

| Subject: | Re: A/C Performance in '91 GL |
| From: | Loren A. Busch |
| Date: | Sun, 11 Aug 2002 22:09:32 -0700 |
There have been a lot of questions about the propane/butane substitutes for R-12 (ES-12, Duaracool, etc.) so here is some additional information. A close friend of mine owns and runs an auto repair shop. He has done quite a bit of work for me on both of my Westy's (85 and 90). When the AC quit cooling in my '90 two months ago, I asked him if he would work on it, he said "No, I don't work in AC anymore". Last weekend he explained why. It seems that he had wrecked his $6000 super duper AC machine twice when people had failed to tell him that they had done a shadetree job on the AC with the propane/butane mix. It apparently can develop very, very high pressures, and that had cost him two repair jobs on his equipment. After the second repair, he sold the machine to someone else. His other alternative was a $3000 machine to tell him what kind of coolant was already in the system. So be warned, if you use the propane/butane mix, and then go to a pro shop for work WARN THEM!! BTW, when I told him I could prove with receipts from the PO that the last fill was R-12 (a year ago) he said OK, bring it in. He still has all the basic tools for working on AC, just not the fancy equipment. He also pointed out that AC is one of the most customer antagonizing jobs because so oftem there are several components that will need replacing but it is very difficult to determine which ones except one replacement at a time. Can be very time consuming (translate high labor bill) and impossible to give accurate estimates. Probably more of a problem here in the Nortwest where we so rarely use our AC that it deteriorates and then when we decide to have it serviced we get hit with one big bill.
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