# What's the price of R134A in your area?

**URL:** <https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-price-of-r134a-in-your-area/167698>\
**Category:** General Discussion\
**Created:** [July 22, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-price-of-r134a-in-your-area/167698 "2020-07-22T13:40:34Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 4\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Rod-Knox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Rod-Knox](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Rod-Knox)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 1:40pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-price-of-r134a-in-your-area/167698/1 "2020-07-22T13:40:34Z")

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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?

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**Author:** ![asemaster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/5f9b8f/32.png) [@asemaster](https://community.cartalk.com/u/asemaster)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 2:00pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-price-of-r134a-in-your-area/167698/2 "2020-07-22T14:00:29Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![Rod-Knox](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a183cd/32.png) [@Rod-Knox](https://community.cartalk.com/u/Rod-Knox)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 2:41pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-price-of-r134a-in-your-area/167698/3 "2020-07-22T14:41:04Z")

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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 .

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**Author:** ![ok4450](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/e9bcb4/32.png) [@ok4450](https://community.cartalk.com/u/ok4450)\
**Post date:** [July 22, 2020, 3:53pm UTC](https://community.cartalk.com/t/whats-the-price-of-r134a-in-your-area/167698/4 "2020-07-22T15:53:05Z")

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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.