R12 recharging or replacement

[Howell]

I figure someone here has experience with recharging old R12 car A/C systems.

I'm balking at paying $300 to retrofit to 134a and they are telling me there is no R12 in the city and even then its $120/pound. There has to be a cheaper alternative for those of us driving older vehicles. I mean at the age these older cars are $300 is a significant portion of the cars value.

 

[MaxBurn]

You can sometimes (used to anyway) buy the little cans at places like VIP or Pepboys, need a little adapter hose to do it.

But yes, R12 is out of production and the only thing out there is reclaimed R12. Government shut it down because that is the really nasty environment unfriendly stuff.

 

[Bozo]

R12 Replacement.

Keep your original hardware.

 

[jtr1962]

Regarding R134A retrofits, it's interesting to note that even R134A is scheduled to be phased out in the EU, and the US will likely follow suit. IMO then if you keep your car long enough, you'll be running into the same problems with an R134A retrofit as you're already running into with R12.

CO2 might be a future refrigerant if the high-pressure problems can be dealt with. It's also possible solid-state refrigeration will be used if it can be made about 5 times more efficient than it currently is. Bottom line is given the incentive to solve the problem, and the huge market in refrigeration, I'm sure something will come along to replace CFCs and HCFCs.

For now though the best solution is that R12 replacement Bozo linked to. If you keep your car long enough that HCFCs are history, then a CO2 or solid-state retrofit might make sense. I would imagine solid-state refrigeration would require beefing up the alternator. Those things use a lot of power.

 

[Howell]

R12 Replacement.

Keep your original hardware.

Bozo, have you used this product? Is anything more required than connecting a bottle to my lines? Is there anything more I should be doing?

 

[Bozo]

I have never used the product. I just googled for 'R12 replacement'.

You might want to call some repair shops and get their opinion. Or look online.

 

[Howell]

Apparently, hydrocarbon-based R12, 22 and 134 replacement is strong in Europe and Oz and more efficient. Stay tuned for a review.

http://autorefrigerants.com/envirofaq.htm
http://autorefrigerants.com/Envirotechnical.htm