Getting R134A evacuated from system

[pottymouth]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
You originally asked how much to have your refrigerant recovered then later vacuumed and recharged. I answered with what I get to do the job. Sorry if you don't like my prices but that's the way the ball bounces. You can choose to take your car to whoever you want. Probably end up taking it to a shop that does not have a refrigerant identifier because they are $15 cheaper than any body else in town.

No wonder that no shops want to touch your car.

After visiting that shop it may work ok or maybe you will get a Blend of R134a, R12, R22, Propane and butane. You will always wonder why it never seems to be as cold as it should be.

The Ac machine has a 6.5in vacuum pump, not a junky 1.5in one. I vacuum all cars I work on 30 minutes, then the machine does a 10m minute leak test then it vacuums it another 15 minutes.



I think you need to go back and re-read my original post. How could it be any clearer? I want the refrigerant removed from the system so I don't have to vent it to the atmosphere. I will vaccum and recharge it myself. Where did I ask for a price on vacuum and recharge?

I'll get 100% uncontaminated R134a because I will be putting it in the system myself from sealed containers. I am perfectly capable of puling a vacuum on the system with my own pump. I know it is in your best interest to perpetuate the myth that AC work is out of the realm of the DIY car owner but this is BITOG, we're not all just ham and eggers off the street who don't know any better.

Why does it seem that mechanics are always looking to do more work than the customer requested? So, now that I have cleared it up for you does my $50 sound like such an unreasonable expectation? I'd say it's generous. Are you telling me it would take you more than 15 minutes to simply remove the majority of the refrigerant from the system?

 

[440Magnum]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
Originally Posted By: pottymouth


$65 seems a little steep to me for a simple evac,
Ya well somebody gets to help me buy a $5000 AC machine, Upkeep on the AC machine that is over $1000 per year, $2000 refrigerant identifier, that the state says I must have, Rent @ $2200 per month, electric, phones and lets not forget the $1200 per month for the phone book add, $300 per month for permits and a whole bunch of other stuff I didn't include.

How does $65 sound now?


Trust me, I feel your pain on all of that. I used to think that I would open a small garage after I retire from my "day job" and specialize in economical upkeep of older vehicles, probably just barely turn a profit or break even, and generally have a good time doing things I like doing and making customers happy. Then I watched how much regulation has increased on such a business over the last 25 years... No thanks.

What galls me is that people just seem to accept those costs. OR they moan about the repair shops being the crook, rather than realizing that THEY are the ones that made the rules (and the system that profits by regulating and enforcing the rules) by who they into office.

 

[Kestas]

Originally Posted By: pottymouth
Originally Posted By: Kestas
Originally Posted By: pottymouth
$65 seems a little steep to me for a simple evac

It sounds like you've never run a business before.

What specifically do you disagree with?

Specifically, I disagree that $65 seems too much for a businees owner to evacuate refrigerant.

 

[Chris142]

If all you want is the refrigerant removed from the system I wouldn't charge for that if your not coming back for it after doing repairs.

I have never been asked to remove the Refrigerant and not been asked to vacuum and charge the car after repair.

 

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: pottymouth
Why does it seem that mechanics are always looking to do more work than the customer requested?


Customers always want corners cut, mechanics that have worked for any length of time refuse to cut corners on certain repairs. Plus they want to do the job right the first time to avoid a comeback.

 

[SteveSRT8]

Most successful mechanics know that customer service comes first. Explaining what is needed is the job of the tech. The client should be told at the beginning what the expected procedure entails and what it could result in.

If someone brought me some free 134a I'd gladly take it and then explain what's next. Pricing is higher when the job is all broken up into steps like that!

 

[pottymouth]

Originally Posted By: Chris142
If all you want is the refrigerant removed from the system I wouldn't charge for that if your not coming back for it after doing repairs.

I have never been asked to remove the Refrigerant and not been asked to vacuum and charge the car after repair.


