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914World.com _ 914World Garage _ WOT: Anyone do Residential HVAC?

Posted by: porsche914blue May 13 2005, 11:56 AM

What does a pound of Freon sell for these days??

My AC's only blowing about 75f out of the registers. I have someone coming to look at it on Saturday and my guess is a Freon leak. Any ideas what type of Freon it would take? R22, 134a? -- it's a York system and about 6 years old.

Posted by: skline May 13 2005, 11:59 AM

My guess would be R12 which is going to cost you. See if he can retrofit it with the newer stuff. I dont do AC but I have a friend who do, but he is geographically not going to be able to help you.

Posted by: anderssj May 13 2005, 12:05 PM

Just went through this 2 days ago. Freon (R-12) was $29 per pound. Our 12-year-old system took 2 lbs, service call fee added $75. Hope to make this one last until I get one of the kids out of college.

Estimate on a replacement system was around 2K+. With my luck, that will also require an updated air-handling unit inside the house . . . .

Oh, after the re-charge, the air temp at the vent was a comfy 51 degrees

Posted by: bd1308 May 13 2005, 12:08 PM

yup...if you get a new AC compressor, you have to get new equipment........runs around 2Gs....

Posted by: porsche914blue May 13 2005, 12:30 PM

Thanks for offering up your friend skline but yes CA and VA are about as far apart as you can get!!

Everything seems to run ok, just no cold air at the vents. I figured since they switched cars from R12 to 134a back in the mid 90's (??) that they may have done the same thing to residential AC systems. I was afraid that R12 might have reached "unobtainium" prices. $30/lb sounds familiar. Not too bad.

Posted by: xsboost90 May 13 2005, 01:02 PM

should be r22 and i believe you have to have a license to buy the stuff.

Posted by: bd1308 May 13 2005, 01:05 PM

knew somebody that made the papers for huffing freon...drained the neighboorhood....his friend ended up dying from it too....sad story

Posted by: skline May 13 2005, 01:38 PM

QUOTE (bd1308 @ May 13 2005, 12:05 PM)
knew somebody that made the papers for huffing freon...drained the neighboorhood....his friend ended up dying from it too....sad story

Kids

Posted by: bd1308 May 13 2005, 02:23 PM

from what the word is on the streets, freon is the stuff to huff.....except when you wanna prolong the high by putting a bag over your head.

Posted by: seanery May 13 2005, 02:35 PM

I have R22, that my uncle bought for me when he showed me how to recharge my system. I think a bottle cost about a hundred bucks and has done 3 or 4 recharges with a little less than 1/2 remaining.

Posted by: guywan914 May 14 2005, 04:15 AM

York system of that vintage uses r-22, about 4.00 @ lb. Prices haven't gone thru the roof on 22 yet. Make sure the service tech performs superheat and subcooling measurements when charging. Depending on tonnage could use 4 to 8 lbs if there was no freon left. Could be something as simple as dirty filter or air coil.

Posted by: anderssj May 14 2005, 09:00 AM

Just went back and checked the paperwork from the other day--it was 2 lbs of R-22 at $29 per pound, not R-12 as in my earlier post.

Ours is an old Lennox system with a max capacity of 6 lbs. Before the recharge it would cool, but then the evaporator in the attic would ice up . . . .

I had asked the tech about a/c using R-134--he said that home units are just starting to move in that direction; mostly commercial app's so far.

Sorry for any confusion . . . .