The Refrigerant Rules Changed Under Everybody's Feet

Under the AIM Act, manufacturers stopped building new residential systems that use R-410A. Everything coming off the line now runs A2L refrigerant — mostly R-454B, some R-32. It's a lower global-warming-potential blend, it's mildly flammable, and it requires different tools, different leak detection, and different technician training. We spent most of 2024 and 2025 retooling and recertifying for it. That is not a complaint. It's context.

Here's what it means at your house.

If you own an R-22 system — anything installed before roughly 2010 — you are past the point where repair makes sense on anything major. Reclaimed R-22 is running north of a hundred dollars a pound in this market and it will not get cheaper. A three-pound leak repair on a nineteen-year-old condenser is money set on fire. I'll say that to your face in your driveway and I'll say it here.

If you own an R-410A system, don't panic and don't let anyone panic you. R-410A will be available and serviceable for years. Your system is fine. Repairs are fine. Nobody is coming to take your air conditioner.

If you're buying new, you're buying A2L. That's the only option, and the equipment is good — arguably more efficient at the same tonnage. What you should ask any contractor, including us: is your crew A2L-certified, do you carry the required leak sensors, and does your quote include the updated line-set requirements? Some outfits are quoting like it's 2023 and eating the difference later, or worse, cutting the install to cover it.

The transition also did something less obvious. It pulled a year of demand forward. A lot of people replaced early to get old-refrigerant pricing, which drained inventory, which is part of why lead times on certain tonnages ran six weeks last summer instead of six days.

That's the real lesson in all of this. A regulation written in Washington, D.C. becomes a six-week wait for a woman in Lebanon with a dead condenser in August. The rules move slow and then they arrive all at once. The only defense a homeowner has is deciding in April instead of July.