R-22 Phaseout: The Long Goodbye

R-22, the refrigerant that ran most home air conditioners and heat pumps for decades, has been on its way out for years, but a surprising number of homes still have it. New production and imports for servicing existing systems stopped on January 1, 2020, capping off a phaseout that began in the early 2000s because R-22 depletes the ozone layer. Since 2010, no new R-22 equipment could be manufactured or imported at all.

Despite that long runway, an industry estimate suggests more than 15% of the country's residential air conditioners and heat pumps still run on R-22 — which, applied to national housing data, points to roughly 13 million homes (this is an estimate, not an exact count). If your system is old enough to use R-22, keep in mind that refrigerant for repairs now comes only from stockpiles and reclaimed supply, and reclaimed R-22 has gotten expensive.

R-410A replaced R-22 as the standard refrigerant, but it's now being phased out too, in favor of newer, lower-impact refrigerants like R-454B and R-32. One HVAC company owner quoted in the industry coverage said this latest switch has actually been rockier for installers than the R-22 phaseout was, due to early shortages and a learning curve on the new equipment. For homeowners, the practical takeaway is simple: older R-22 systems are being retired steadily as they age out, and when they're replaced, the replacement will use one of these newer refrigerants instead.