nterdynamics (AF-22) Arctic Freeze R-134a Ultra Synthetic Refrigerant with Recharge Hose and Gauge - 22 oz.
Good evening ladies and gentlemen! Today on RefrigerantHQ we will be doing another one of our product reviews. Today’s lucky product of choice is Interdynamics’ AF-22 Arctic Freeze R-134a refrigerant recharge kit. Now, I am sure most of you are familiar with these types of products. They can be a lifesaver in the dead heat of summer when you find your air conditioner is blowing warm air. This holds true especially so here in Kansas where we get weeks of one-hundred degree heat! But how does Arctic Freeze product compare to the others on the market? Should you buy it? Let’s take a look!
Before I get into what a product does and doesn’t offer I always like to spend a little bit of time looking at the company behind the product. I feel that a look, even if it’s a brief one, helps the consumer and myself understand what goes into the product. In this case the Interdynamics AF-22 Arctic Freeze is from the company called rechargeac.com. This company is then owned by IDQ Incorporated out of Garland, Texas. The IDQ company has been in business for over forty years and through out all of those years they have been dedicated to providing do-it-yourself air conditioning products for the weekend warrior mechanic as well as the seasoned service technician. In fact I would feel comfortable saying that they have a VERY large market share when it comes to DIY air conditioning recharge kits. These guys know what they are doing.
Know Before You Buy
A lot of you may already know this but I would be amiss if I didn’t mention it. Before we get onto the Pros and Cons I want to point out that these AC recharge kits are not a miracle worker. Heck, most of the time they aren’t even a fix. What these recharge kits do is take a problem that you have with your car’s air conditioning system and push the problem on down the road.
Your AC system rather it be on a car, house, or freezer all work relatively the same way. The refrigerant goes through an endless cycle moving back and forth between gas and liquid and liquid to gas. The system is completely sealed and no refrigerant should be coming out of it. So, in a perfect world you should never run out of refrigerant. But, as we all know the world isn’t perfect and things break, hoses crack, o-rings crumble, and so on and so on. When this happens your refrigerant begins to leak out. The more refrigerant that leaks out the less potent your air conditioner will be in the dead of summer.
Now what these recharge kits do is pump your system full of refrigerant again. So, you have a leak where your refrigerant escaped out of and if you use a recharge kit you are just dumping more refrigerant into your system. Depending on your leak this could be a good thing or a bad thing. If you have a tiny crack in one of your A/C hoses that barely leaks then an AC recharge kit will be perfect for you. You could recharge it in March and have it last the whole season because the leak is so small. But, if you have a very large leak, or worse, a major part failure then these recharge kits will not work for you. You could recharge your car today, have it blow cold air, and then come back a few days later and all of your refrigerant is gone again. Not a good deal.
So, the point I’m trying to make here is just know that these recharge kits aren’t a miracle worker. Yes, they’ll work in some cases, but not all. Alright, on to the review!
Pros
Sure you could go out to an auto parts store and buy a couple of cans of refrigerant and recharge your car yourself but when you do this you have to realize that when you are buying those R-134a cans you are ONLY buying cans of straight refrigerant. Have you thought about the PAG oil that needs replaced? What about a leak sealer or any other additives? With the Interdynamics AF-22 Arctic Freeze you get your refrigerant along with everything else including the PAG oil, the additives, and yes even a leak sealer built right into the formula. The best part about it?
This Arctic Freeze model is one of the more expensive products on the market but you have to realize that you are getting higher quality as well as a larger container of refrigerant. The Arctic Freeze AF-22 comes in a giant sized twenty-two ounce container. That is bigger than the A/C Pro ACP-100 at twenty ounces and bigger than the Interdynamics MAC-134 EZ Chill at eighteen ounces. This amount will ensure that you can get a proper recharge even if you do end up spilling some of the refrigerant.
Along with all of that your Interdynamics Arctic Freeze comes with an easy to attach coupler and a pressure gauge so that you can monitor your levels as you recharge your system. All you have to do is pull back the collar on the coupler and then pop it on your low side service port. (Usually these will have an ‘L’ on the cap.) Don’t worry though if you have the wrong port as this coupler will ONLY fit the low side port and nowhere else. This prevents very costly mistakes by using the wrong port.
The last Pro that I am going to mention here is that the R-134a that comes with this product is compatible with all other types of R-134a. What that means is that you do not have to worry about mixing refrigerants together. Say, for example, you have a pound of refrigerant left in your car and you need to recharge it. You do NOT have to purge all of the old refrigerant before recharging. Like I said before, easy button.
If you get one thing from this review it’s this: The AF-22 Arctic Freeze is all about making things easy. It’s the easy button so they say. Everything that would need to be done to add refrigerant to your system is in that one little can. On top of that the product comes with a hose and with a pressure gauge so you can see exactly how much refrigerant you have when you start, when charging, and when you finish.
Cons
Alright folks, onto the cons. The biggest con is something that I’ve already mentioned. Any recharge kit, I don’t care what brand, are temporary fixes and that is if they work. If you have a massive leak or a faulty compressor then these recharge kits aren’t going to do you any good. I still like to buy them though as a kind of pre-cursor before taking my car into the shop. If the recharge kit doesn’t work no big deal. You are out thirty dollars and you take your car to the shop. However, if the recharge kit does work then you just saved yourself a whole mess of money by not taking your car to the mechanic.
Another con that I want to bring up is that the price on this unit is a bit more expensive then the Interdynamics EZ Chill model. The EZ chill is a bare bones price point item to get you product. The Arctic Freeze is just the opposite. You get a higher quality product and a super sized container, but you will be paying more.
Lastly, like with all refrigerants there is risk of shipping damage and the product arriving damaged. This could be either the can being damaged and having the refrigerant leaked out, a damaged gauge, or even a damaged hose. This is obviously a problem and if you run into this please call their customer service number which can be found by clicking here.
Conclusion
Overall I would say that that the Arctic Freeze recharge kit is a definite buy if you find yourself in the situation where your vehicle’s air conditioner is blowing warm air. In fact, I would rate the Arctic Freeze kit as a step above the rest of the recharge kits out there. The reason I say this is not from personal experience but from research. When customers experienced problems with other recharge kits out there they seemed to always recommend trying Arctic Freeze. There is a reason for that. While you still get the refrigerant with all of it’s additives you also get quality parts and manufacturing that result in a lot less chance of breakage either during shipping or during use.
If you are interested in purchasing the Interdynamics AF-22 Arctic Freeze please click here to be taken to our Amazon.com partner. Or, you can also find this product in most retailers and auto parts stores. Also, if you are unsure on how to use this product then I highly recommend you click here to be taken to our ‘How To’ guide on AC recharge kits.