Refrigerant 22 is in its final glide path for being phased out. The last year of production for R-22 will be the year 2020. After that, you will have a very hard time finding any R-22 around to recharge or “top off” your R-22 air conditioning system. The reason you should care about this is that R-22 HAS BEEN THE OLD STANDBY refrigerant of choice for air conditioning systems for the past 50 years, and the vast majority of A/C systems are still using it. While new “replacement” refrigerants, such as R-407C, are available, there is a substantial cost to retrofit your cooling system for one of these new refrigerants. If you had a small refrigerant leak in your A/C system today, for example, that would normally be a minor repair. But if the refrigerant in your A/C system is no longer available, the repair becomes a major expense because it becomes necessary to 1) remove and dispose of all the old refrigerant in the system, 2)possibly replace the metering devices, and 3) recharge the system with the new refrigerant. Doable yes, but much more expensive than just fixing a leak and adding some refrigerant. The best action for you to take before 2020: make sure you either retrofit your A/C system with one of the new refrigerants OR replace your entire cooling system with a modern, more efficient one. This will cost some money, so be smart about it- don’t just go out and order this work done to beat the phaseout. Instead, wait until you have a large A/C system repair pending, and at that point go ahead and spend the extra money to upgrade your system. That way, you get more bang for your buck, plus you will have a newer, more efficient system that will save you money thru lower operating costs. Make sense? Good! So next time your A/C system needs a major repair, call Air Control Heating and Electric, Inc at (509) 924-0018 and we will give you your options and comparative costs to either repair your existing A/C system or renew the entire system. 11/18/2014