As hard as certain elements in Europe continue to push for a ban on f-gas refrigerants including HFCs, there is an equally strong push back by those who want any decisions based on a range of factors that could well keep HFCs in play for a long time.

Recent developments related to refrigerant research are focusing on testing of a new HC refrigerant and growing acceptance of a method of destroying unwanted refrigerants. In the first, ComStar International is providing test results on its blended hydrocarbon 188C2. In the second, Midwest Refrigerants is reporting on its destruction technology.

History, they say, repeats itself. The HVACR industry is not immune to the truth of this saying. A good case in point was the introduction of R-410A earlier this century, compared to the introduction of R-22 in the 1930s.

We all create our own individual histories every day. At the same time, we become part of a larger history. With that in mind, we asked a few industry colleagues what the most significant changes were that they have witnessed in the HVACR industry.

Honeywell has announced that Bitzer has approved the use of HFC-407F (marketed by Honeywell as Genetron® Performax™ LT refrigerant in North America) as an HCFC-22 retrofit solution for medium-temperature systems, such as supermarket refrigerated cases.

The increased use of high pressure refrigerants has created new challenges for technicians, yet it is still possible to perform high speed recovery of high pressure refrigerants. The tips and practices in this article will help keep your refrigerant recovery speeding toward the finish.

Once every three years, the International Institute of Ammonia Refrigeration ups the ante within the expo portion of its annual conference by calling the expo a Heavy Equipment Show and including some especially large pieces of equipment. The most recent show in Orlando demonstrated the wide product range.

Carrier Corp. recently filed a petition with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), formalizing a request to reclassify a residential condensing unit as a subsystem of a system to extend the manufacturing prohibition to dry R-22 condensing units. The petition urges EPA to reconsider its current position and to issue a new rulemaking.

A lot of talk these days about natural refrigerants focuses on CO2, propane, isobutene, and the like. Stateside, they may be new kids on the block in terms of HVACR applications. But one natural refrigerant that has been around seemingly forever is ammonia. So it - like those “newcomers” - is drawing a lot of attention.

Actually, frost on the suction line only indicates that at the location where the frost is present, the suction line piping is below the dew point temperature of the surrounding ambient air and at or below 32°F. That’s it. It is neither an indication of a properly operating system nor a system defect.