I will replace the compressor on my old Blazer again soon and while locating a compressor I saw that R134A was $6.50 at the McParts stores here but a small locally owned store had it for $4.00. This morning I was curious and checked around to find that the McParts store in LA apparently doesn’t sell refrigerant to the public while in Austin TX the price is $8.00.
But the real eye opener was all the DIY trick cans and ‘special snake oil’ refrigerants and additives. Wasn’t it P.T.Barnum who commented on taking money from fools?
You’re buying 12oz cans? I have no idea what they go for, but I do recall seeing the “magic” DIY cans at a store for $20-$25. Crazy.
Don’t you keep a 30lb cylinder around? Last summer I bought 5 of them at $89 each. At that price you could hang around the Autozone parking lot with a set of gauges and make a killing doing on the spot recharges.
It’s WAAAAY to hot for me to top off ACs in parking lots @asemaster. I work on my 2 trucks and a select group of old friends vehicles when minor attention is all that is needed.
And about those $30 # cylinders, I got a small fortune for the half full cylinder of R12 that had been sitting in the corner for years after closing my shop. If I bought a cylinder now it would need to be included in my will to someone because I would never use it all .
Twelve ounce cans around here are about 4.88 and those larger 18 ounce cans of synthetic R 134 with the charging hose and so on I’ve seen for as much as 40 or 50 bucks. Ouch. That’s a lot of money just to seep out inside of a week or a few days.
The shelves at AutoZone are packed with all kinds of gaudy refrigerant packaging and gimmicks but then again, AZ is packed with gaudy trinkets.