Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jun 28, 2018 22:28:07 GMT 1
Recently unknown to me R134a has shot up from around £18 per cylinder to around £400, a major increase and this is causing service providers to increase their prices, however customers are walking away and providers I've seen are turning to R404. I've not fully looked into this but I assume that the lubricating oil will be different and the refrigerant working temperature also different, hence additional loads applied to the car A/C systems will be present and wondered about the longer term implications of this on both the customers vehicles and the RMS used to install it?
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Post by remmington on Jun 29, 2018 0:04:51 GMT 1
Not sure about R404...?
But I can tell you the price of R134a is putting the customers off...
Best price I have found for 12.5kgs is £299 plus VAT (Andrew Page).
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Post by chippie on Jun 29, 2018 11:08:55 GMT 1
Recently unknown to me R134a has shot up from around £18 per cylinder to around £400, this is causing service providers to increase their prices, however customers are walking away And of course there is the issue of the ensuing damage caused by the a/c compressor running without refrigerant on vehicles where there is no clutch and the compressor is always engaged....VW cars as an example...specifically Passats.. |
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studabear
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Post by studabear on Jun 29, 2018 19:49:14 GMT 1
Not sure about R404...? But I can tell you the price of R134a is putting the customers off... Best price I have found for 12.5kgs is £299 plus VAT (Andrew Page). At the minute we could do with 2 machines, ours has been going all day at £60 a time. |
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french crap fanatic
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french car specialist based in dagenham east london
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Post by french crap fanatic on Jul 1, 2018 12:28:01 GMT 1
Not sure about R404...? But I can tell you the price of R134a is putting the customers off... Best price I have found for 12.5kgs is £299 plus VAT (Andrew Page). At the minute we could do with 2 machines, ours has been going all day at £60 a time. euro were doing it for 300 all in recently |
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Post by liam99 on Jul 1, 2018 21:33:37 GMT 1
Not sure about R404...? But I can tell you the price of R134a is putting the customers off... Best price I have found for 12.5kgs is £299 plus VAT (Andrew Page). That the cheapest round here as well pages/Euro both doing at that. How much do you charge for a regas if you dont mind me asking? Thanks |
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Post by remmington on Jul 1, 2018 22:00:21 GMT 1
We charge £50 to re-gas a car that holds about 500 grams of gas.
(Kwik fit are £60)
Mini-busses with dual air-con we charge more.
Problem is leak testing - we used to use a lot of gas with dye for finding leaks.
I always struggle with finding leaks with nitrogen unless it has a big hole.
I am not doing the volume of air-con work we used to:
I think air-con machines are getting cheaper and lots more garages have got them.
Years ago apart from dealers - I was the one of only two indie garages in the town that did air-con.
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Post by liam99 on Jul 1, 2018 22:19:36 GMT 1
We charge £50 to re-gas a car that holds about 500 grams of gas. (Kwik fit are £60) Mini-busses with dual air-con we charge more. Problem is leak testing - we used to use a lot of gas with dye for finding leaks. I always struggle with finding leaks with nitrogen unless it has a big hole. I am not doing the volume of air-con work we used to: I think air-con machines are getting cheaper and lots more garages have got them. Years ago apart from dealers - I was the one of only two indie garages in the town that did air-con. It varies round here from starting at £40 to £80, I thinking of going at £50. I've not got involved with aircon but might of ended up with the use of machine. As for leak testing I know what you mean I struggle in the past to find them nitrogen. |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 2, 2018 19:27:48 GMT 1
I think the mixture I am thinking of is hydrogen/nitrogen mix for air con leaks. You really do need a good electronic sniffer to go with it. I've never been a fan of the dyes available for leak testing A/C systems, when the molecules sizes of the dye are understood in relation to the molecules of the refrigerant used, although the dye can be seen using UV light, miniature leaks won't be found using dye, but the mix in the cylinder explained above is the smallest molecule size on the periodic table for leak testing A/C systems, which are smaller than the molecule sizes of the actual refrigerant itself.
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Post by chippie on Jul 2, 2018 19:45:02 GMT 1
I worked on industrial refrig plants in my time....(think Carlyle... Driven by 2MW electric motor...) and we used helium for leak detection with an electronic sniffer....
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jul 3, 2018 19:09:29 GMT 1
So is it a helium and nitrogen mix that I should have been thinking of before?
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Post by chippie on Jul 3, 2018 19:25:44 GMT 1
I would have thought that Helium alone would suffice...
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Post by valhalla on Jul 4, 2018 14:48:26 GMT 1
Local refrigeration chappie was speaking with me a couple of days ago - Mrs. Valhalla's freezer in the shop is still not completely happy, but he cannot work on it, as it's propane R290.
He is advising people to hang on as long as possible to their current fridge plants and units, as the whole industry is in chaos on the gas-prices. Almost every gas he quoted has gone from around £40/kg to £500/kg on the modern plant, and they are all trouble in their own way. The only units that are future-proof right now, and this could change anyway, are the CO2 charges. He reckons that it's the governments that are jacking the prices to force the industry to produce less of all of the refridgerants.
We came to one common conclusion. The man who is able to bypass and/or remove A/C equipment from cars is going to be busy soon! There's no need for any of this stuff on UK-spec cars, just wind the f***ing window down!
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Post by remmington on Jul 4, 2018 16:58:36 GMT 1
The bit you don't see is how much UK car owners love air-con.
They really think they can't live without it.
I think it is because everybody in the UK is bigger (fatter ) than they used to be.
(Just a theory).
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Post by chippie on Jul 4, 2018 20:08:50 GMT 1
The bit you don't see is how much UK car owners love air-con... I think it is because everybody in the UK is bigger (fatter ) than they used to be. (Just a theory). Oi! I represent that comment!...  I'm not fat.....I'm just a little larger than I was when I was 14.....  |
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I'm not fat.....I'm just a little larger than I was when I was 14..... 