134a is not banned, illegal or taboo

[Samm]

Well 134a is now illegal in the eu

Very confused with all the misinformation about this recently, presumably it's coming from the fact that Abbey has stated this as the reason they have stopped selling.

The truth is that R-134a is being PHASED OUT and is to be replaced by an alternative no later than 2013. And what exactly is it being phased out of? The automotive airconditioning industry.

 

134a will still be for the forseeable future legal for home airconditioning, food refrigeration and many other applications, including airsoft.

Except not really, as it's always been illegal to discharge it into the atmosphere, but that's where your own concience comes into play, you're still going to be able to buy it and make that choice for yourself.

 

Abbey's choice to discontinue their product could be more related to the rising price because the main mineral source of tetrafluoroethane/134a is fluorspar, which China has a lot of and they have decided to restrict sales in the UK because they can get better prices elsewhere...

 

My main point is that it is still available for sale, and when it gets replaced there will be another, similar and more green propellant available to us

 

 

http://www.racplus.com/news/supply-of-r134a-to-remain-tight-into-2011/8607431.article

 

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/site/en/oj/2006/l_161/l_16120060614en00120018.pdf

[phatboi21]

thank you for the quality reading materials..

 

was just about to say it'll be hard to phase out of airsoft due to every gas rifle/pistol maker says that for warranty purposes to use 134a

 

edit: spelling

[Samm]

Indeed. As far as I know this move has only been undertaken by car manufacturers in the EU and USA, presumably the Japanese will have to follow if they want to sell their cars.

[QQexDERA]

You talk about misinformation and then type:

 

he main mineral source of tetrafluoroethane/134a is fluorspar, which China has a lot of and they have decided to restrict sales in the UK because they can get better prices elsewhere...

 

Er, thats complete rubbish. The Chinese have throttled the supply to the market, not to the UK. If those in the UK choose not to pay the market rate, then thats their business. It does not mean that the Chinese have specifically restricted sales to the UK.

[Samm]

Apologies on my part for the bad wording, I don't know the industry details. As quoted from the RACPlus website:

Mexichem Fluor commercial director Simon Gardner added that costs would remain high as refrigerant raw materials costs were continuing to climb. “The cost of trichloroethylene has gone up fourfold, due to the cost of manufacture, so these costs are not going to go away.”

 

“The demand from countries like China and India remains an unknown, suppliers said, which could further impact on the cost of 134a and its blends in Europe. One added: “We have seen Chinese producers not selling into the UK recently, because they can get better costs elsewhere globally.”

 

Regardless of whether the restraint on mineral supply is global or local, it will still have an effect on our domestic production of 134a.

[Touchette]

Indeed. As far as I know this move has only been undertaken by car manufacturers in the EU and USA, presumably the Japanese will have to follow if they want to sell their cars.

 

After looking at a couple of articles, the EU is the one pushing the phase out and the US and Japanese markets/governments are following suit. It appears that there is still no refrigerant that everyone can agree upon, but a refrigerant called HFO-1234yf and produced by Honeywell and DuPont looks like a front runner.

 

Edit: It also looks like the EU would prefer to use CO2 as the refrigerant, but detractors say it requires too high of a pressure and isn't effective enough.

[Tinkerton]

doesn't matter anyway, its cack.

[Ashley1991]

i did wonder about this so thanks for the info!