Reusing R134A

[3b auto]

I'm a newbie to AC and bought reclaiming gear including a 30GL can.

I initially thought the sole purpose of the reclaiming was both saving the environment, and reusing refrigerant.

Some guys say only reclaim, and use "fresh cans" then find somewhere to empty your tank, i guess from a perfectionistic view this kind of makes sense, but refrigerant is expensive. If one was very careful not to let atmospheric air into the reclaim can I dont see any repercussions to resuing it?

What am I missing? PS I bought a scale as well.

[Cusser]

I'm not an AC professional.

Using my home-made recovery system (which uses dry ice and alcohol), I have recovered and re-used both R-12 and R134a.

[Tim]

Depends on the reclaiming equipment. Big machines reclaim and clean the refrigerant. Some of the lower-end stuff reclaims the refrigerant.

[tony1963]

You actually raise an interesting question. When I was a shop owner and dealer, we used the machine to recover refrigerant and do the occasional top off. We always used virgin or "new" refrigerant to recharge a system.

Most people charge with new refrigerant.

[Tim]

You actually raise an interesting question. When I was a shop owner and dealer, we used the machine to recover refrigerant and do the occasional top off. We always used virgin or "new" refrigerant to recharge a system.

Most people charge with new refrigerant.

Not 100% factual.

Most dedicated AC repair shops have a sealer identifier, refrigerant identifier, and top-of-the-line R&R machine.

Step one: Check for sealer;
Step two: Check if it is a pure refrigerant.
Step 3: R&R machine for any refrigerant which passes steps 1 & 2. Which then can be used again. No reason to steal or waste a customer's refrigerant.