These are blends of isopropane and isobutane. They're sold under names like EnviroSafe, RedTek, DuraCool, HC-12a, OZ-12, MX-12a, ES-12a, HC-12a, "anything"-12a). They're inexpensive and widely touted as "drop ins", even though legally there is
no such thing as a "drop in " replacement for R12.
Do these hydrocarbon blends work? Yeah, they work.
Is it safe? The sellers say yes (of course), but can't seem to provide enough supporting data, despite 15 years of trying, to pass the refrigerant
safety tests ALL refrigerants are required to pass before they're legally
approved. The sellers claim it's due to politics and Big Refrigerant Inc's
desire to own the market. EPA says
Don't. MACS says
Don't.
One argument commonly advanced for these refrigerants is "You carry 20 gallons of gasoline and you don't worry about that, so why worry about 2 pounds of hydrocarbons in your A/C system?" The answer is that the fuel system is specifically designed and tested to store, carry and transport flammable fluids. The A/C system isn't. What's more, our old Mopars don't have anywhere near the ventillation that newer cars with their through-flow air exchange systems have. In a newer car, a small leak of hydrocarbon refrigerants is not as likely to lead to a critical (BLAM!) accumulation of hydrocarbons in the passenger compartment. In an older car without through-flow (all A-bodies and most other '60s-'70s Mopars), the opportunity for accumulation is much greater.
And don't think you're not at risk 'cause you don't smoke in your car. There are lots of sparks happening all the time in and near the passenger compartment. Blower motor, all the dash switches, static electricity, etc. It only takes one.
Freon does not "burn". In fact, like other halons, it tends to extinguish whatever fire it encounters. Fire + Freon can produce a toxic gas (phosgene), however, injury or death from phosgene created by a fire in an A/C equipped vehicle is
far less likely than injury or death from fire or explosion caused or aggravated by hydrocarbon refrigerants. Think about it: The antidote to toxic gas exposure is ventillation. That's easy to accomplish and you've got time to do so after the exposure. The only antidote to a hydrocarbon explosion is not being there when it happens. That's much harder to do since it involves predicting the future.
if you mouse around on the websites selling this stuff, you'll find them talking about "legal 2nd-generation drop-in" refrigerant. This is a bit of doublespeak. Here's how it works: It's illegal to replace R12 with hydrocarbon refrigerants, but it's not illegal to replace R134a with hydrocarbon refrigerants. A law against the latter was never written, 'cause there's no reason why anybody
would ever replace R134a with hydrocarbons. Unfortunately, that legal omission is being treated as a loophole by those selling hydrocarbon refrigerants. The idea, they say, is to convert your system over to R134a (which is legal), then replace the R134a with hydrocarbons. Nudge nudge, wink wink, elbow in the ribs, and if you happen, wink wink, to forget the "change to R134a" step, wink wink, why, that would be awful. Wink wink. Just terrible. Wink wink.
As a final note, A/C shops have sniffers that detect what the system you bring them is charged with. When they detect a nonstandard refrigerant, they will either tell you to leave or start making the cash register ring Large. If they detect hydrocarbons, they will tell you very quickly to get the hell out of their shop.
Hydrocarbon refrigerants work but are a really, really, really bad idea in motor vehicles. It'd be a terrible shame to get killed, disfigured or maimed because you were too cheap to fix your A/C correctly.
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Too many people who were born on third base actually believe they've hit a triple.
