Refrigerant Contamination

[mattd]

What does it mean by Refrigerant contamination?

[kasim]

You know that there is a refrigerant in a car which is supplied to the AC of the car. The refrigerant needs to be very pure that most of the people are not aware of. When one time the refrigerant in my car was contaminated and I spent lot of money and time to decontaminate it; that’s when I realized that contaminated refrigerant can cost you lot of bucks. Before going further, you should know that the universal refrigerant suited for cars is R-12a, and nothing else. All other refrigerants are really harmful for the car.

So, refrigerant contamination is when other refrigerants (like R-134a, R-22) are pulled into the refrigerant with R-12a. Since these refrigerants are flammable, it contaminates the complete refrigerant and your refrigerant is no longer pure. Rather, the chances of your car getting fire increases rapidly. And don’t talk about decontaminating it. Most of the times, it’s impossible to decontaminate it. But if you still go for decontamination, then first the cost of the process. And second, the time to do that. Replacing the dryers, filter and then the experts charge you on hour basis to vacuum purge. The cost and time involved in the whole thing is really high.

So, when you refill the refrigerant, you need to make sure that it’s pure. You know what’s the interesting part? Many of the auto shop people cannot even judge if the refrigerant is pure or not. I mean it’s ridiculous. It’s a huge damage for the auto shop as well, if the car council realizes that the car had damage because of their refrigerant supply. And also, if an auto shop expert tries to convince you by selling any other refrigerant than R-12, don’t buy it. All other refrigerants or not approved by the car council and RTA as well. Your car will not pass emission/RTA test if you have any other refrigerant in your car.