Need some A/c advice

[casurfer911]

so during the winter i forgot to use my a/c for about 6 months and now it doesn't work and im sweating like crazy. its a 90 535i so its the r12. Should i retrofit to the new stuff. Or just get it recharged with the old stuff.

[Tiger]

Convert it to the R134a.

[Kalevera]

Actually, with the price of R12 being about the same as R134 these days, it probably makes more sense to just get it refilled w/R12.

best, whit

[winfred]

by my count r12 is still not quite twice the price of r134 per # in 30# kegs but it's close, r134 has doubled in price since last year and r12 has come down around $75 per 30# keg in the last couple years. i have my epa permit so i can buy r12/r22 at will, www.imaca.org if ya wanna permit, it's a bit of a joke being a open book test/common sence, $15 if i remember right

[Dan in NZ]

Convert to r134a... Think of the environment. I got mine done by a specialist, they evacuted and disposed what was left of the r12, changed the receiver/dryer, and refilled with r134a. Didn't cost a lot at all, about NZD$350 (US$250).

I thought there might have been a slow leak letting out the r12, but it's been 2 years since I switched and the pressure is still good.

[winfred]

as far as i am conserned r12 is not any more or less toxic then r134 it's just a slightly different compound, the keyword here is "different" it makes the tree huggers feel better. as for your old r12 it was sold to another customer at a tidy proffit


Convert to r134a... Think of the environment. I got mine done by a specialist, they evacuted and disposed what was left of the r12

[tim s]

compressor for my e30. my mech. just told me r12 & r134a is only $2-3 difference a pound.
i friend of mine with a chemistry degree told me that all of freons ingredients are heavier than the ingredients in the air we breath. so if freon is heavier how does it elevate into the upper atmosphere to deplete the O-zone?
tim s.

[winfred]

exactly. a 30# keg of r134 goes for around $240 at sams wholesale club, i can get it through a supplyer near the head of production for around $175, a virgin unopened cylinder of r12 goes for around $350 on ebay not sure what intown is as it's been a long time (sleezy guy five finger discounted from his employer a keg and sold it to us for $100 and we have been working on that for our own cars plus what we can recover from the salvage yard's cars) both of my cars are r12 and will stay that way just because i can :D


i friend of mine with a chemistry degree told me that all of freons ingredients are heavier than the ingredients in the air we breath. so if freon is heavier how does it elevate into the upper atmosphere to deplete the O-zone?
tim s.

[SRR2]

It's not a question of toxicity, it's Ozone Depletion Potential. R-12 is very active in destroying stratospheric ozone, R-134a is essentially inert, mostly because of the absence of chlorine in R134a. The only reason that R134a is regulated at all, and it's a pretty thin reason at that, is that it has greenhouse potential. However, NEITHER is toxic, in the sense that incidental casual exposure could cause damage to your bodily systems.

Ask the people in Australia and NZ how they feel about continued production and release of chlorinated fluorocarbons.

[tim s]

when it is heavier than the air we breath.
tim s.


It's not a question of toxicity, it's Ozone Depletion Potential. R-12 is very active in destroying stratospheric ozone, R-134a is essentially inert, mostly because of the absence of chlorine in R134a. The only reason that R134a is regulated at all, and it's a pretty thin reason at that, is that it has greenhouse potential. However, NEITHER is toxic, in the sense that incidental casual exposure could cause damage to your bodily systems.

Ask the people in Australia and NZ how they feel about continued production and release of chlorinated fluorocarbons.

[Dan in NZ]

My recovered r12 wasn't sold to another customer, because that **** is illegal to sell down here (nice and close to the hole in the ozone layer).

How does it get up there? Pfft who knows... But if you think about it, the air we breath is a mixture of a lot of different gasses, mostly nitrogen, and they're not stratified by weight. Eventually the gasses all diffuse around a bit.

It's the CFC's man... chloronated flurocarbons. Out with the chlorine!

[winfred]

hfc has the ozone grabbing tendencys as cfc, just slightly less