[Vwdiesel] AC with propane

[James Hansen]

I've been curious about propane as a refrigerant for quite some time, used to think that filing the a/c with flammable stuff was not the wisest thing, BUT, as Loren pointed out, the stoichiometric requirements of propane are very narrow, you have to have the air/propane pretty much bang on for it to go err... bang.  A leak can't accomplish that.  There has been one case that I was able to find about a john deere tractor owner that was singed when his a/c leaked after he filled it up with propane- Every time he went to the field.  The evaporator was leaking bad, apparently it got worse, and when he topped it up, got in the cab, and lit a smoke... mayhem ensued.
Aside from not doing stupid things, there is no reason why you CAN'T use propane, aside from having the technical knowledge of how to charge an air conditioning system in the first place, how to do it correctly, and how not to fix it so much, it gets broken more.  There are currently a few hydrocarbon based R-12 "replacements" on the market, such as red-tec and duracool, which I believe are butane based.  They are flammable, I've checked.  They are also little baby bottles of stuff that is comparatively very expensive.  I'm sure any of the smarter and better looking should be able to figure out a way to get propane from a barbecue tank into an air conditioner. (hint: hose barb)
But, use gauges, know how, use waaay less propane (it's a much more efficient refrigerant) and enjoy.
Hey to me the funniest part of the fast and the furious movie was when Vin Diesel goes running away from the tunermobile that was riddled with bullets yelling "NOS!" inferring the non-combustible gas was about to explode... so now if you get in an accident you could run from the car yelling "air conditioner!", but somehow I don't think it would turn out the same.
-james

> -----Original Message-----
> From: vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com [mailto:vwdiesel-bounces at vwfans.com]
> On Behalf Of LBaird119 at aol.com
> Sent: Saturday, June 06, 2009 10:02 AM
> To: vwdiesel at vwfans.com
> Subject: Re: [Vwdiesel] AC with propane
> 
> In a message dated 6/5/2009 8:56:58 PM Pacific Daylight Time,
> toensing at wildblue.net writes:
> 
> > started phase out R-12 freon because the experts said it was causing
> a
> > growing hole in the ozone over Antarctica &Australia
> 
> 
>   Anybody notice since the new "religion" became "global warming"
> which is now being renamed "climate change" due to the lack of
> warming temps for several years now, that there's been NO mention
> of the "ozone hole"??  Of course nobody seems to remember that
> about 15 years ago we had to stop using CFC produced styrofoam
> and aerosol cans because it was causing global cooling!
>   Ozone (O3)is unstable and self destructs. It's created when high
> energy particles (sunlight) strike the atmosphere.  The "hole" was
> always in panic size every antarctic Spring, which just happens to
> be after several months of very little sunshine... coincidence I guess.
> ;-)
> 
>   I talked to an engineer (not sure in which field) several years ago
> about propane refrigerant.  The characteristics are very close to
> R-12 for temps and pressures.  As for fire hazard, most people are
> running around with a dozen or more gallons of gasoline and think
> nothing of it but freak out at the thought of a pound of propane
> in the A/C!  There's NO air in the system unlike a gas tank.  This
> guy said the Stoichiometric requirements of propane are MUCH more
> narrow than with gas.  As he put it, if you do spring a leak, the odds
> are much more in your favor it'll just leak out.  Too fast and it'll
> be too rich to burn, leak too slow and it'll be too lean.  Just right
> and you'll have a short term blow torch but those odds are really
> small.  Much better odds your fuel line will already be burning.  Get
> a leak inside and you'll know it unlike with R-12.
>      Loren
> 
> 
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