So what exactly would you consider a fair price for what I asked? I wouldn't expect you to do it for free. R134a seems pretty cheap to me.

BTW, I found a guy who will do it for $25 and the recovered refrigerant. More than fair. It will probably take him less time than it takes to patch a flat tire and I usually pay $15 for that.

 

[Chris142]

If the R134a is not contaminated and you don't want it back me personally would suck it out for you and send you on your way. I can recycle it and resell it.

 

[bdcardinal]

BTW Chris keeps bringing up the contaminated thing because if your system isnt pure R134a he has to dispose of that 30lb bottle via a hazmat company. We had one and they charged us about $5,000 to dispose of it. I offered to shoot it, but everything has to be by the book in CA. We also had to dispose of 30 gallons of mixed diesel and gasoline and it was about $600 through the disposal company.

 

[Shannow]

Best thing that I ever did as a teen was to get a job as a console operator in a service station.

The mechanic there did an apprenticeship with Bosch, worked for Mercedes (all in Germany), built and raced F2, moved to Oz, and started a business looking after German marques in particular (the 280 Benz owners loved that he could retune them to Euro performance on the old mechanical injection systems).

The amount of garbage that he copped from people expecting the hours on an emission controlled Weber rebuild to be the same as a single barrel Stromberg, wouldn't accept that troubleshooting took as long as it took on an intermittent problem...

I decided to never be a mechanic.

Then was stupid enough to work on friends and families cars :facepalm:

 

[SteveSRT8]

There have always been two distinct mentalities when it comes to pricing. I am referring to the population in general here, no one specific.

One is the 'employee' mentality. This comes about from always being spoon fed a job and never having to worry about profits/costs. These people can make unreasonable demands of a biz owner without any guilt, as they have no clue what it's like to own one.

The other is the 'biz owner' mentality. As you may imagine he has a slightly different perspective on things.

 

[Paulson]

I understand the costs associated with owning your own business (although I don't have to deal with insurance and EPA).

Recently I went in for an alignment on my new to me 94 intrepid. The inner tie rod bushings were completely shot (common problem I guess) and the car needed new ball joints (lower control arm for this model.) They wanted $800+ to fix.

I bought the parts (new inner tie rods, adjusting sleeves, tie rod ends, 1 sway bar, and control arms with ball joints) for $150 and did it myself. I probably spent another $100 in tools and random things that I'll be able to use again. I also fixed an issue in my AC system (new gaskets) and charged the system so around $50 (they wanted $150) just for the charge.

 

[mechtech2]

Rent a vacuum pump and gauges . Fill it yourself. The actual amount will be on a sticker under the hood.

 

[occupant]

Paulson makes a good point. I bought an Intrepid in 2007 and it had blown head gaskets. I invested about $100 into tools to fix it myself (some deep well sockets, a cheap torque wrench, gasket scraper, wire brush, etc). Spent I think $175 at a machine shop to get both heads and the intake cleaned up and some broken bolt removes. Spent $200 or so in parts and gaskets and hardware. Took me about 3 weeks. So for $475 I got a pair of head gaskets done myself whereas a mechanic wanted $1100 to do the work but it would have been done in 3-4 days. Remember the old adage about good, fast, and cheap and how you can have any two?

But in this case it wouldn't be reasonable for a private owner to buy an AC evac machine just for one service.

Is it worth $65 to evac/vacuum the system? Sure. It is to me. The OP doesn't want the vacuum service and it's not worth the shop owner's time to evac and not vacuum. So is it worth $50 to evac only. Nope. Shop owner still has to test the stuff to be sure it's not contaminated. Shop owner is still using the same equipment for the same amount of time, just not drawing the vacuum, which is not an attended function for the most part.

Open up your wallet and have it serviced properly at a shop. You don't own a lift. You don't own an Evac machine. You don't have tens of thousands of dollars of equipment. That's why you pays your money and you takes your chances.