The gas is UNDER PRESSURE!!! After the gas is
released, finish cuting through the lines, (two per unit) and carefully
remove the compressor from the unit. <<
Make darn sure no one from the EPA sees you do this! And don’t tell anyone
you did it either.
It’s illegal to vent CFC based gases used in older refrigaration equipment
into the atmosphere. If you were in the refrigeration service business,
getting caught venting refrigaration gas would result in a heavy fine &
loss of you business license.
I’m not an earth 1st’er, but I don’t want to see any one get fined for
doing something that more than likely does no harm anyway.
The Gas contained in the refigerator cooling system is called R-12 Freon
(same as the stuff used in your car) Although it is poisonous to breathe,
so is propane. The reason it was recalled is that it is used in the
manufacture of methamfetamine, AKA “Ice”. You could get this stuff easily
at any auto parts store about three years ago, but the DEA in an attempt
to crush drug manufacture in the US, came up with a brilliant "smokescreen"
to get it off the market. - Isn’t it interresting how our Gov’t works? TG
Just catching up on my mail and I noticed this mail on Freon
r-12( the Freon family are different forms of florochlorcarbons).
R12 is not poisonous as stated below infact it is an inert gas
which is very safe to handle. It is not explosive or toxic. It
becomes poisonous only when ignited directly in a flame then it
becomes phosgene gas which is very lethal. The Germans used it in
the first WW, human being can only absorb a finite amount before
they die, in plain english it has a cumulative effect and even
small doses can kill over a long period of time. But back to R12
under normal conditions the only way it can harm you is if you
are in a closed room and it displaces the oxygen and then you
could sufficate but that could happen with a leaking co2
container too. Boy is this morose. When talking about freon its
is good to mention another freon R11 it has a relatively high
boiling point F72 and was used extensively as a cleaner in the
electronics industry. It really cleaned very well by immersing an
item in it in a cool room and then the item was brought out of
the fluid and exposed to warm air it dried spotlessly. R11 is now
banned as it had the highest amount of chlorine atoms of any
freon. The real problem with R11 and R12 is when it evaporates it
enters the atmosphere the the chlorine atoms then seperate and
attack the ozone and break the ozone down. Freon is bad enough
without giving it a bum rap