Derek ColeGM, Simmons One Hour Heating & Air · AI HVAC Answers

Drop In Refrigerants

28 Jan 2026 · 1 min

Episode

28 Jan 2026 · 1 min

0:00

Brief podcast excerpt (single speaker) arguing that so-called 'drop-in' refrigerants are not true 1:1 substitutes for specified refrigerants like R22 or R410 because systems are designed for specific chemical formulations. The speaker uses a ketchup-vs-blood analogy to illustrate incompatibility and warns that using drop-ins can create additional problems and higher long-term costs from repeated servicing.

Chapters

Whoever's dropping in this refrigerant is never going to get it correct 100% of the time because it's not the same chemical makeup. The manufacturer made that unit to work on R22. It didn't make it to work on the drop in refrigerant for R22. It didn't make it to work on R410, a refrigerant. Okay? You can't put a foreign refrigerant into that system and expect it to act the same. It's kind of, you know, if we talk about your body and the blood a lot, if, if you put in ketchup just because it was the same color as your blood, your system would not operate the same. Okay? So it's kind of, it's kind of ridiculous. But you think about drop in refrigerants, yes, they're drop ins for R22. But never think that is going to be the solution to your problem because drop ins could cause more problems, could be more expensive over time because you're having to go back and share that over and over again.