Refrigerant is a commodity and prices can change wildly from week to week. It all depends on demand and any market surprises. Think of refrigerant as oil. You always hear about how much a barrel of oil is in the news and see how fast it can change. Refrigerant is very similar and fluctuates accordingly… especially in very hot summers. That being said as of today (June, 2015) R-22 is averaging about $300.00 per thirty pound cylinder. The $300 per cylinder comes from purchasing it one cylinder at a time. You can typically do this via Amazon or E-Bay as well as other online sites. So, going off of the $300 price for thirty pound cylinder we are looking at $300/30 equaling out to $10.00 per pound of refrigerant. (Please note that if you are trying to purchase R-22 for personal use that you will need to be 608 certified with the Environmental Protection Agency. Click here for more details.) The rule of thumb is two to four pounds of refrigerant per one ton of your unit. You should always check the specifications of your machine, but for the most part the two to four pound guideline will give you a good estimate.

Most home air conditioning units are between one ton and five tons. Anything over five tons is considered a commercial grade unit. So, with that in mind if you have a two ton system than you would need eight pounds of refrigerant to completely refill your unit. (Two tons times four pounds.) Eight pounds of refrigerant times the cost we found above per pound of $10.00 equals $80.00 to completely refill your air conditioning unit. Now if you have a technician from an ac company come out there is obviously going to be markup on the refrigerant, but it pays to know exactly what the cost is and what to expect. If you’re being quoted $200-$300 to fill up a one ton or two tons system there is something wrong. R-22 is being phased out as we speak, so every year that goes by the price of R-22 will go up. In 2010 the phase out begin, in 2015 the quantity and production as reduced, and in 2020 it will be phased out entirely. Over the next few years I could see R-22 getting over $500 a cylinder and just keep on climbing from there.

If you have an old R-22 unit running today you may consider switching over to R-410A in the near future. 410A is much cheaper and is overall more efficient than it’s R-22 counterpart. (I switched over this spring and have seen a significant difference in my energy bills using 410A.) As the summer heats up an air conditioning system is a necessity in many climates. Bobcat Skid Steer Loaders For Sale On Ebay[Grayson’s] system suffered some damage over the winter that caused it to vent its refrigerant, avoiding an explosive situation. Patio Furniture Macomb CountyBefore he can chill out inside he’ll need to recharge it and he’s chosen to use propane in his cooling system. 300 Wide Tire Kits For SoftailsAccording to our friend Google this is not his original idea, but has been done many times before.

[Grayson] makes the point that although propane is flammable it’s not necessarily any more dangerous in a fire than Chlorodiflouromethane, or R22, which is the nasty little gas that fled his system for its new home in the upper atmosphere. The video above includes a brief explanation of recharging the system and the tools needed. We’d need to mill this over for quite a while before working up the gumption to give it a try. For now we’ll stick to [Grayson’s] more pedestrian hacks like making some servo motors sing or easing our yard work woes.< 123 4 5678 > 4,281 posts, read 7,953,888 times Originally Posted by Tampaite Please keep us updated. 43,226 posts, read 43,024,441 times 13,506 posts, read 12,546,697 times Originally Posted by mathjak107 Just FWIW - the average life of a compressor in Florida is about ten years. We replaced ours with a new puron unit about 5-6 years ago because we had leaks/other problems. Also replaced the air handler (which technically wasn't absolutely necessary) so we'd have a "bumper to bumper" warranty on the whole system for the next 11 years.

I probably wouldn't throw money away trying to repair an old obsolete r22 unit. Originally Posted by Robyn55 Puron is what carrier and emerson call r410a. It is about as close to r22 as we can get but it really is not a direct sub like r134a was to r12. Puron runs at 500psi on the high side. That is way high compared to r22 and 250-275 psi. That means the tubing,air handler and even other components have to be replaced and even then the systems capacity will still be lower then you had I suspect you are right (because you seem to talk a good game and I don't have a clue ). I do know that when our compressor began to fail when it was about 10 years old - we called in the HVAC company that had done our original installation when we built our house - and had been our regular maintenance/service company for those 10 years. It's always done good by us - and is still around after a couple of recessions (which is more than can be said for a lot of companies here).

I know that we did what it recommended (because we trust the company). Replaced the compressor - and the air handler - as well as some other stuff (including dampers in the attic that handle our heating/cooling zones - some were rusted out and making a lot of noise). I recall that our HVAC company was quite adamant about not trying to run a new puron compressor with an old freon based air handler. My husband and I read up about the whole freon/puron thing - and - since we weren't planning to move anytime soon - well we knew we'd have to bite the bullet sooner or later. So we went with sooner and the "bumper to bumper" warranty. The whole job cost us about $11k - which I think is very reasonable for a whole new system for a house that is 2800 sf under A/C with an 11 year warranty (there was a deal that year from the company that made the compressor/air handler - buy a whole new system and get an extra year of warranty for free). I think what we did made a lot of sense.

And we haven't had anything other than routine semi-annual maintenance ($180/year) since the new system was put in. I am a happy camper - but reckon we'll need a new compressor in about 4 years or so. 853 posts, read 1,955,360 times Finally an update and this is how you save thousands of dollars or maybe blow up hundreds of dollars. This is a DIY project and you don't have to be an HVAC expert or certified. 1. Get EPA certified, either Type 1 or Universal - I got Universal certification, what this does is it allows you to buy R-22(Freon) legally plus since you have to take the test, it does allow you to understand how refrigeration works in general. 2. Buy a Jug or Canister of R-22(Freon) online for about $350(30lbs) 3. Purchase a decent quality manifold gauge and leak sealant from Cliplight. Cost of Certification($70) + Freon($350) + Gauges($50) + Leak Sealant($70) = $540 but technically I have only used 4LB of Freon, so the actual cost = $236.66 assuming I can sell rest of the Freon.

Here are the next steps:Hook up your manifold gauges to the low-side and high-side and turn on the A/C(set it to cool). If you are not sure how to hook up, please look up videos on Youtube. Recharge from the low-side until pressure builds up. Hook up the leak sealant. Turn on A/C and Charge the unit with leak sealant from the low-side until it's empty. Hook up your gauges again and re-charge until you get 40 on the manifold dial gauge. Stop charging and continue to monitor the gauges for about 5 minutes to see if you lose pressure, if you don't then sealant has been working for so far.- It has been a month since I put the leak sealent IN and the R-22 and so far A/C is working great. However the only issue is that am having excessive condensation from the outlet pipe in the garage(that am collecting in a pan) and am hoping someone can shed light on this.. 7,687 posts, read 9,242,377 times Is this just the condensate drain from the evaporator coils? If so, I think your problem is that you're in a humid area.