Checking refrigerant types

**sdakscrapper** · 04-18-2016, 10:31 PM

I have finally decided to take the plunge and get certified and invest in the equipment to pull refrigerant out of appliances so that I don't have to pass up those opportunities any longer. I purchased the very handy refrigerant recovery blueprint offered on SMF for getting into this business and one thing I don't see mentioned is about verifying what type of refrigerant is contained within appliances. I know that it is supposed to be labelled on every one, but when I talked to the company I was planning on selling my refrigerant to they told me that they highly recommend buying a tester so that you know what you are pulling out. He told me that if something has ever been serviced that there is a decent chance that whoever serviced it could have put new in and mixed the types. He said that if I brought in mixed that they would charge me four bucks a pound to take it.

Have any of the you on here that deal with refrigerant ever run into mixed types in fridges, freezers, or air conditioners? I've had to save up for a year to afford to buy the equipment and hadn't planned on buying a tester. After poking around online they look to cost at least as much as a decent recovery machine and much much more for better ones. I'm trying to decide if I should wait another year and keep saving for a tester or if it would be reasonably safe to continue without it.

**miked** · 04-18-2016, 10:42 PM

i don't know about the tester but I expect that the issue with mixed refrigerant is real. Hopefully Freon Joe will appear with a good answer. Mike

**freonjoe** · 04-18-2016, 11:37 PM

I run into a lot of mixed refrigerants. I have a Nuetronics analyzer to check every recovery tank before I pump it into shipping tanks. If you don't have a good analyzer, your best bet is to recover anything that has been tapped into a junk gas tank. I'm starting to run into more residential condensing units that were converted to 407C. With R12 at 20.00 a pound and R22 at 7.00 a pound any screw up can cost you a bunch of money.

**RagnBone** · 04-22-2016, 12:41 AM

You get $20 a lb for R12? How is there even a market for that stuff at this point?

**freonjoe** · 04-22-2016, 08:49 AM

RagnBone, I don't know how big the end market is for R12 but all the big reclaimers pay well for it. Part of it is a carbon credit according to the price lists that they mail out.