R22 was the standard air-conditioning refrigerant for decades. It's an HCFC, it damages the ozone layer, and under the Montreal Protocol it's being progressively withdrawn worldwide. The UAE is party to that agreement, so supply here is shrinking and prices are climbing.
Do you have R22?
Check the nameplate on the outdoor unit — refrigerant type is printed there. As a rough guide, systems installed before roughly 2012 are likely R22; newer units typically run R410A, and the most recent use R32.
What the phase-out actually means for you
Your system doesn't stop working. Nothing switches off on a deadline. What changes is economics:
- Rising cost per kilogram. As production winds down, the price of a top-up climbs — and keeps climbing.
- Reclaimed rather than virgin gas. Increasingly what's available is recovered from decommissioned systems.
- A leak becomes a much bigger decision. On an R410A system a leak repair and recharge is routine. On R22 the recharge alone may approach a meaningful fraction of a replacement unit's cost.
Retrofit or replace?
Retrofitting an R22 system to run a drop-in alternative is technically possible. It involves changing the oil, replacing seals, and accepting some capacity loss — R22 replacements generally don't perform identically. It can make sense for a large, otherwise-healthy commercial system where replacement means significant disruption.
For a domestic split unit that's already ten to fifteen years old, retrofitting is usually money spent extending the life of something near the end of it anyway. A modern R32 system will also be significantly more efficient, which shows up on the DEWA bill every month.
How we'd advise you
Honestly, and with arithmetic rather than a sales pitch. If your R22 unit is holding its charge and cooling well, keep running it — there's no reason to replace working equipment on principle. If it's leaking, we'll quantify what the repair and recharge costs against a replacement, including the efficiency difference, and let you decide.
What we won't do is quietly top it up every year and let the cost accumulate without telling you what's happening.
Related: AC gas refill and top-up, refrigerant leak repair, and AC installation if replacement is the better call.
Need this looked at?
inspection, fixed written price before any work begins, and a before/after photo report on every job.