When Should You Refill Your Air-con Freon?

Before we go into the main portion of this article, I think it is good to correct the use of the word "air-con gas". In Singapore, the word 'air-con gas' is widely used but the correct term is actually 'refrigerant' or 'Freon'. There are currently two types of Freon used in the air-conditioning industry, R22 and R410A. To understand more about the differences between the two, you can find out more about it here. If you want to know which Freon your air-conditioning system is using, check out the label in your fan coil unit under the refrigerant.

So let me ask you a simple question. What is the first thing that comes to your mind when your air-con is not cold?

My air-con Freon is low! Bingo! We have received many calls from our customers saying that their air-con is not cold and the Freon is low, so they wanted people to service and refill the Freon. But that is rarely the case.

To fully charge your air-con system, the R22 refrigerant and R410A refrigerant requires 65PSI and 125PSI respectively. Let's take a look at an air-con system using the R22 refrigerant to explain what happens when the Freon level is getting lower and lower. Please bear in mind that the levels below are simply examples.

@ 65PSI (Full) - A 'happy' air-con running at its optimal performance.

@ 40-50PSI - When it reaches this level, the air-con shows a lack in cooling power and there needs to be Freon refill. This usually happens after 3 years.

@ 20-0PSI - When it reaches this level, it might be a sign that your air-con is experiencing Freon leaking.

In actual fact, when the Freon is low (not down to 0PSI), it is not that the air-con is not cold as it should still be producing cold air, but the cooling power is extremely low. When that happens, locate your outdoor condenser and look out for the copper pipe should be frozen.

To summarize, here are a few important points to remember.

• When the Freon level is low, your air-con should still be producing cold air.

• Freon should last more than 3 years.

• Freon level should not be under 10PSI. If that happens, please seek professional assistance to confirm if it is Freon leakage.

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