Sibot Services are proud to announce that we are now able to service and re-gas vehicles that use the new refrigerant HFO-1234yf (R-1234yf) in their air conditioning systems, this was previously only available at a few main dealers, we can de-gas, repair and re-gas vehicles using the new gas.
If you are a dealership, body shop, small garage or private individual and are fed up of paying through the nose for R-1234yf give us a call for a more affordable quotation
We offer on-site service and gassing/de-gassing in the Crawley, Horley, Horsham, Reigate, Redhill and the surrounding Surrey, Sussex, Kent and South London areas, or come to our fully equipped workshops in Horley, 5 minutes from Gatwick Airport by car
Why the new refrigerant
- the main reason for the implementing the new gas is for environmental reasons the new gas is far less damaging to the environment than the existing gases, R12 the original refrigerant gas had a GWP score (how bad it is to the environment) of 12000 this was replaced with what most cars use now R-134 with a score of 1400, the new R-1234yf however has a rating of just 4
Why is it so expensive?
- this new gas cannot be used in existing aircon replenishment machines so new equipment has to be purchased meaning a substantial investment for very few cars at the moment, the gas itself is in limited supply at the moment only being made by two companies, and the cost of the gas alone is more than 30 times more expensive than the existing gas however over time prices will drop as more cars use the new gas and other manufacturers license the rights to produce the gas.
what is R-1234yf vs HFO-1234yf
- they are the same thing, there are only two manufactures of these gases and they have both decided to make the same gas and give it two different names.
- Honeywell call it Solstice® yf (HFO-1234yf) and DuPont call it Opteon YF (R1234yf)
Does my car need/use this R1234-yf
- If your model of car was not made before 1st December 2012 then no, and we don’t mean when your car was made it is based on when your model of car was released, some large European manufacturers are still using the old refrigerant in brand new cars today as the model was released before the legal requirement to use the new refrigerant, if your unsure give us a call
From the 1st January 2017 all new vehicles will be filled with the new gas as standard regardless of the year of release of that model.
Is this new refrigerant better than the old?
- tests show the new refrigerant to be largely the same efficiency as the existing gas however the major advantage is in the benefit to the environment on accidental gas release (i.e after an accident) the new gas lasts 11 days the old stuff hangs around for 11 years!
I’ve heard that the new gas is not safe, so why are they making us use it
- the new gas is slightly flammable when compared to the old gas however Germany’s Kraftfahrt-Bundesamt (Federal Motor Transport Authority) ran a series of tests. The Authority concluded that while the substance was potentially more hazardous than previously used R-134a, it did not comprise a serious danger.
Most of the fluids in a car are flammable to an extent (even antifreeze) the slight flammability of the refrigerant adds no extra risk to this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrMAiEyakBc
In normal use the gas poses no danger, however if you are working on a hot engine and there is a chance of damage to the aircon pipes or leakage of gas onto a hot engine it would be sensible to have the system professionally drained before working on the vehicle.
Will my old vehicle have to be recharged with this new refrigerant?
- No, there are no plans to make this a legal requirement at present, and many existing systems are not compatible with the new gas so cannot be upgraded.
Can I use standard refrigerant
- No, it is illegal to re-gas a vehicle previously filled with HFO-1234yf with R-134a, and even if you tried the fittings are different so that an R-134 machine cannot connect to a HFO-1234yf system by accident (or deliberately)
Want to know more? the manufacturers of the gas have an information website at https://www.1234facts.com/ and the wikipedia article is here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2,3,3,3-Tetrafluoropropene