Update:
This story was first published on April 5.
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The AC industry is about to undergo a major change; next year, a new coolant is required
You don’t have to do anything now, not until your system is unrepairable. Then it will cost you.
I call it Lieber’s Rule of Air Conditioning Repair.
If your AC breaks down, the first tech who comes to repair it offers a diagnosis.
If you get a second opinion from another company, you may get a completely different diagnosis. Yet another tech offers a third opinion. Who to believe?
It happens a lot, but it especially happens when the federal government orders a new coolant to be used. Prices for the old coolant shoot up. That’s when you have to decide if you want to gamble and keep using the old coolant as prices soar. Or do you want to get an entirely new and expensive updated AC system.
We’re at that point again. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced that, as of Jan. 1, a new coolant, R-454B, will be required in all new residential AC systems.
Don’t worry. The government is not going to knock on your door to check your coolant. You’ll have to deal with this when your current system fails and can no longer be repaired. That could be years from now. Or it could be next year. Roll the dice on this one.
‘Educated a little more’
Until last month, I didn’t know that, for the second time in recent years, the feds are phasing out an old coolant and replacing it with a new one.
The goal is to protect the atmosphere from pollutants. Think about it. Every time you have a Freon leak, the chemicals go somewhere.
Recently, my Lieber rule came into play. One AC tech visiting my house told me the new coolant is propane-based and somewhat flammable. A second tech told me there was no propane.
So I went to the top guy, Texas Air Conditioning Contractors Association President Roland Arrisola. Early on, he told me, manufacturers told the industry that the new coolant included propane.
Since then, AC techs “have been educated a little more,” he said. “We were all told at first that it’s going to be propane — and it’s not.”
But there’s still widespread confusion in the industry about how to describe the new required refrigerants. To correct misinformation, the manufacturers are doing more and more classes, he said.
Most of us have coolants such as R-22 or R-410A in our system. The new version is called R-454B. There’s also a version called R-32. Both are said to be environmentally friendly.
All systems sold to the public after Jan. 1, 2025, must contain the new coolant. Sensors are put on the evaporator coils. If a leak is detected, the compressor shuts the system down.
After 15 minutes, the system is ready to come back on, but if the leak hasn’t dissipated, you’ll have to call an AC tech to get it back up and running properly.
Michael Mushegan, owner of Gorman Mechanical, the AC company I’ve used for the past decade, asks a good question.
“If it wasn’t flammable, why would they put the safety sensor on?”
He says the new setup is, in fact, a propane-based refrigerant.
In an illustration of the confusion, association president Arrisola said, “It is not propane.” But others say the new coolant is “propane-based,” and that’s where it gets its flammability.
Arrisola says not to worry about safety. “There’s nothing to make anyone think their house is going to explode. … Everyone shouldn’t be scared.”
From $4 to $200
Before I show you how the owner of my favorite AC company is handling this at his house, I want to talk about pricing. When new coolant is required, the price of the old coolant skyrockets because less of it is being made.
In the good ol’ days, coolant was $4 or $5 a pound. Now it can run as high as $200 a pound.
Smugglers are selling black-market older coolant on Craigslist and Facebook. A San Diego man was arrested in March after he was caught smuggling canisters of old coolant under a tarp in his vehicle from Mexico into the U.S. He was caught after he advertised online.
In a statement, U.S. Attorney Tara McGrath said, “This is the first time the Department of Justice is prosecuting someone for illegally importing greenhouse gases, and it will not be the last. We are using every means possible to protect our planet from harm by toxic pollutants, including bringing criminal charges.”
Prices will jump
The EPA says in a statement that it is not requiring anyone to stop using their existing equipment. The changeover does not restrict the continued use of existing equipment.
But it gets expensive. Arrisola says the average bill his customers pay for an updated system is $12,000. You can’t simply convert your old system to take the new coolant. You have to replace the entire guts of the old system.
Mushegan told me his plan. “I don’t want that [new] refrigerant in my house. This is me, personally. So I changed out over in the winter when we were slower. I changed out my last unit with R-410A.”
How come?
“The whole safety issue, possibly being flammable, and it may not cool as well as the systems of today.”
He added, “I know a lot of industry guys who are doing the same thing.”
If industry guys like Mushegan are changing out their systems, should you?
You certainly don’t want your condenser to fail because then you have to buy a new system.
Arrisola said prices for a new system are expected to jump anywhere from 10% to 20%. But no one is sure.
His suggestion: Keep repairing your system until you no longer can. It’s cheaper to pay hundreds of dollars for older coolant than $12,000 on a new system.
Remember Lieber’s rule. Get a second opinion. If two AC techs agree on the diagnosis, you have witnessed a miracle.
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