no more R134A

[CamaroAJ]

the government shut down DuPont and they were the only ones making R134A, the price for a 30lbs tank went from 99 to 200+ :attn: in a week. might want to stock up on some if you plan on using it. there is no word yet on what there going to do about making more R134A

[derekf]

Shut down DuPont completely, or just the Freon department?

[JamesJ]

I can get that for $25 a can down here in Texas.

[JamesD]

Where did you hear this? I did a quick google search on the subject and i can't find anything, their website doesn't mention anything either.

[CamaroAJ]

we were calling around to get costs for it and every place we called told us the same story. unless someone started a good rumor and made the price jump around columbus. i'll see if i can find out more but its prolly something that messed up at dupont and the EPA shut them down untill the problem was fixed but there was no work on when they would start up shop again.

[derekf]

I found this (http://www.aircondition.com/wwwboard/2004Q1/17140.html) with a search.

Summary:
DuPont has plants closed for scheduled maintenance.

Several companies have plants that are able to make R-134a or R-125 (required for the R-22 replacements).. and they're making the wrong thing right now. Dupont has one factory closed to change over from 134 to 125.

High numbers of cars being built with AC and the changeover from R-12 to R-134a in the 113 "Article 5" countries have depleted the supply.

The post concludes that while supply and prices are high right now, they will come back down to normal levels for a while.

The post I'm summarizing isn't my post so I can't speak for how true it all is, I'm just relaying what I found.