A 1965 folk song by Donovan waxed poetically about colors such as yellow for his true love’s hair, blue for the sky, and green for sparkling corn before veering off to non-colors like mellow and freedom.
The refrigerant aspect of the HVACR industry has its own attachment to colors when it comes to cylinders. But while Donovan’s color palette was designed for literary lyricism, HVACR’s color usage may be considered a bit more confusing. HVAC cylinder colors creatively extend beyond the basic palette, utilizing terms such as light green, battleship gray, and rose for such familiar refrigerants as R-22, R-134a, and R-410A. And they can become even more descriptive as new refrigerants come to the market like pinkish-red (coral) for R-401A; yellow-brown (mustard) for R-401B; and cream for R-407B.