I want to sell you gas, but I need empty cylinders. Can you help?
Yes, Refrigerant Supply maintains a large inventory of pressurized cylinders which we will deliver to you at no charge, assuming you are selling your gas to us. We maintain and inventory of 125, 240, and 1,000 pound cylinders. We have no charge for delivery or usage of our cylinders if you can have them available for pick-up within 5 days of delivery.
I need to use your cylinders, but I don’t want to sell my gas to you. Can you help?
No. Refrigerant Supply is not in the cylinder rental business. We need our inventory of cylinders for customers who sell their gas to us.
How do I ship gas to Refrigerant Supply? Can you help me with the paperwork?
Refrigerant Supply quotes all buybacks with transportation included. We will prepare you bill of lading and arrange transportation.
When selling gas to you, what are my responsibilities?
You are only responsible for securing your cylinders to a skid. Some folks use steel bands, some use shrink wrap, and some run down to Wal-Mart and buy tie down straps.
I am evacuating an R-11 chiller. Can you send pressurized cylinders for me to put the gas?
If you feel strongly about packaging your R-11 in pressurized cylinders, Refrigerant Supply will deliver them at no charge. However, R-11 is a liquid at ambient pressure and temperature. When originally manufactured, R-11 is packaged in steel drums. IT IS VERY IMPORTANT THAT YOU DO NOT FILL THE DRUMS MORE THAN 75% FULL. It is also not a good idea to leave them in the direct sun on a hot summer day. This will cause the drums to bulge at the top and bottom. Filling the drum to the brim will cause the drum to explode. Again, if you are uncomfortable with packaging your R-11 in drums, Refrigerant Supply will provide empty pressurized cylinders at no charge. If you do purchase drums, no need to buy the expensive 10 or 20 gallon drums panted orange. Just buy a few reconditioned 55-gallon closed head drums. They usually cost $35 to $55 per drum. Filling these drums 75% full will allow you to put 450 pounds in each drum.
Beyond the monies you are offering for my gas, shouldn’t you be paying me for the cylinders?
No. We will return your empty cylinders to you upon our evacuation of them. The nature of our business leaves us with excess cylinders we end up selling for scrap. Reusable cylinders have a re-certification date stamped into them and cannot be reused until they are hydro-statically tested. This make a large percentage of the cylinders we receive worthless.
Can Refrigerant Supply Inc. pay for my gas before pick-up?
No. Our normal payment terms are 30 days from receipt of your shipment at our dock. This payment can be accelerated to a 6 to 9 days. We must receive the gas to weigh and analyze. If less than a full truck, it can take up to 5 days to arrive at our dock, and our receiving department could take up to 4 days to evaluate your gas.
We understand concerns of receiving payment. Not all companies in our industry pay their bills. Any company can produce a “credit sheet” with three trade references who will speak highly about them. Upon request, Refrigerant Supply will provide a credit sheet, and a list of the last 10 parties who have sold gas to us in the last 90 days.
I have a 30-pound cylinder of R-12. Will you buy it?
No. Refrigerant Supply buys gas in larger quantities. With R-12, we need at least 200 pounds. With other gases, we need a larger quantity. Some folks sell small quantities of gas on EBay and Craigslist. Refrigerant Supply cannot advise you on the legalities of doing so. We can point out that many people do. If you are concerned about the legalities of EBay, we can advise you that your local Johnston Supply will take your refrigerant. Johnstone Supply has 350 locations in the United States. There is bound to be one close to you. Whether they pay you for your gas, or charge you to take it, depends upon the type and quantity of gas, as well as the policies of each independently owned and operated location.
This quotation you sent has all these conditions attached to your price. This concerns me.
Refrigerant Supply Inc. clearly states all critical conditions for the gas on our quotations. Not all of our competitors state them, but still practice them. Some scenarios could result in a refrigerant which is cost prohibitive to recycle and must be destroyed. No company would pay you for gas they had to pay to destroy. If we were to remove these conditions, we would pay far less, or nothing at all for your refrigerant gas. Let’s evaluate the three standard qualifications on a standard Refrigerant Supply quotation:
Refrigerant Supply Inc. will pay $X.XX per net recovered pound of R-XX. “Net recovered pound of refrigerant” is defined as the total pounds of material received, less the contamination poundage of oil and water. This simply states that we pay you for the pounds of refrigerant, but not the pounds of oil and water contained in the refrigerant. For example, If you ship 1,000 pounds of R-22 contaminated with 10% oil and water, We will pay you for 900 pounds of R-22.
This price is contingent upon oil/water contamination of less than 25%, and a total volume within 70% of the poundage listed above. Refrigerant Supply incurs a cost to dispose of waste oil and waste water. We are willing to absorb this cost up to 25%. Oil/water content rarely runs above 5%. The total volume condition arises because much of our costs are fixed regardless of the volume of gas received. Our cost of analytical analysis, transportation, setting up a distillation column, and gearing up a packaging line remain about the same regardless of processing 100 pounds or 10,000 pounds. Therefore, our pricing for buyback is heavily weighted upon volume received.
This price is also contingent upon the material passing the ARI 700 standard for “other refrigerants less than 0.50%”. Fortunately, with HVAC systems, this happens vary rarely. Say, one in every 50 buybacks. This is because certified technicians purge their equipment to avoid this mishap. With junkyards that drain autos, or appliances, this occurs more frequently. Separating refrigerant, oil and water is easy. This is because we boil the gas in a column and the boiling points of refrigerant, water, and oil are very different. The boiling points between different refrigerants are very close. Some even form an aziotropic bond, making separation next to impossible. Depending upon the mixture, it can create a mixture which is cost prohibitive to separate and must be destroyed. Again, some competitors of Refrigerant Supply do not make mention of such things until they occur, but the result for you would be the same.
