Support
By Grant Laidlaw
GRANT LAIDLAW
Grant Laidlaw is currently the owner of the Air Conditioning and Refrigeration Academy ( ACRA ) in Edenvale . He holds a Bachelor of Business Administration and an associate degree in educational administration . He has a National Technical Diploma and completed an apprenticeship with Transnet . He has dual-trades status : refrigeration and electrical . He has been involved with SAIRAC for 17 years and has been a Johannesburg committee member for the past eight ( chairman in 2011 and 2012 ). Currently he is the treasurer ( Johannesburg council ) as well as president ( national council ).
REFRIGERANT CYLINDER COLOUR-CODING
All refrigerant containers , in addition to being marked with the type of refrigerant they contain , have a particular colour .
James asks : Grant , what is the situation with regards to refrigerant cylinder colour coding ? In the past , and to my knowledge , each refrigerant has its own colour , but we find that this is no longer the case . We have , for example , R134a cylinders in our workshops that are blue , others are orange and an off white / grey . Yet they are all marked R134a . Are there no standards anymore ? One could easily make a mistake and add the incorrect refrigerant with disastrous consequences .
Hi James , there are still standards , but not all suppliers ’ cylinders conform to the codes .
James , in order to prevent mishaps , there are a variety of methods of identifying the type of refrigerant in a container – these are : 1 . Reading the identification on the container 2 . Looking at the colour of the container 3 . Measuring the refrigerant temperature and pressure 4 . Taking a sample for laboratory analysis
As mentioned already , all refrigerant containers , in addition to being marked with the type of refrigerant they contain , have a particular colour . The standard colours of some of the refrigerant containers are indicated in Table 1 .
Table 1 : Colours of refrigerant containers Refrigerant Container Colour Refrigerant Container Colour R717 Silver with red and yellow bands R32 Blue - Green R410A Light maroon R600a Silver R22 Light green R744 Silver R134a Light blue R407C Chocolate brown R290 Silver R404A Orange
Images supplied
With regards to the confusion and lack of standardised colour codes on cylinders from suppliers , I did a bit of investigating and as can be seen in Figure 1 , these are some of the disposable R32 cylinders available on the market .
Figure 1 : R32 refrigerant cylinder colours
This is a big problem and aside from possible catastrophic effects on the refrigeration system , this can in fact be dangerous .
As an example of a safety issue revolving around fire-fighters and other emergency personnel , with the new system they will know at a glance that if they see a grey cylinder they are dealing with a refrigerant and if it has a red band on it , they will know that it is flammable .
There is some movement to standardise the colour coding of cylinders .
It would seem that the Air Conditioning , Heating , and
Refrigeration Institute ( AHRI ) Guideline N is gaining some traction . Although not enforced in South Africa , perhaps the powers that be will adopt this standard .
There is some work being done by the Department of Environment , Forestry , and Fisheries with regards to disposable cylinders .
Revisions to AHRI Guideline N , were first announced on June 28 , 2016 . They specify
www . hvacronline . co . za RACA Journal I June 2021 47