Three Refrigerants that Auto Dealers Should Have

Automotive air conditioning systems may come in different types that use different mechanisms, but all of them share the same basic need: refrigerants. These chemicals are used to transfer air from and to the atmosphere in order to provide cool air inside the room or vehicle. As such, they are one of the most essential items that auto dealers should have in stock, and refrigerants come in various types that suit vehicles of different ages.

R-12, also known as dichlorodifluoromethane, was the main automobile refrigerant used up until the early 90s. Its popularity waned after the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) discovered that R-12 can seriously damage the ozone layer. Since then, the EPA has required auto makers to phase-out R-12 in favor of a better type of refrigerant called R-134A, though vintage cars still use the former.

On the other hand, vehicles that weren’t retrofitted to use R-134A used R-22, or chlorodifluoromethane, as an alternative. R-22 is one of the rarer types of auto refrigerants because its production was halted in 2003.

R-134A or tetrafluoroethane is currently used by nearly all vehicles produced after the EPA’s mandate to employ more environment-friendly refrigerants. While it retains the same cooling capabilities of R-12 and R-22, R-134A has very little effect on the ozone layer, making it popular worldwide. That said, some European countries are in the process of finding an even better alternative to R-134A, in light of more stringent sustainable policies made in 2011.