There is a general stink in the HVAC industry regarding the ongoing phase out of R-22 coolant common in legacy air conditioning systems. You have a lot of half truths being floated around by various companies trying to offload their surplus inventory. In addition you even have some die hard HVAC guys that don’t want to see R-22 go away only because it’s what they are used to. While they make some good points, ultimately they aren’t giving you the complete picture and are playing games with your pocket book. You need to think long and hard before you let any of these guys put a “new” R-22 system in your home.R-22 has been on the phase out, so many companies are using something called HCFC-22, but even that is slated to be reduced to 10% capacity starting in 2015. So while you can still get your Air Conditioning system recharged you can expect prices to get really volatile leading up to 2015 and to start consistently climbing after that.
This is not something new. The car industry had something VERY similar happen with R-12 which is a coolant prevalent in most cars not to long ago. During that time were making the same stink about R-12 going away, ESPECIALLY from the car salesmen with cars on their lot that used R-12.
Technically you can still find R-12 even today, but if you want some scary foreshadowing of things to come, take a peak at the costs of R-12 today, something in the neighborhood of $300 a pound for something that used to cost in the neighborhood of $15 per pound.
Bottom line, if you have a company offer to sell you a R-22 based system they are most likely in the same boat as the car salesmen selling that car was. They have excess inventory and they don’t really car about you and what you will have to pay down the line. Actually if they are that shady and have an ounce of brains they are probably stock piling R-22 and HCFC-22 as we speak. Nothing like building up future demand on something you know you can charge a premium for later on.
So why deal with a company like that? Find a reputable contractor that has your best interest in mind and consider it a huge red flag.
