At what price Freon?

Monday, May 5, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.

If you are ever going to have your car retrofitted with a non-Freon air-conditioning system, now is the time to do it.

So say local auto shop managers and car dealers, noting that for the first time since environmentally hazardous Freon began to disappear from shelves, it is less expensive to retrofit than to service your car.

"We have R-12 (Freon), and on special requests are putting it in. But we recommend retrofitting instead, especially if you plan to keep the car a few years," said John Marchioni, general manager of the 16 Superior Tire and Auto Service Centers in Southern Nevada.

"I'd say within a year and a half, motorists will have to retrofit anyway because the large stockpile of R-12 will be pretty well diminished."

About four years ago, when Freon was still plentiful -- retail stores were allowed to sell off their stocks, but no Freon has been manufactured since December 1995 under a federal mandate -- it cost about $2,000 to retrofit systems for environmentally-safe refrigerants.

At the same time, it cost around $15-$25 to add 3 pounds of Freon to a car and a little more to fix a leaky system.

That, however, has changed drastically.

Now, again under federal law, repair shops must evacuate the old Freon -- a process that costs about $60. And a pound of Freon now retails for about $60. Thus, with the average car air-conditioning system requiring 3 pounds, the total cost of R-12 servicing today is about $240.

Meanwhile, it costs $175 to equip a car for Freon substitute R-134A, including $60 to remove the old Freon, $28 for the retrofit kit -- merely a bunch of O-rings and a small tube of lubricant -- $60 for labor and $27 for 3 pounds of R-134A.

However, companies with large reserves of Freon are advising motorists that, for the time being, if it's not broken, don't fix it.

One local company that has a significant supply of Freon is Cadillac West, which gets it from General Motors, which stockpiled it when manufacturing ceased.

"We do a performance test to check for leaks, and we like to give our customers a choice either to add Freon or retrofit," said Tom Hodulik, service manager for Cadillac West.

"If Freon is working in an older vehicle and there are no system leaks, we say stay with it for now."

Marchioni and Hodulik, however, agree that consumers should make sure these days that when they purchase Freon they are getting pure Freon.

"Black marketeers are selling what they say is good Freon, when it actually is bad," Hodulik said, noting that other dangerous gases are added to the black-market stuff.

The problem with black market Freon has gotten so bad, Marchioni said, his company purchased a "sniffer" -- a machine that tests 30-pound cans of Freon when they arrive at the company to determine if they also are filled with other gases that can severely harm a system.

Environmentalists would argue that even pure Freon is bad in that it contains chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs).

Marchioni says that with R-134A selling at $9 a pound and not tainted with CFCs and other gases, people would be wise to consider retrofitting as summer approaches.

"This is a good year to do it," he said. "Next year, there may be a mad rush as Freon gets more cost-prohibitive and people experience back orders (for retrofit kits)."

Also, Marchioni and Hodulik warn that consumers need to make sure that if they are buying untainted Freon, they are getting it at the right price.

"In town, there are some places advertising Freon by the ounce, making the price appear cheaper," Hodulik said. "Always make sure the price of Freon is quoted by the pound, otherwise you will be shocked by the bill."

Retrofitting has become cheaper in recent years as technology has improved. Previously, the compressor had to be replaced. However, a newly developed oil is added during retrofitting that negates the need for such an expensive job.

Some consumers have complained that the Freon substitutes don't keep the car as cool as Freon systems do. That, Marchioni said, can be remedied by the installation of a small fan in front of the condenser at a cost of about $50-$60 more.

Marchioni and Hodulik recommend against using Freon alternatives that can be put into an R-12 system without retrofitting. They point out that in many cases, use of products like Freeze 12 and Freezone will void all warranties on air-conditioning systems.

Also, consumers could experience difficulty finding places that service systems when such alternatives have been introduced.

The phase-out

The Freon phase-out actually began at the start of this decade, when the 1990 Clean Air Act was passed. Freon is believed to deplete the Earth's ozone layer, which protects the planet against the sun's harmful rays.

In the early years of the phase-out, small cans of Freon were readily available on the shelves of auto-parts stores. Despite the dangers of changing Freon in the driveway, the practice was quite common until a few years ago, when those supplies ran out.

Today, Freon can be purchased only in 30-pound containers and only by companies licensed to buy the gas. But even those cans are quickly disappearing.

As a result, the Freon ban has given black-marketeers an opportunity to make a quick buck by buying inferior Freon made in underdeveloped countries, including the former Soviet Union, India and Mexico, and selling it cheaply -- but at a substantial profit -- to American merchants.

Underdeveloped nations, under international agreement, have been allowed to continue to manufacture Freon -- albeit of a much lesser quality than what was once made in the United States -- until the year 2010. But that was intended for use only in poorer countries.

Dangerous imitations

While Hodulik gets his Freon from GM, Marchioni constantly searches for legal, established domestic sources. However, he admits that has gotten tougher because black marketeers now disguise themselves as legitimate businessmen with legitimate wares.

Marchioni said the illegal product is dangerous not only to a car's system, but also to the mechanics who have to service it, because some of the added gases are highly explosive. They also can contaminate expensive equipment used to recapture old Freon, he said.

As a result, Superior Tire has announced that later this spring the company will cease the sale of R-12.

In January, a dozen people were indicted on smuggling black market Freon into the United States -- by far the strongest action to date by the U.S. Justice Department against purveyors of illegal R-12.

Those who were indicted have been accused of hauling in hundreds of thousands of pounds of black-market Freon.

Since 1994, new cars worldwide have been manufactured with R-134A systems already built in, meaning that some day the availability of Freon and the need to retrofit won't be an issue.

However, it won't be until sometime early in the next century that the newer cars even overtake the number of older models on the road, let alone totally replace them.

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