seventy-five GWP is still just too much. For the foreseeable future though folks we should get used to seeing R-32.
Thanks for reading and if you found anything that was inaccurate or that was simply not stated please contact me and I will update this article.
Not a lot of you may have heard the term or name Puron before. But a lot of you have most likely heard the name Freon before. Freon and Puron are two different types of refrigerant and to understand this difference we first need to understand where these names come from. First, let’s take a look at Freon.
The term Freon is actually a brand name trademarked by the DuPont, now Chemours, corporation. What that means is that Freon is a brand of refrigerant. It is the same way that Dr. Pepper is a brand of soda. We don’t call every soda out there Dr. Pepper. No, we either call it soda or we call it by it’s proper brand name. The same can be said about refrigerants.
Freon is a brand name of a specific type of refrigerant, mainly R-12 and R-22. The term Puron is also a brand name. The Puron brand refers to the HFC refrigerant R-410A. R-410A is the refrigerant that has replaced Freon R-22. You see, R-22 Freon was phased down across the country due to the Chlorine that it contained. When vented into the atmosphere the Chlorine would damage the Ozone layer. In order to stop this R-22 Freon was phased down and was replaced with the non Ozone depleting Puron R-410A.
Puron, or R-410A, is a blended HFC refrigerant that is made up of R-32 and R-125. (About fifty percent of each.) This 410A refrigerant is now the primary default for home and commercial air conditioners. Any air conditioner manufactured in 2010 or newer will most likely be using R-410A Puron. If you’re unsure what refrigerant your system uses you can find out by checking the sticker label on your outside unit.
While Puron is the ‘king’ refrigerant right now (2018) it may not stay on the throne forever. Puron doesn’t have an Ozone depletion potential but it does have a very high Global Warming Potential, or GWP. GWP is a measurement of how much a certain chemical contributes to Global Warming. The higher the GWP the more damage a chemical or refrigerant can do to the environment.
As I write this article there isn’t a preferred successor to R-410A but there are some contenders out there such as the HFC R-32. No one knows for certain when, or even if, R-410A Puron will be phased down or not. For now, we carry on with 410A.
Back in September of this year the Environmental Protection Agency announced that they would be removing their HFC rule that went in place back in September of 2016. This rule, which can be found by clicking here, applied Section 608 CFC/HCFC leak controls and regulations to appliances using HFC refrigerants that contained over fifty pounds of refrigerant. Basically, it passed on the same regulations that we had on CFC/HCFC refrigerants over to HFCs. With the introduction of this proposed rule there was also a forty-five day comment period for individuals, companies, and yes… States to comment on. The deadline for this comment period was yesterday, the 15th. Lo and behold, a nicely written ‘comment’ was sent to the EPA on the 15th.
This comment, actually a letter, was created by what’s known as the United States Climate Alliance, or USCA. This alliance is a mixture of various States that came together when the Trump Administration announced that they were pulling out of the Paris Climate Accord. These sixteen States include New York, Washington, New Jersey, Oregon, and California. In fact, the letter was signed and sent by the Attorney General of California, Xavier Becerra. The letter, which can be found by clicking here, requests that the EPA withdraw it’s proposed rule changes and keep current regulations intact.
The argument for this withdrawal is that the EPA has not provided sufficient evidence or legal reasoning for the reversal of their 2016 rule. I’ll tell you right now that I am trying to remain neutral here but the EPA hasprovided reasoning as to why they are rolling back these leak regulations. The reasoning is simple. The Clean Air Act and the Montreal Protocol were all designed to phase out Ozone depleting refrigerants. These are your CFCs and HCFCs such as R-12, R-22, and R-502. The Clean Air Act was notintended to phase down or regulate refrigerants that do not harm the Ozone layer. Yes, HFCs do contribute significantly to Global Warming due to their high Global Warming Potential but there is a distinction here between Global Warming and a damaged Ozone layer. This distinction is the reasoning that the EPA is using for their roll back. This reasoning though is not sufficient for the States in the Climate Alliance.
