LESLIE: Robert in Texas is on the line with an air-conditioning question. How can we help you?
ROBERT: I had something in my local home show this past weekend. And I went and it’s called an “arctic blast.” I don’t know if you’ve ever heard of it. It’s installed in your air-conditioning system and it supposedly will reduce the efficiency of your air conditioner, drop it by about 5 degrees?
TOM: OK.
ROBERT: And then the efficiency about 21 percent. There’s local companies offering to do it. You just inject it into the – like the Freon. It’s installed that way. I’m just wondering if it’s worth it. I have an oil system and I’d like to increase the life of it and if I can get 5 degrees more, that’d be a pretty good deal with the 21-percent increase – decrease – in the demand.
TOM: How old is your system now?
ROBERT: It’s about 15 years old.
TOM: Yeah. It’s at the end of a normal life cycle. And this is a refrigerant that they’re claiming is going to improve its efficiency?
ROBERT: Yeah. It’s called an “arctic blast”? And it offers environmentally friendly process that greatly improves the efficiency of R22, R134 and R410.
TOM: How much is this process going to cost you?
ROBERT: About 575.
TOM: Yeah, that’s a lot of money. It’s going to take you a long time to make that back. I really – I would be very hesitant to do that. I think that if that system is working, if it’s properly tuned up, it has the right level of refrigerant in it, it’s going to work well until it doesn’t, OK? It’s what I’m trying to say here.
ROBERT: Right.
TOM: It’s going to work until it stops working. And changing the refrigerant, I don’t think, is going to make that big of a deal. So I wouldn’t mess with it. I would keep using it as it is until it breathes its last breath of cold air and then you replace it. That’s just the best way to do that.
ROBERT: Yeah, that’s what I was wondering. Because I thought, “Well, if I can get a few more years out of it rather than having to buy a whole new unit.” I’d never heard of this (inaudible at 0:32:38).
TOM: And maybe you can. Maybe you can. But putting that additive in there, I don’t think it’s going to make a hill of beans of difference.
ROBERT: OK. Well, that’s the reason I listen to you every week on Saturdays. And I value your opinion, so I wanted to see what you had to say about it. And I really appreciate it.
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