If you are running out of refrigerant that means that somewhere in the refrigerant cycle there is a leak. Your unit is leaking refrigerant and will continue to leak refrigerant until a repair is made. If you dump more refrigerant into it without fixing the leak you are literally throwing money down the drain. Potentially a lot of money too if yours is an R unit. I like to think of it as a above ground pool. If you get a puncture in the pool lining water will leak out.
For those of you that do not know, R refrigerant is being phased out across the United States. The initial phase out of R started eight years ago. In no new machines could be manufactured or imported into the United States that used R Then, in , import and manufacturing restrictions were put on R Finally, in no new R could be manufactured or imported into the US. All of these restrictions has caused the price of R to skyrocket.
In a thirty pound cylinder for R was going for nearly eight-hundred dollars. Today, the price has settled down quite a bit, but it is still quite high for a refrigerant. The price may again climb and climb as we go through the last summer of R If I had an R unit that needed repairs next summer I would highly recommend you consider scrapping the unit and purchasing a new air conditioner that uses the HFC refrigerant known as RA Puron.
This refrigerant is going to be around for quite a while and will allow you to leave the expensive R prices behind you. Ok, this is the last bit before we get onto our price per pound folks, I promise! We mentioned above that the price on R can be quite high nowadays.
These alternative refrigerants are designed to work with existing R systems with only slight changes needed. The premise of this is to purchase an R alternative that is much cheaper then standard R refrigerant. Sometimes you can be looking at a few hundred dollars cheaper per cylinder of refrigerant.
You could then compare the two quotes and see if the cheaper refrigerant offsets the cost to convert your air conditioner over. If you find that the quoted price on R is just too high you can always ask your contractor if they have reclaimed R refrigerant available. In other words, it is like recycled refrigerant.
If your contractor does have these available you may be able to get a ten to twenty percent break on your refrigerant price. This does mean that additional refrigerant will be required. Unfortunately there are no charts that I have been able to find to tell me how much Freon to add. It is only a few ounces though. The higher the humidity the more heat is transferred and the charge of the Freon will be slightly different.
The thermostatic expansion will throttle back this Freon or let more pass through the evaporator as the temperature and humidity decreases and increases. This adding and subtracting of Freon according the temperature is much more prevalent in the older fixed orifice systems 10 SEER and older.
Older systems require more Freon. The efficiency gains in the newer equipment have them performing much better with much less Freon. A few years back I came across a 4 Ton system from Comfortmaker that required a minimum of 18 pounds on the label. That is an incredible amount of Freon for a single residential system. Have Questions? Get Answer Here Click Here. We carry general liability insurance, workers compensation insurance and commerical automobile insurance.
Follow us on:. Ice buildup on the outside unit. Hissing noise is noticeable. The most obvious symptom that a vehicle needs to be recharged is that there will be a noticeable loss in the overall cooling capability of the AC system.
AC clutch fails to engage. Visible signs of refrigerant leaks. That's double what it was five years ago. Please keep in mind, if you are trying to purchase R for personal use, you need to be certified with the Environmental Protection Agency. Actually, Freon lasts forever. The only reason you would need more of it is because of a possible leak. Since the said refrigerant is circulated through copper refrigerated lines to keep your humble abode cool and keep the heat away, it stays inside the air conditioning unit, forever.
When your air conditioning system is low on refrigerant, it won't produce as much cool air as it usually does. AC Blowing Warm Air. High Electric Bills.
Ra refrigerant is an alternative that contains no chlorine and hence no ozone depletion potential. It's a greenhouse gas, though, and it doesn't work as well as R If the repair requires adding R22 refrigerant to the system, the only options will be reclaimed and previously-produced R22 refrigerant. The best replacement for R Freon is usually Rc.
If a system has R22 in it already you cannot use a replacement refrigerant to simply add to the R Your existing condensing unit and cooling coil are not suited to the new higher pressure refrigerant. It is possible to reuse the copper tubing lineset between the two, but we will discuss that later.
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