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I have a friend who owns his own restaurant equipment business.  He mentioned to me that new laws by the EPA required that any coolant system that needs to be repaired needs to be updated to R-134 (or whatever the latest is) from Freon. 

 

Since I'm interested in buying used equipment for my first go, I'm concerned about this.  Any truth to this?

 

Any info would be helpful.

 

Thanks,

 

Andy

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They've gone a step further with air conditioners.  I don't even know what the new stuff is but they are even trying to phase out 134a in air conditioners if I am not mistaken.  I think they still manufacture vending machines with 134a, so I don't think he is correct.  That probably only applies to certain other situations (if at all).

 

I am SURE that you can find someone to recharge your system with 134a.  They might stop manufacturing compressors that use 134a but that's probably about it.

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You can still get R134a for any use and I use R401a as a drop in replacement for R12 or to put on top of R134a when recharging a compressor.  I'm not aware of, at this time, of any restrictions to those two blends, but this would not be your problem anyway as your repairman will be dealing with it.  You sound worried that you wouldn't be able to recharge or replace your compressors using R134a, but that is simply not the case. 

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I have a friend who owns his own restaurant equipment business.  He mentioned to me that new laws by the EPA required that any coolant system that needs to be repaired needs to be updated to R-134 (or whatever the latest is) from Freon. 

 

Any truth to this?

 

Any info would be helpful.

I think the question is about repairing/replacing refrigerant gasses in an old system, which is still running the old R12/R13/R22 gas.

I believe that the old gas is no longer available and/or legal to use.

Replacement gas is dependent on which gas is currently used

R12 --> 134a requires complete flushing and filter/dryer replacement to remove the mineral oil.

alternative

R12 --> R-409A blend (60% R-22; 25% R-124; 15% R-142b) is a direct over the top (no flush, filter replacement recommended)

R22 --> see wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chlorodifluoromethane#R-22.2C_retrofit_using_substitute_refrigerants

added

further reading

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/title6/608/index.html

http://www.epa.gov/ozone/title6/608/faq.html#q14

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