has anyone had an r-12 refridgerant recharge and can tell me the cost and if there is complications with doing this?

thanks

alex

R-12 can be expensive or hard to find depending on your location, some people find it to be less expensive to retrofit their AC system to use R-134a and just fill it with that. My olds doesn't have AC but I have a truck that I've gone through this same situation with.

I've seen R-12 going for around $80 / pound whereas R-134a would be a fraction of that cost. Price can vary depending on your location though.

I saw an interesting kit at an auto parts store the other day, and I was thinking about investing in one myself. I have a similar problem with my AC.

It says that 2 cans of thier "enviro" refrigerant will do a normal car, and the rest of the kit includes the hose & adapters for charging, and a primitive pressure guage. The kit was only 72.00 or something to that effect. Extra cans of refrigerant were 15.00 each. Looked like a hell of a deal, if you dont have any leaks or problems with your ac system.

mind you, thats canadian dollars...

they have freeze 12 which worked great on my car

42.00 bucks American can get you a R-134a retrofit kit. I highly suggest that anyone doing an AC recharge go this route. Not only is R-12 expensive, R-134a is also going up. I just did a retro fit to my car and it works great. but be sure to evacuate the system properly and hold it under a vacuum for a while to be sure you have no leaks inb the system. Cans of R-134 in Iowa are 10 bucks apiece.

yea disregard my last comment someone on another forum told me that freeze 12 is really bad for your system unless you completely drain it out first

Hi andrewk, hello All,


In order to evacuate the system properly, one would have to repair all leaks before pumping it down.

Regards, Norm

Hi abbike18, All


The system must be in good operating condition and all leaks found and repaired before any charging can take place. Sometimes small leaks are hard to find (time consuming) and might increase the labor cost.

The best way to find your local prices and options, is to visit an auto AC specialist in your area and ask.

Regards, Norm

Hi Norm, All,
In order to fully evacuate it, yes, all leaks would need to be repaired. But you can get all measureable pressure out by doing it before hand, and if there is a leak, chances are you wont have much pressure anyway. So yeah, in order to evacuate the system properly, you would have to fix all leaks in the system before pulling it down. Good call Norm.

Andrew

here in chicago r-12 is illegal some bullshit with the epa and osha
blah blah
yes go to a mechanic you need a a/c machine to recover/ recycle the freon and then do a deep evac on the system
there really is no need to fix a leak before the evac process begins the repair begins after you would re charge the system and use a freon dye to determin where the leak is coming from
if someone caught you just releasing freon into the air i know here it`s a HUGE fine and jail time so don`t do that
if your askin about it then take it to a mechanic and let him do it the proper way

Hi bdyman, All,


So, during evacuation, you would suck air from the atmoshere (and the resulting contaminants) into the system through the leak?


Then you remove the refrigerant (again) from the system in order to repair the leak, then evacuate and recharge a second time?


"Freon" is the brand name of a refrigerant made by Dupont. Do you still call your scanner a Xerox?

Dye is only used to find leaks that are too small for an electronic leak detector to pick up. In these cases dye is added and the system charged. It can take weeks, sometimes months for the dye to show a leak that small.


Good call.

Regards, Norm

huh... learned something new today....



I'd like to learn more about this stuff... where can it be found? is it legal in all states? I went to my local parts store but they told me there was nothing compatible with r-12 that they could sell me.


If I were to have the system evacuated, I might as well retrofit and use 134a.

The reason I ask is I think we're finally selling the 93 Regency 98 (our yard is starting to look like a used car lot ) the AC works, but the pressure in the system has leaked down a little over the past few seasons, so it doesn't blow anywhere as cold as it should. When it's hot outside, a prospective buyer will probably be willing to pay more for a car with working AC.

So I'm looking for a low cost option for topping this r-12 system off.

As I see it I could...

1) have the system evacuated properly, then retrofit for 134a
2) evacuate the system improperly (blow it into the air) then retrofit (I don't really want to do this, but technically it's an option)
3) pay through the nose for r-12 and just top it off
4) use this freeze 12 stuff, or anything else out there that's compatible w/ r-12... but I don't know where to find this and what the price would be compared to actual r-12.

Personally I like option 1 or 3 but it will come down to price. I saw a retrofit kit w/ a few cans or 134a for around 40 bucks, but I don't know what it would cost to have someone evacuate it first. As for option 3, I know I can get r-12 in the $80/ lb range, but I'm not sure exactly how much it would take to top it off.

decisions decisions

i would have the system deep evacuated and then put in the freeze 12 it comes in cans at the autoparts store like 134 does

it doesn't in my neck of the woods... I went to 3 different stores looking for it