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My brother-in-law said we should stop fixing old fridges because of the coolant rules
He's in HVAC and told me over dinner that the new EPA rules on R-134a make it not worth the hassle on units over 10 years old. I mean, I get the regs, but I've kept a lot of those old Kenmores running for folks on tight budgets. Do you guys think we're fighting a losing battle with the older stuff now?
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taylor.jordan2mo ago
What about the cost of new units for those folks?
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cole_davis472mo ago
You bring up a good point about new unit costs. But where does that money actually come from? Like, if a city builds new affordable housing, is that cost passed to other renters through taxes? Or do developers just eat the cost and build less? I'm trying to see the real trade-off here.
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The "real trade-off" you're looking at is the landfill. Those old fridges don't just vanish. We're talking about massive steel and plastic boxes full of foam and oil. The environmental cost of making a new one and dumping the old clunker is huge. Sometimes keeping a simple machine running, even with the coolant hassle, is the greener choice.
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