Mark Vender
Refrigerant supplier A-Gas has launched a laboratory in New Zealand with the capability to test the quality of refrigerants against AHRI Standard 700.
AHRI 700 specifies acceptable levels of contaminants (purity requirements) for fluorocarbon, hydrocarbon, and carbon dioxide refrigerants, regardless of source, and lists acceptable test methods.
According to A-Gas, the new lab – located at the company site in south Auckland – is the only facility in New Zealand that can offer customers comprehensive testing and analysis of refrigerant quality. It is expected to enable proactive diagnosis of potential issues for system owners and to assist contractors to understand a baseline for future work to be carried out.
“Refrigerants that are unable meet important AHRI conformance specifications, such as purity and acidity, are at risk of causing poor system performance and efficiency, consequently contributing to potential system deterioration,” says Mitch Williamson, Country Manager, A-Gas (New Zealand) Limited.
“This is why we’re extremely pleased that we can offer our laboratory and analytical services to help customers optimise the performance of their assets and avoid unnecessary costs in system repairs.”
A-Gas says the capability of laboratory comes at a vital time as reclaimed refrigerants become an increasingly important part of the supply mix due to significant step-downs in HFC imports.
“Re-using recovered refrigerant without appropriate testing and reprocessing introduces the potential risk of equipment damage and poor efficiency from non-certified or untested, low purity refrigerants,” says the company.
“This is where A Gas supports the industry, servicing contractors and end users with full analytical testing capability, in addition to recovering refrigerant from the market and processing it back to AHRI Standard 700 quality.”
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