Refrigerant Precautions

Safety Precautions




Because refrigerant boils at approx. -30 °C (-22 °F) at sea level, it is cold enough to give you severe frostbite. Always wear goggles to protect your eyes and gloves to protect your hands. Also, even under the pressures normally found in R-12 containers, refrigerant will boil with the addition of heat. This could raise the pressure inside the container to a dangerous level.

Never expose a can of R-12 to direct sunlight, or to temperatures over 40 °C (104 °F). One more thing to remember about R-12 is that when it is exposed to an open flame or to hot metal, it forms phosgene, a deadly gas. Do not discharge R-12 into the atmosphere on purpose. Always read and follow the precautions on the R-12 bottle.