tms wrote:
Hey Monte,
I'm willing to bet that a big reason for the scam is the scarcity of technicians that know R22 systems. In our area, R410a is the only thing anyone is familiar with.
Even if you can find a tech that knows R22, the cost of the refrigerant, which is no longer manufactured, often ends up making the cost of the repair more than a replacement. This was the situation that we found ourselves in when our HVAC unit went TU. All my experience with refrigeration has also been with R22 in large hydro chillers, and so I was very skeptical when the cost analysis was presented, but the numbers were hard to argue with. The upside is that our new R410a unit is more efficient than the old R22 unit.
Cheers,
Tom
My gripe is with the dishonesty of the companies that say that it is against the law to repair these systems, not when a system is truly dead, I have condemned several myself for leaking coils, bad compressors, ...
"Under the Protocol, which was amended four times since 1988, total United States HCFC production and consumption should be phased out by 2030."
https://www.goodmanmfg.com/resources/hv ... -to-r-410aR-22 was used until 2004 most of those "newer" systems were SEER's of 13 or better witch is the current standard. If a tech can't figure R-22 out he is not much of a tech. At wholesale R-22 around here is considerably less than $20 per pound, one service company was charging $100 per pound.
FYI R-410a (and all of the refrigerants in the R-4**) as well as the R-134a are on the hit list in the near future.