Rather you like it or not, the truth is that the initial 2016 rule should not have been issued based off of the Clean Air Act. It was a stretch and everyone knew it. It was done because it was easy, but just like building a house: If you don’t have a good foundation then your house is going to crumble. The same thing has happened again and again on HFCs. We have had Federal Courts overturning EPA HFC regulations and now the Trump controlled EPA is looking at overturning HFC regulations based off of Ozone depleting laws. All this could have been preventable by going through Congress.
Another point that I noticed while reading this letter from California is that there are many references and out right assumptions that the Ozone will be affected if these regulations are rolled back. That is simply not the case. It looks to me like they are trying to muddy the waters here so that when a laymen reads through this they end up believing that the Ozone is in danger yet again. Please do not take my criticism here as a favor for one side of the other, instead I am just bringing forward the facts from both sides.
Conclusion
Now that the comment period is over I imagine that we will have to sit and be patient as the Environmental Protection Agency reviews any and all comments on their new rule… including this letter from the Climate Alliance. At this time what the EPA will decide is unknown, but if I was to put money on it then I would say that they are going to move forward with rescinding the leak regulations. You may not agree with it, but that is where the winds are blowing today.
On top of that, I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the refrigerant purchase restrictions on HFCs be removed soon as well. Even though this purchase restriction has only been in effect since January of this year it was a holdover from the Obama EPA and may end up on the chopping block as well.
If the EPA does decide to remove these regulations then the burden of regulation will fall to the States just like it has with the EPA’s SNAP Rule 20. There have already been a few States that have announced their own HFC phase down plans. Depending on what the EPA decides we may see many more join this Climate Alliance and work to phase down HFCs at the State level.
Here it is in the middle of November and we’ve already had two snow storms here in Kansas City. As I write this article this morning the snow is still coming down. Luckily, I have the day off and am able to stay inside and watch the snow fall. Over the past few weeks here at RefrigerantHQ we have been focusing on our refrigerant prediction articles for the 2019 year. Most everyone was interested in our R-22 thoughts, and a bit of you read the 410A. I know that R-404A is a smaller market, but it still has it’s uses and is still kept the back of a technician’s van… even if it’s going to be phased out soon.
Last year in our 2018 prediction article we said that prices would be around one-hundred and sixty dollars a cylinder. Well folks, just like we were with R-410A… we were way off again. Today the price on a pallet of 404A is between eighty to ninety dollars a cylinder. So, the cost is about half of what I predicted it would be. This just goes to show you how much of a guessing game this all is. Again, like with R-410A, our increased cost prediction came from the shortage of Flurospar that we saw in the spring of 2017. For those that do not know, Flurospar is a key ingredient when manufacturing the refrigerant R-125 and R-125 is a key ingredient in the blended refrigerant R-404A. (R-404A is a blend of R-125, R-143a, and R-134a.) So, when Flurospar prices go up so does the cost of R-404A. Back in 2017 the shortage occurred due to environmental regulation changes in China. This was a one time change and the industry needed to adapt. For now, the market seems to have adjusted and the shortage has come to an end.
The question now though folks is what will the pricing do next year? Will R-404A keep going lower? Will it stay put? Or, will we see it climb back to the higher priced levels that most of are used to?
Considerations
I’ve mentioned this countless times before, but when I do a prediction article I like to take into consideration certain factors. I don’t like to just throw a dart on the board. No, instead I like to do an analysis and take a look at the marketplace. Once we determine these factors we can then determine what the market will do. Or, at the minimum, we can provide an educated guess. For those of you who read my R-410A prediction article you may notice that some of these considerations are the same for R-404A. That is by design folks. Remember, that R-125 is a key ingredient in both refrigerants. The key difference is that 410A is much more popular then 404A and that 404A is one of the first global targeted refrigerants to be phased down.
