Derek Cole explains why your AC shouldn't need regular Freon refills. A healthy system is sealed like your body's circulatory system; if refrigerant is low, you have a leak that needs fixing, not just topping off. R22 was phased out in 2020, and R410A is heading toward lower-GWP replacements.
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Hey, what's up, everyone? Derek Cole here. Thank you for coming to this month's live Q and A. I want to cover refrigerant real fast before we get started on the Q and A part of the broadcast. But refrigerant is one of those things that's kind of misunderstood because we get the phone calls, quite a bit of folks saying, my AC is not working. It's not blowing out cold air. I need refrigerant. I need a fill up. I get Freon every couple years and that is not normal. You should not need Freon or fill up every couple years, every year to get your AC to work. I like to refer to this to, to the Freon as is. You know, take for example, the blood in your body. Your H vac system is a closed system. Your body is a closed system. You shouldn't be going to hospital to the doctor every year or two to get a refill of blood because you're running low. Your unit is the same way. You shouldn't need refrigerant every couple years unless you're losing refrigerant. So if you're losing refrigerant, you need to fix the leak, find leak, fix the leak. That way you don't have to keep doing this every couple of years. Same way. Your body, if it's low in blood, it's not going to run the way it should or you're not going to feel as good as you should because you're running low. Your system is the same way. So not only are you running low refrigerant, but you're also potentially damaging other items because the system is not working the way it should because it's running low refrigerant. So putting refrigerant in every year, every two years, it's not normal and it's not good for your system. Your AC is a closed system. Again, think of this like the veins and arteries and your body. It's the closed system. You shouldn't be needing blood every couple years, every summer, every summer. You shouldn't need to fill up blood because you're running low or you don't feel good because your blood is low. Same thing with refrigerant. So just remember that and try to, you know, think of it as your body and the blood. The compressor, which actually is the heart of the system. If you have those copper lines coming out of your unit, we call those the veins and arteries because it's carrying the blood, it's carrying the refrigerant, right? So you got the Heart, the compressor pumping the refrigerant, the veins and arteries, the copper tubing carrying the refrigerant into your system. So it's a lot easier when you reference all of this back to, you know, things, everybody, because it's very easy to understand. So I just want to make it super clear it's very important. It is not normal for your system to need refrigerant every single year. Now, this day and time, you have R22 and you have R410 a refrigerant, R22. Back in 2020, they stopped production of all new R22. You can't produce any new R22 refrigerant. And that's important because it's getting very expensive. R410 a, we've been doing it since 1998. I think Carrier first started using it back in 96. So we've been doing it for a long time. And that's kind of been our standard because, you know, back then they announced that, hey, this day is coming. R22 is the HDFC. It's a refrigerant that is harmful to ozone layer. And we have to get control of it and start ramping down production all the way until 2020, when they actually stop producing new R22. Now, you can still get your hands on it if it's recycled, even some, some of the type of R22, some type of mix to make refrigerant that acts kind of similar to R22, but it's not pure R22, the kind they used to make. So be aware of that. R410A, it was announced it's also getting phased out because they're trying to get a better refrigerant for the environment. So it goes off a gwp, which is global warning, global warming potential, I think, is what stands for. But trying to get those numbers where it's not harmful for the environment and it doesn't cause any kind of problems. So R410A is going to start, you're going to start seeing less of that through the years. But R22 is when the first major ones to really, to really come off of, come off the planet and they're trying to get rid of it. So putting refrigerant in your system every year, regardless, R22 R4D A, it gets expensive because you have to keep paying that repair person to come over, add refrigerant, come over, add refrigerant, come over, add refrigerant. When you, when you should just stop find leak, fix the leak. That way we don't have a challenge anymore, and we don't have to worry about adding refrigerant every single year.
