this post was submitted on 14 Oct 2023
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Cars have a problem: their AC compressor is driven by a rotating shaft that has to pass through the compressor housing, so it can be turned by a pulley on the engine fanbelt. A seal on a rotating shaft is questionable at the best of times.
Electric compressors, like used in fridges, stationary AC units, and electric cars, just have to get a couple of insulated wires through the housing.
The argument about rotating shaft sealing does not hold up, they keep oil in car engines for better part of a century. In car AC compressors the refrigerant doesnt even come close to the shaft seal, and even if it did we have got the “questionable” seals pretty much worked out.
In cars its the vibration/thermal cycling and the dumb ass drivers that are the problem. They drive their vw passat for 20 years saving on every little service or maintenance and when summer comes every year they go to one of those tents and “fix” their AC by refilling it. Those places should be completely illegal, not even mentioning that in the states you can buy refrigerant in cans so you can “fix” it yourself. As usual its the sheer scale of our convenience that is the problem, not the convenience itself.
Note how often the refrigerant oil doesn't get out, only the gas. It's much harder to seal high pressure gases than low pressure viscous liquids.
Also much of the refrigerant in those consumer cans is R290 - aka purified propane. No ozone damage or global warming potential. People should actually be encouraged to use those cans instead of "real" refrigerants. I only recharge vehicles with R290 now as it's bound to escape again so it had might as well be a cheap and harmless gas.
I feel like all halogenated refrigerants should have been replaced by 290/600a at this point. Hydrocarbons are better in many ways and also dirt cheap.