price for 134a for a/c

I went to buy some 134a today and $%#@$%. I had no idea it had went up as high as it has. I have to get it, but this is crazy. Where will the prices on gas products go?

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'85 Toy

Dude, high prices??? It is like 6 bucks a can here. I don't suppose the person giving prices was quoting R12?

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Hi Supradude,

What state do you live in?  I'm doing some research on the R134a price increase, and some people (i.e. the chemical companies making the product, the distributor middle-men helping mark up the price) say this is just a regional issue.  But what I've found from my digging around is that this is far from a regional issue; it's an international one, and may only get worse. 

Several factors seem to be behind the price hike:  first, the 3 month shut-down at DuPont's Corpus Christi, TX plant that happened all last summer greatly reduced the supply of R134a (who knows whether it was a legit shut-down or an artificial one to trigger a run on the product).   Secondly, Europe is planning to ban 134a in the next five or so years, so no none wants to sink the money into building more plants (there are only 4 plants in the U.S. that make R134a) - all of this keeps the supply level at its current level. 

So while supply has remained the same, demand supposedly rose this year because countries like Brazil, China, and India are mandated to cut their use of R12 by 50% by the end of this year - so they're switching to R134a and therefore eating up more of the already limited supply.  But who knows - maybe that is just a red herring the chemical companies made up to justify the increase in price.   

It seems kind of fishy.  The chemical companies say they didn't make a dime (and in fact were losing money) on R134a since they began making it back in 1995.  Back then, they were making R134a at the same rate they were making R12, figuring the switch from one to the other would mean equal demand.  But around the same time R12 got phased out and R134a became the standard, car manufacturers started making car a/c systems more efficient, requiring less product than before.  So, that created a bit of a surplus of R134a.  As a result, everyone enjoyed pretty reasonable prices on R134a until recently.

I guess everyone in the industry is really concerned about all the highly flammable, propane-based products out there that are being advertised as acceptable substitutes for R134a.  If people can't get their hands on, or can't afford to buy R134a, they may turn to these other products that could cause their car to explode in an accident. 

Hmmm....maybe we're all just pawns of the big chemical companies!

Anyway, hope this helps. 

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MadDog