R22 refrigerant is no longer available for AC systems

R22 is a type of refrigerant that was commonly used in air conditioning systems until it became the subject of a phase-out programme over a 15 year period due to its substantial ozone depleting impact.

From 2000 the manufacture of AC systems utilising R22 was banned.

From 2005 the installation of new AC systems utilising R22 was banned, therefore such systems then in use were likely to be at least 6 years old with many more than 11 years old and coming to the end of their service life anyway, which was the intention of the programmed phase-out.

From 2010 the manfacture of virgin R22 refrigerant was banned and therefore repair relied upon dwindling and increasingly expensive supplies of recovered refrigerant.

From 2015 the use of R22 for the repair of AC systems was prohibited completely. This effectively rendered all malfunctioning R22 AC systems irreparable.

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