R-22 Air Conditioner Refrigerant

The refrigerant in your air conditioner is the fluid that runs between the outside compressor and the inside evaporator coil, absorbing heat from the inside and releasing it to the outside as it changes phases between liquid and gas.

Very old air conditioners use R-22 refrigerant (normally called Freon, but that’s just one brand name).  And R-22 is a problem.  It’s a hydrochlorofluorocarbon (HCFC) and it contains chlorine.

Several decades ago we realized that chlorine gas was causing damage to earth’s ozone layer.  So back in 1987 the international community came up with the Montreal Protocol and agreed to phase out the production and consumption of ozone-depleting substances.  In fact the Montreal Protocol was the first United Nations treaty that achieved universal ratification; every country voted in favor.  R-22 had to go.

Eventually air conditioner manufacturers came up with R-410A refrigerant, a hydrofluorocarbon compound (HFC), and the transition began.  R-410A is often called Puron, but again that’s just one brand name for the same chemical compound.

Beginning in 2010 the production and importation of R-22 was limited, and starting on January 1, 2020 it has been prohibited.  Because of these limitations the cost of R-22 has already gone up tremendously, and it’s only going to go higher.  The only source of R-22 will be refrigerant that’s removed from old air conditioners that are being discarded.

Then a new twist came in December 2020 with the introduction of the federal American Innovation and Manufacturing (AIM) Act, which directs the Environmental Protection Agency to reduce the production and consumption of HFCs by 85% by 2036.

R-410A isn’t an ozone depleting substance, but it’s still an HFC and so its contribution to global warming – its Global Warming Potential (GWP) – is too high.  GWP is a measure of how much heat a greenhouse gas traps in the atmosphere relative to carbon dioxide.

The AIM Act bans new residential and commercial HVAC equipment from using R-410A starting January 1, 2025, with some phase-in time allowed for equipment that was already manufactured.  So the search for a new refrigerant continued.  If your system uses R-410A you should still be able to get plenty of that refrigerant for many years to come, so there’s no need to worry.

There are two new refrigerants that have emerged – R-454B and R-32.  Neither have any ozone depletion potential, and their GWP’s are 466 for R-454B and 675 for R-32.  By comparison, the GWP for R-410A is 2088, so both are a big improvement.  Many big U.S. manufacturers have settled on R-454B which is also known as Opteon™ XL41 or Puron Advance™.  Its big downside seems to be some patent protections that might make it more expensive.

Another downside of both R-454B and R-32 is that they’re slightly more flammable than what they’re replacing.  As far as I can tell nobody seems to think this is terribly important, and it seems that the far better GWP numbers outweigh any potential flammability problems.

R-22 isn’t interchangeable with any of the newer refrigerants.  You can’t just add R-410A or R-454B or R-32 to an old air conditioner.  In fact there’s really no substitute at all for the refrigerant in an old R-22 system.  So if you have an air conditioner that uses R-22, and you have a leak or a problem and need more refrigerant, you might be in for a big shock.  The refrigerant might be crazy expensive, or you might just not be able to find any at all.  Then you’re stuck.

In this case your only good option is to replace your air conditioner.

When you replace your R-22 system for whatever reason (trouble finding refrigerant, or maybe the old system just dies) you’ll of course need to replace the outside condenser and the inside evaporator coil.  But you’ll also need to replace the copper refrigerant lines that run between the condenser and the coil.  You shouldn’t reuse the copper refrigerant lines when you replace your R-22 air conditioner.  It’s too hard to clean them out, and your new system will probably specify a different size refrigerant line anyway.  Some HVAC companies might reuse them, but it’s not a good idea.  You should replace the refrigerant lines, and that can be an expensive addition to the whole project cost.

If you’re moving from an R-410A system to one of the newer types then you can reuse the copper refrigerant lines by properly flushing them, provided that they’re the right size for your new system and in good condition.

So how can you tell what refrigerant you have?  Look on your air conditioner’s data tag outside.  It should say somewhere what refrigerant it uses.  This one, manufactured in 2014, uses R-410A.