What do you do with Old R22?

[Kneescar]

Currently, we turn our recovery cylinders in to RE Michel, and they charge about $1.00 per pound to make it go away. (presumably, it gets recycled and sold to us again, later and new stuff)
I keep getting calls and post cards from companies who want to buy our used refrigerant. Now that R-22 is well over $5 per pound, and (new) production is going to stop in a year and a half, it makes sense that there would be a market for used refrigerant. Does anybody use one of these services?
Here is one example
www.usarefrigerants.com (http://www.usarefrigerants.com)

[NHMaster3015]

If it's been contaminated we use a compamy that makes it go away. Otherwise we keep it and re-use it.

[Kneescar]

If I'm recovering it, I'll assume that it's contaminated. Although we used to work on bigger stuff. My dad used to have to recover 300# of refrigerant from one system to replace valve heads or something. That he would save and reuse. (for the same customer; I think that's a legal requirement)
It may take one of our technicians the whole summer to fill up one recovery cylinder, and a lot of that is from compressor failures.

[Kneescar]

I just got an email back from the company I was asking about.
They ship you a cylinder that holds 750 pounds. You keep a written log of how many pounds you put in there, and call when it's full. It would take us 5 years to fill one of those things up. Getting paid $1.25 per pound instead of having to pay $1.00 per pound would be nice though.

I'm still curious if anybody is using this or another similar company.

[gear junkie]

If I'm recovering it, I'll assume that it's contaminated. Although we used to work on bigger stuff. My dad used to have to recover 300# of refrigerant from one system to replace valve heads or something. That he would save and reuse. (for the same customer; I think that's a legal requirement)
It may take one of our technicians the whole summer to fill up one recovery cylinder, and a lot of that is from compressor failures.
It's been awhile since I got my universal but I do remember something that says you can't recover refrigerant and reuse in another appliance. You either put original refrigerant back in or it's brand new refrigerant.

Johnstone charges me 16 for a 30lb tank and 23 for a 50lber. Are you in jamestown VA?

[Ruudacguy]

It's been awhile since I got my universal but I do remember something that says you can't recover refrigerant and reuse in another appliance. You either put original refrigerant back in or it's brand new refrigerant.

That is absolutely correct. I pay $50 everytime I turn a cylinder in. Doesnt matter if it has 2 or 30 lbs, still $50.

[Kneescar]

I'm in Jamestown NY.