Let’s take a look at some of the considerations that can affect the R-404A price next year.
Repeal of EPA’s SNAP Rule 20
I’ve written about this extensively over the past few months, but in August of last year a Federal Court overturned the EPA’s planned phase down of HFC refrigerants across the country. While there were many appeals done over the past year each one of them has failed. That includes an appeal to the Supreme Court. What we are left with now is a patchwork of States putting together their own HFC phase downs. The reason I mention this as a consideration is that R-404A was one of the first targeted HFCs to be phased down. This is due to the extremely high GWP of 404A. (Three-thousand nine-hundred and twenty-two.) Most everyone was expecting the 404A phase downs to begin very soon, but now everything is in question and that can cause price instability.
Flurospar Shortage
I mentioned this earlier in our previous section. If we travel back about eighteen months ago this was a HUGE deal. The majority of the world’s Flurospar comes with mines in China. During the spring and summer of 2017 there were governmental regulation changes that affected the efficiency and overall output of the mines. This lower output is what accounted for the world’s shortage. In my previous analysis I assumed this shortage would carry into 2018, but I was incorrect. Will we see a shortage though in 2019? It is impossible to say. The only thing I can point to is the overall stability of the Flurospar market over the past year.
Chinese Refrigerant Imports
Back in 2016 there was an anti-dumping tariff instigated against Chinese HFC refrigerant blends. Included in this tariff was R-404A. I won’t get into all of the details here, but essentially there was a tariff put on R-404A. (For more information on the tariff click here to be taken to TheCoolingPost.) Here’s the thing though folks, this tariff was installed on ONLY the R-404A blended refrigerant and NOT the components of the blend. In other words R-404A was taxed but R-125, R-143a, and R-134a was not. (Well, R-134a was taxed, but through a different tariff.)
Refrigerant distributors took advantage of this loophole and began importing mass quantities of R-125. Once imported they would then blend the refrigerants in their own facility. The dumping of cheap HFC refrigerants continued. This mass import of Chinese product has attributed to the lower cost of R-404A that we are seeing today. Tom Lenz of Lenz Sales & Distribution said,
The price on 404A has been relatively stable over the past few months. Most of the time it stays right above 410A at around fifteen to twenty dollars higher. (A cylinder) Some distributors mix in house while others buy in bulk from China.
Trump & His Tariffs
Most of the country has felt the effects of the various tariffs that the Trump Administration has issued over the past year. This could either be through your employer or just paying for basic things. In my day job I had to travel to Belgium a few months back to work with our corporate office. The reason for the trip? Trump’s Tariffs and how to enact them throughout the company. Whatever your politics are, we can definitely say that these tariffs have had an impact. Refrigerant, for the most part, has been left unscathed on these tariffs. With all of these imports coming from China though, how long is it before a tariff is enacted? What if one is enforced on R-125? How will that effect the marketplace? Inevitably it will lead to higher prices, but how much?
Prediction
I’ve been doing these refrigerant pricing articles for nearly four years now and over those years I have been able to gather a historical pricing tracker on R-404A. This tracker allows us to see trends and possibly what’s to come next.
Our previous articles had focused more on the retail side of pricing as you can see from the above historical records. However, this year I wanted to focus more on wholesale pricing. That is why I included the $80-$90 a cylinder section for 2018. The question now on everyone’s mind is what will 404A do next year? Like with my other articles I have consulted with experts and distributors within the industry for their thoughts. The consensus that I received was that the price would remain relatively stable over this winter and into the summer of next year. The only wildcard out there that I am aware of are Trump’s Tariffs. If he installs a tariff on refrigerants, say R-125, we could see price rise substantially. If no tariffs are instigated then I could see the price remain stable.
