What Type of Freon Goes In RV Air Conditioner? // R-22 Refrigerant

Have you ever wondered what type of freon goes in RV air conditioner?

Your RV air conditioner works by having a chemical known as a refrigerant in it. This chemical is often called Freon which, technically, is a brand name.

While it is rare that you will need to do this, there may eventually come a point where you need to replace the Freon in your RV’s air conditioner. If you are going to be doing this properly, then you need to know what Freon was in the air conditioner in the first place. That is what we want to talk about on this page.

So what type of freon goes in a RV air conditioner? Nowadays, chances are that your RV’s air conditioner will use R-410A. However, it is sold under a variety of different brand names, so you will want to make sure that you get the right one for your air conditioner.

In the past, it always would have been R-22 Freon. So, if you have an RV air conditioner that is more than a few years old, then chances are that it will have R-22 Freon in it. In fact, the term ‘Freon’ can only really apply to R-22.

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What Type of Freon Goes in an RV Air Conditioner?

If you have an RV air conditioner that is more than a few years old, then chances are that it will have R-22 Freon in it. In fact, the term ‘Freon’ can only really apply to R-22.

Of course, it was discovered that the chemicals in this Freon were contributing towards global warming quite significantly and, as a result, R-22 Freon was banned from production (we will discuss that more in a second)

If you want to find out what type of refrigerant that your RV’s air conditioner takes, then you need to look in the instruction manual.

It will tell you exactly what you need to buy. It is vital that you are only buying what the manual suggests. The various refrigerants are not cross-compatible.

👉 Purchase: You can purchase this Air Conditioning Refrigerant Filler Kit with Stand R410a today! Just follow the link to Amazon where you can see current pricing.

Why is R-22 Freon Tough To Find in the United States?

Since 2020, it has been illegal to produce any product that contains R-22 in the United States. This means that old Freon is no longer made. If you have an older air conditioner, then, as time goes on, you will actually find it more and more difficult to purchase replacement Freon for it.

Any of the Freon that you find on the market nowadays has either been recovered from air conditioner systems that have been dismantled or the Freon was produced before the ban came into effect.

Obviously, R-22 Freon was starting to be phased out a long time before 2020, which means that the supply was already starting to fall.

Since nobody is making it now, and no air conditioners in the last few years have used R-22 Freon, it is difficult to find. In fact, give it a year or two, and you probably won’t be able to find R-22 Freon for sale at all.

What Does Freon Do?

We do not want to get too technical here. This is because you don’t actually need to know how Freon works in order for you to use an air conditioning system. However, some people are interested in the process, so we figured that we would take the time to give you a brief overview.

Inside of your air conditioner is a compressor. The compressor will ‘compress’ the Freon until it becomes hot.

The Freon will then be forced through the air conditioner. As it does, it starts to turn into a liquid. This is because the heat of the Freon is reduced.

At the end of process, the Freon is cooled down drastically. This causes it to evaporate. As this happens, the Freon will pass through a series of coils located close to the air going into the air conditioner.

The gas will then absorb all of the heat from this air, cooling it down.

Basically, if you do not have Freon, or some other refridgerant in an air conditioner, then it simply wouldn’t work. The temperature of the air going in would be exactly the same as the temperature of the air going out.

How do I Know If My RV AC is Low on Freon?

Now, air conditioners do a decent job of sealing the Freon inside of them. It is very, very rare that Freon will drop quickly. In fact, some people may not have to replace any Freon for years.

👉 However, because the Freon is constantly being heated up then cooled down, small amounts of Freon will start to disappear.

Leaks may also start to appear on the air conditioner which will allow small amounts of Freon to escape from the unit. As a result, it is important that you know how to tell whether the Freon levels are getting too low.

👉 Perhaps the biggest indicator is that Freon is hitting very low levels is if some of the air is coming out of the air conditioner without being cooled. You may also find that the air conditioner is having a tougher time cooling down your RV.

This doesn’t necessarily mean that there is an issue with the Freon. There is a whole host of things that can cause temperature issues with the air conditioner, but it is one of the bigger causes.

👉 If you notice that ice has started to appear in the air conditioner, then this is a surefire sign that you will need to replace the Freon quickly.

Ice is never a good thing and, if you continue to run the air conditioner like this, you will end up damaging the system.

👉 Even if you do not notice that there is ice in the system, ice may have started to appear inside of the pipes.

You can tell that this is the case if air is not flowing out as efficiently as it did in the past i.e. if the air conditioner vents seem to have a lower amount of air coming out, there is a good chance that there is ice blocking the inside of the system somewhere.

If you look in the instruction manual for your air condtioner, it will likely give you a ton of advice on how you can check Freon levels yourself.

Some Tools You might need:

Testing Freon Level In An RV Air Conditioner >> Check out the video below:

Can You Replace Freon Yourself?

You can, at least in most RV air conditioners. There will be some that are completely sealed units. However, you shouldn’t really have to be replacing the Freon all that frequently.

If you find that the Freon is leaking out at a rapid rate, then you shouldn’t really be trying to refill it yourself.

As we said before, Freon is pretty expensive. If you have a leak, then you will probably want to patch it up quickly, otherwise, you are just going to be loading tons and tons of freon into an air conditioner that is only going to let it escape.

To be honest, even if you feel as if there are no leaks on the air conditioner, you should probably still get in touch with an expert to replace the Freon. This way, you will be able to ensure that it is done perfectly.

Conclusion

If you want to know what type of Freon needs to go into your air conditioner, you will have to check the instruction manual.

In most cases, it will either be R-22 or R410-A. Make sure that you put the right one in, otherwise the system won’t work.

References

https://www.conditionedair.com/