How Do I Put Freon In The Air Conditioner On My Travel Trailer?

by Viiola Rodriguez
(rio grande city texas)

How do I put Freon on a Travel Trailer?

ANSWER: Greetings Viola thanks for submitting your question on our Ask An RV Question Page.

I assume that you are talking about charging your Travel Trailer's Air Conditioners with Freon. Since you do not tell me the year of your Travel Trailer I cannot tell you what type of Freon your A/C takes.

If your Travel Trailer is older it was probably designed to take R22 Freon, if it is newer it may take one of the newer types of Freon.

I do not know the exact amount of Refrigerant your travel trailer takes. But I am going to take this opportunity to emphasize my feelings on whether a do-it-yourselfer should recharge their own RV air conditioners. I do not believe it is advisable for you to recharge your own air conditioner for the reasons I have listed below.

1. The old type R22 refrigerant is not as readily available as it used to be due to US Environmental Regulations. The cost of R22 Refrigerant has gone up dramatically.

2. There is a reason that your air conditioner is no longer blowing cold air. Unless you have the proper equipment to diagnose the reason, you may be wasting Freon especially if there is leak that has not been repaired. If the problems with the air conditioner are not repaired you are going to be spending a lot of money on Freon that may just leak out into the atmosphere. The money you waste could have been spent to hire a professional to do the job right the first time.

3. When it comes to using the old R-22 Freon, whether you believe in global warming or not there is solid scientific evidence that when the chemicals used in the old Freon are released into the atmosphere they are a contributing factor in the deterioration of the earth's ozone layer.

4. As RVers we have an opportunity to experience all of the natural wonders of the world. As RVers we are also charged with the responsibility of not ruining the environment we visit. We pick up our trash, we dump our holding tanks in the designated areas and when we leave; our camping area should look as if we were not even there. We do this so that future RVers will be able to experience nature at its best.

When we start dumping hazardous chemicals into the atmosphere, because we are trying to do something we are not trained to do safely then we are not acting like responsible RVers.

Don't get me wrong as I am a firm believer in do-it-yourself RV repairs; in fact I still have an air conditioner recharge kit that I bought about 30 years ago and up until about four years ago I was still recharging my RV's and car's A/C systems. I also had a couple of times that I was responsible for releasing some old Freon into the atmosphere. Once I found out how my actions were affecting the environment I stopped doing it.

I know that this was not the answer you were looking for, but it is the answer I am giving.

Bottom Line In all likelihood if you have a trained technician diagnose and fix the problem with your air conditioner you will actually end up saving money in the long run because the proper repairs will be done right the first time and more importantly, you will not affect the environment that we all RV in negatively.

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Happy RVing

RVing Al