How To Tell Which Refrigerant You Need To Keep Things Cool
Refrigerant is used in your refrigerator, your homes HVAC system, and your car's air conditioning unit. Over the years, the refrigerant has changed due to laws and regulations because of their effect on the environment. When one of these devices is no longer cooling the way it should, the problem could be a lack of refrigerant. However, before you go out to buy a can or two, there are a few things you need to know in order to purchase the right type or refrigerant from your refrigerant fitting supplier.
Certification
Some refrigerants now require a certification that you have taken and passed a test given by the EPA. This means you may have to talk with a licensed and certified HVAC technician to get the needed refrigerant. This requirement is mostly for whole house air conditioning units and refrigeration systems. Unfortunately, it also means that you will not be able to recharge the system yourself and will need to hire a professional.
Fittings
Due to the chemicals involved in refrigerant, each type will have a different fitting. This prevents you from adding the wrong type to your cooling device. If the refrigerant requires a certification to be bought, the fitting on the device will keep you from adding one that you can readily buy. It also prevents you from adding the refrigerant to the wrong port on the device. Make sure you pay attention to the fittings on each port and find out which port is used for adding the refrigerant to that particular device.
Model and Year
As mentioned above, refrigerant types changed over the years. It will be a great help in choosing the correct refrigerant if you know the make and model of the device you will be recharging. If the laws mandated a change that has the original refrigerant for your device obsolete and no longer available you should be able to find the correct replacement by using the fitting located on the charging port.
While any refrigerant could potentially cause the device to do the cooling it was created to do, not any refrigerant can be connected to every device. If you cannot find a refrigerant that connects to the fitting on your device you need to contact a HVAC company. When you provide them with the make, model, and year of the device, they will be able to tell you if you can recharge the cooling system yourself and what type of refrigerant to buy or if you need to have a professional do the work,