Our prediction on R-404A next year is right around the same price we have today between eighty to ninety dollars for a twenty-four pound cylinder. The market should remain stable throughout next year, especially due to the EPA’s Rule 20 being rescinded. Chad Schnuelle of Refrigerants Inc said,
It seems that 404 has been rather stable for the past two years. I checked my purchase history and it has not moved over twenty dollars per 24lb cylinder since January of 2017. Again, I feel the Chinese market still dictates the USA market. In my opinion I feel the only factor that may change the price will be if refrigerants are added to the Trump tax.
Conclusion
I want to close this article by stating that this was a prediction and it is just that, a guess. No one knows for sure what will happen to the R-404A market next year and if they say they do then they’re lying. It’s a complete guessing game. I can only provide my analysis on the matter and go from there. Lastly, I want to mention that this is one man’s analysis on the market. We here at RefrigerantHQ are not liable for any business losses or gains when it comes to buying and selling R-404A.
The term Freon is used all over the country to describe the refrigerant that is used in their home, commercial, or vehicle air conditioner. Even though it is used by man the term Freon is actually antiquated and is very rarely used within the HVAC industry. Chances are your air conditioner that you are using right now doesn’t contain Freon.
In fact, the word Freon is actually a brand name from the DuPont, now Chemours, refrigerant company. Yes, that’s right. Freon is just like Coca-Cola or Pepsi. Freon is a brand of refrigerant. There are many brands of refrigerant out there today but the reason we associate Freon with everyone is that Freon was the first mainstream refrigerant that can be traced all the way back to the 1930’s. At that time DuPont and General Motors teamed up together to form R-12 and R-22 refrigerants. These new refrigerants were the first mass produced and widely used refrigerant and air conditioning technologies in the world. DuPont branded these new refrigerants under their trademarked brand name, ‘Freon.’ The Freon refrigerants exploded in popularity and just a few decades later they could be found in nearly every home and office across the country.
All of this changed in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s when a team of scientists discovered that these Freon refrigerants contained Chlorine and Chlorine was leaking into the atmosphere and damaging the Ozone layer. Realizing this, hundreds of countries signed what’s known as the Montreal Protocol. This protocol phased out CFC and HCFC refrigerants across the globe. Included in these phased out refrigerants were DuPont’s ever popular ‘Freon’ brand name.
So, What Kind of Refrigerant Do I Need?
Ok, so the old Freon refrigerants are nearly gone nowadays. Yes, there are still some R-22 units out there and some people still need them but R-22 machines were phased out in 2010 so that means at their youngest an R-22 unit is already nine years old. They are quickly approaching the end of their life. The term Freon will be going away with it. So, now the question is what kind of refrigerant do you need? Let’s take a look:
Automotive Application – Nowadays nearly every vehicle is using R-134a refrigerant for their vehicles. In recent years a new refrigerant known as HFO-1234yf is being used on newer models. If you car is a few years old you will need to check if it takes 1234yf or not. Otherwise you are fairly safe to assume that your car is taking R-134a.
Home or Commercial Air Conditioner – These ones can be a little tricky. Depending on when you got your unit you most likely either have an R-22 unit or a R-410A unit. As I said before R-22 was phased out in 2010 for new units. R-410A has been around since 2010 but it’s popularity didn’t really take off until the 2010 deadline hit for R-22.
Refrigerators and Freezers (Home and Commercial) – The go to refrigerant for these applications has been R-404A. There are some other alternatives out there such as CO2 (R-744), R-502, and some other new HFO refrigerants coming out soon.
I hope that this article was able to answer your questions on refrigerant pricing and to also open your eyes on the wide variety there is within the refrigerant industry. There are two things that I want you take from this post. The first is the relative price per pound of the refrigerant you need and the second is the understanding that your contractor needs to make money too. Sure, you might know his price but you should not haggle down to zero. You should negotiate to a fair price that allows profit but also prevents gouging.
Lastly, if you are unsure what type of refrigerant your system needs please check the label/sticker on the machine. Normally it will state the refrigerant that it takes. However, if you still can’t find it then you can either contact the manufacturer or you can call a HVAC professional out to take a look. This is never something that you want to guess at.
