Has anyone else noticed the steep increase in the price of R-134A freon. It went from $59.00 to $170.00 for the 30lb jug, this is Sam's price, other sources are around $250.00 The 12oz cans are selling for almost $15.00 each at Autozone and other parts houses. I dug into this for a reason in the increase, and found that the big-ass dam they are building in China, the 3 gorges dam, is using almost all the worlds supply of 134A to cool the concrete, so it does not take a hundred years or more to cure and cool down. Just wondering if anyone else had noticed this cost increase. There is no such thing a cheap freon anymore!

I work at a specialty packaging company that buys HFC-134a in 4,000 gallon, bulk shipments. Due to a number of circumstances related to the phase-out of ozone depleting refrigerants and new usages for HFC-134a (rigid foam insulation, etc.), the global demand for 134a currently exceeds production capacity. Prices have doubled in the past 6 months and continue to rise, with big chunks of production allocated to OEM automakers.
If you do your own MAC work, you would be well advised to buy 134a now....prices are, and will continue to go up. Supply is now very tight at the manufacturing level (Dupont, Ineos, Archema, etc.).....it will be very difficult and expensive for the home mechanic to buy 134a refrigerant this summer.