If you were planning to buy or replace your air conditioning unit, you could see higher prices and a long wait.
That is because the federally regulated coolant is in short supply. As of Jan. 1, contractors are required to only use R-454B coolant. This mandate is common and is put in place to improve the environment, but the way this mandate was rolled out is what professionals said is causing the issue.
“Unlike previous migrations to new refrigerants, they put a hard stop on the old refrigerant production. So it forced everyone to migrate to this all at once. And simply through poor communication and poor planning, there’s just not enough out there for the contractors,” said Brian Ritter, president of Zenner & Ritter Home Services.
Ritter said vendors have quoted him delivery dates in October and November for palettes of this new coolant. The only reason his team has enough to service clients is because they were proactive.
If you are worried about affording a new A/C unit, give your local contractor a call sooner rather than later.
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