PeachParts Mercedes-Benz Forum - View Single Post

JHZR2 · #2 04-14-2022, 11:41 PM

What do you want to know?

R-12 in a fixed system is the best. It meets the design for lubricants, flow, hoses, etc. Not many shops service it anymore.

While the w123 I had retrofitted to r134a worked well enough, those that I’ve kept with r-12 have been better. They don’t all leak or fail, especially if you run the ac system when driving to keep seals and hoses coated with oil.

Ive used envirosafe refrigerants particularly for the purpose of finding and repairing systems. Legally you shouldn’t refill any refrigerant system, you shoukd find and repair the leak and then use the correct refrigerant. Even 134a isn’t great for the environment. Technically for leak checking you can vent a tiny bit of refrigerant to the atmosphere, by pressurizing a system with nitrogen and a trace amount of refrigerant. I much prefer to use es-12a or industrial 12a, both from envirosafe, and use a hydrocarbon sniffer. Works really well and works with r-12 and r-134a systems.

Some may not like the prospect of doing this, I get it. It’s another more flammable substance underhood. But that’s not an argument we need to make in this thread. Especially for testing, and having a system that you can drive and operate while troubleshooting and sniffing or looking for dye.

I wouldn’t mess with other CFC blends. If you’re going to do anything, either run the correct r-12, retrofit to r-134a, or run one of the hydrocarbon 12a refrigerants.

Refrigerators in most homes now have the same hydrocarbon refrigerants. I was shopping refrigerators and was surprised to see how many had it pressed into the metal panel on the rear of them. Granted those are really sealed systems, but still, that concerns me more than hydrocarbon in an auto accident system, unless you have some issue like a big leak in an evaporator or something.

You’ll be happy with envirosafe. I’d ignore the comments that it works with moisture and air… if you’ve had a leaky system that let air in, replace the r/d, pull a hard vacuum, and run industrial 12a. They recommend against a hard vac with the standard es-12a, but I don’t really understand why. Ive always pulled the hard vacuum then charged it properly. Even in leaky systems it runs well for much longer.