WhiteHawk
Club Member
So a little public service announcement here. I just found out through my work (to be clear this is not anything secret though) that the government is phasing out R134A - which has been the main refrigerant in most of the cars built up until the late 20 teens. The only place that most OEM's are still using it is in HD and bigger trucks, where it is still allowed. To get the automakers to switch to R1234YF, they have been giving generous CAFE credits for making the change early, so most auto companies have switched by now.
The US government (I am guessing the EPA) issued proposed rulemaking recently that wanted to eliminate US use of R134A by 2026. It is already banned in Europe, so we are under pressure to do it too (thanks Joe Biden!). Most of the OEM's pushed back and asked for 2028, since 2026 is literally only a couple years, and in terms of vehicle production, and it takes a while to change that stuff over. Nobody knows if the EPA will delay it to 2028 or stick with 2026. So if they go with 2026, it will be unobtanium in two years.
The final decision is coming in October of this year. Once they make the final decision, they are going to put a cap on how much R134A can be produced per year, with less per year until the phase out is complete, so the price will probably start going up immediately. If you have a car or truck running this refrigerant that you plan on keeping until 2028 or later, now is a good time to buy, because it will probably never be cheaper. If you don't know, there should be a label when you pop the hood telling you what the refrigerant is, and how much is in the vehicle.
-Geoff
The US government (I am guessing the EPA) issued proposed rulemaking recently that wanted to eliminate US use of R134A by 2026. It is already banned in Europe, so we are under pressure to do it too (thanks Joe Biden!). Most of the OEM's pushed back and asked for 2028, since 2026 is literally only a couple years, and in terms of vehicle production, and it takes a while to change that stuff over. Nobody knows if the EPA will delay it to 2028 or stick with 2026. So if they go with 2026, it will be unobtanium in two years.
The final decision is coming in October of this year. Once they make the final decision, they are going to put a cap on how much R134A can be produced per year, with less per year until the phase out is complete, so the price will probably start going up immediately. If you have a car or truck running this refrigerant that you plan on keeping until 2028 or later, now is a good time to buy, because it will probably never be cheaper. If you don't know, there should be a label when you pop the hood telling you what the refrigerant is, and how much is in the vehicle.
-Geoff
