Maybe not so much today, but for decades, walk into a baseball stadium, and some barker was yelling that phrase along with “you can’t tell the players without a scorecard...”

It sort of feels that way today with AC refrigerants in new units, in older units, and what is coming.

Any refrigerant is part of the broader category of fluorocarbons. While all refrigerants have the same result, the chemical composition changes from product to product. R-22, Freon, which, since the 1950s was the standard bearer for decades, in AC units, in your car AC system, your refrigerator and numerous other consumer products. After the 1987 Montreal Protocol, it was determined that the chlorine component of R-22 was damaging the ozone layer of the planet.

In January 2010, The US Government banned the production and import of R-22, with a 2-decade phase out of the usage and distribution of the product.

R-22 Freon is still available, but the cost has skyrocketed, from $15-24 per pound, to $150- $200 per pound. The typical home AC system requires about 8 – 10 pounds of refrigerant. The newer refrigerant to replace Freon was R-410a, also known as Puron. It has been around since the early 1990s, but became the product of choice once Freon started being phased out in the 2010’s. Most AC units built in the early to mid-2010’s contained Puron.

That was short-lived, since in December 2022, the EPA announced a planned phase-out of R-410a Puron, commencing in 2025. The replacements already being marketed are R-32, Forane or R-454b, marketed as Puron Advance, Opteon XL and Solstice 454b.

Lastly another possible replacement, R-466a, is available for usage in certain units. A qualified AC technician will determine the units’ age, what refrigerant is in use now, was the unit retrofitted to accommodate a certain refrigerant and so on. It is entirely possible that if your seller has a newer unit, that uses R-410a, it might require any of the 3 alternatives, based on several factors.

Why do we care? Is your seller obligated to disclose the material facts about their current AC system?

Should your buyer be certain of the age and refrigerant used currently?

Yes and Yes. If we look at lines 105-111 of the current Residential SPDS (February 2023 version), the seller should disclose the age of the unit, the type of refrigerant, and any awareness of service issues and maintenance.

If your seller is not sure which refrigerant is in the unit, they have options on how to determine that information, ranging from reviewing repair invoices from an AC contractor, calling the AC contractor, finding the unit serial number, and searching that on-line. That may be found on a metal plate or sticker attachment on the outside unit that has the model number and serial number. Search that, and it will result in the manufacturers identity of the unit, age, refrigerant and other factors.

While we are not experts and not obligated to determine the refrigerant and any inherent issues, we should always recommend the buyer have the system(s) inspected as part of their due diligence.

Do you still want to walk past the barkers and not buy the scorecard?