a/c ccompressor?

[MAKG]

"Freon" isn't the generic brand word for any refrigerant? (like calling facial tissues of any brand "Kleenex", or clear transparent adhesive tape "Scotch tape")?

Freon is a colloquial and imprecise term for CFC and HCFC refrigerants (technically a DuPont trademark, appropriate only to CFC and HCFC refrigerants they manufacture). R-134a is an HFC, and doesn't qualify. And, given that the same vehicles used both R-12 and R-134a around 1995, there is lots of potential for confusion.

 

[4x4junkie]

Weird... All this time I (and others I've spoken with) have continued using "freon" simply to describe any refrigerant in general (dating from way back before the R-134a variant ever came around), I think this is the first time anyone's ever pointed it out as "wrong"...

Guess I'll have to make a note of it on my yellow 'adhesive-backed-notepaper pad' with my 'fine-point felt-tipped permanent marker pen'. lol

 

[Wicked_Sludge]

maybe its just me, but im pickup up just a little sarcasm in your post



ive always called it "refrigerant".

 

[MAKG]

ive always called it "refrigerant".

...which it certainly is.

I prefer to call it by its R-number, since that distinguishes which refrigerant you're talking about. There are several very common ones, and hundreds of less common ones. Mixing up R-12 and R-134a can be an expensive mistake.

People call it "coolant" as well, which is violently wrong. Ethylene glycol doesn't compress nor evaporate very well.