Air Conditioning Retrofit

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Mar 14, 2001 | 05:22 PM

mantta

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Joined: Feb 2001

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From: Keweenaw Bay, MI

Air Conditioning Retrofit

Hey All, The hot weather is coming and, if you can find R-12, you are gonna pay dearly for it. Let me tell you what I did over a year ago. I retrofitted my car and trucks with R-406A. This refrigerant works perfectly and I have had no problems whatsoever with it. It has several benefits, there is no need to change oil or seals, it is a direct drop in. It's pressure temperature relationship is nearly the same as R-12, it is less expensive than R-134 or R-12 and is legal and accepted. I purchase it from www.autofrost.com and they ship UPS. System capacity only requires 80% of the R-12 capacity. Try this product out, im sure you will be as happy as I am with it. R-134 in an old R-12 system has had some horror stories and besides that it is only 80% as efficient as the R-12. R-406 meets and exceeds that of R-12!

Mar 15, 2001 | 11:33 AM

blever

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Air Conditioning Retrofit

I was curious about R-406A so I went to the web site & looked @ the MSD. First you must understand that just because it meets EPA guidelines, the EPA has done NO testing in actual AC systems. This refrigerant is a blend of Methyl propane (flammable),R-142b, R-22 (not compatable with any manufacturers seals. The seals absorb R-22 then bubble up & fail), R-600a. First, as a shop owner I wouldn't take the liability of adding a flammable substance to a high pressure environment like an AC system. Two, The evap. rates for each chemical is different, so if the system has a leak it leaks out @ different rates. Now you have a hazardous material that by EPA law must be handled with special equipment (plus the dedicated equipment you had to buy to recover R406A in its pure form) and sent to a special center for recycling. I've done several R-134A conversions. When done correctly they've cooled as good as the R-12.