Well folks the do-it-yourselfer air conditioning repairman will be quickly coming to a close at the end of this year. No more novices trying to ‘recharge’ their system. No more guys just dumping more refrigerant in. Well, we can at least hope so…unless these guys have a friend in the business. Some of the techs … Read more
The race is on to find suitable alternatives to R-404A. In 2009 the Honeywell corporation invented a new refrigerant called Genetron Performax (R-407F). This new refrigerant is an HFC blend containing forty percent of R-134a, thirty percent of R-125, and thirty percent of R-32. The thinking behind this refrigerant was to come up with a … Read more
Rather you like it or not folks R-410A will be going away and it’s going to be happening a lot sooner than everyone thinks. In 2015 the Environmental Protection Agency announced that they will beginning the initial steps of phasing out R-404A in July of 2016, January 2017, and 2018. Along with that they also … Read more
Hello ladies and gentlemen! It’s that time of year again. The cold wind is blowing, the snow is falling, and the temperature barely gets over twenty degrees across half of the nation. Instead of thinking about the cold I’m thinking about the summer. What will the heat be like next summer? How bad will it … Read more
Regardless of your politics last month’s election was definitely a surprise. Obviously, the election of Donald Trump will have a profound impact on the country and the rest of the world. The question I ask to you is what kind of impact will he have on the United States’ refrigerant market? Now, we all know … Read more
I wrote in a previous article about how India has finally come out in favor of phasing out HFC refrigerants under the Montreal Protocol. (Former article is here.) Well now India has formally submitted an amendment to the United Nations to amend the Montreal Protocol to include HFC refrigerants. This amendment was submitted a week … Read more
There has been a big push over the past couple years to replace R-404A and other HFC refrigerants with alternatives. The push comes from HFCs having a larger Global Warming Potential, or GWP. GWP is compared against Carbon Dioxide which has a GWP of 1. R-404A has a GWP of 3,943. Obviously, there is quite the difference … Read more
Before I can answer that question there is the need to point out that there are a variety of different classes of refrigerants that are on the market today throughout the world. I will be going over the top three classes at this point in time. One thing to note is that yes, refrigerants do … Read more
What is there to watch for in 2015? What product is being phased out? What is being introduced? What new regulations are coming? I followed the industry fairly close in 2014 and have come to the following conclusions on what to look for in 2015. I am by no means the end all say all … Read more
The Montreal Protocol was a treaty signed way back in 1989 by numerous countries in an attempt to slow down and eventually stop the hole that was forming in the O-Zone layer. It’s main objective was to eliminate the amount of Chlorine and Bromine being released into the atmosphere. This was done by coordinating world … Read more
In May of 2014 Mexico, Canada, and North America submitted an amendment request on the Montreal Protocol. The amendment suggested the phase down and eventual phase out of HFC refrigerants for all nations that had signed the Montreal Protocol. The Montreal Protocol is an international treaty that went into effect in January 1st, 1989. The … Read more
It seems that the Europeans Union does everything first before the United States lately. Up until about five years ago nobody in America had heard of Diesel Exhaust Fluid for diesel applications. Europe had been using Diesel Exhaust Fluid for years and it finally came to America due to government mandate. Why am I bringing … Read more