Hello, At one time, Manufacturing processes blew thousands of tons of F12 and similar freons to make coffee cups and similar products. Like paint VOC's were released into the atmosphere. Paint has been monotored for many years, Then Freon got tagged. Looking at the law from a new angle, I see if the ban was only on F12 types of freon, the various industries would have converted to F22, and nothing would change, but banning 22 types, made various industries look for a better solution. They will still blow tons of freons into the atmosphere, but maybe the chemicals will not be as damaging. The real answer is to make industry sniff the emissions and recover them during the process. This would be very expensive to administer, so a bann on the chemical is a better approach. Industry does not change what works. So there will still be manufacturing processes that use F12 long past 2025.

The last meeting i had with the manufactures they told me that no mater what you do it is hard to get the oil that is stuck to the inside of the lines, cleaned out of there. I think you can vacuum for hrs. and it won't take the old oil out. Just my opinion but i would never reuse the old R22 lines. Later paulbm

tigerdunes, I have seen your great responses on many posts. Getting my neighbor to spend for a new system is tough as he is cheap..LOL. As he has a wife and two small kids, he need to do what is best for them. I also believe his blower motor is not working as expected as mine blows much harder then his. Furnace is Lennox G40UH(x) series. I am looking at the manual and wonder does this blower have a manual 2 speed on the circuit board and maybe wired at the slow speed. (I read this somewhere) http://0190acd.netsolhost.com/manuals/G40UH_Series.pdf I am not thrilled to go in his attic when it is this hot but I worry for his family. How do I tell if the blower is okay?

R438a is otherwise known as MO99. It is a medium and low temperature application refrigerant that is compatible with *SOME* R22 Freon parts and pieces when used with the proper application. It is not compatible with high temp application appliance like air conditioning. No problems with it? Sure probably not initially and when it kills your air conditioner they will just tell you it died of old age. How nice of them? How does it kill your air conditioner: Poor oil return to the compressor. If you want to kill your air conditioner but good... go for it. You have two choices: You should fix the refrigerant leak and recharge with virgin R22. OR Upgrade the equipment to work with R410a. Either of these options require there to be no leaks, or your wallet will get drained repeatedly. If you just keep recharging the unit with MO99 (R438a) it will kill your compressor. How long it will take? A day, a week, a month, a year. (most likely when it's hot outside.) Oil return for a compressor is critical and running a compressor low on refrigerant isn't helping your situation.