Fake AC gas and how to avoid it
Why anyone fakes refrigerant
Genuine refrigerant costs money to make. Counterfeiters cut it with cheaper gases, or fill cylinders with something else entirely and label them as the real thing. The margin is the whole motive, and the buyer usually cannot tell.
The person putting it into your air conditioner often does not know either. Fake gas moves through the trade in ordinary-looking cylinders bought from unregistered sellers, so a technician can install it in good faith.
What it does to your system
The compressor fails. A blend of unknown composition runs at pressures the machine was not designed for. It also does not carry oil back correctly, so the compressor loses lubrication. Failure may take months, which makes the cause hard to trace back.
Cooling gets worse, not better. The wrong fluid does not absorb heat the way the design assumed.
The system cannot be repaired properly. Once a circuit contains an unidentifiable mixture it cannot be recovered, topped up or diagnosed. The honest fix is to recover everything and start again, which costs more than the gas ever saved.
The one that is genuinely dangerous
R-40, methyl chloride, has been found in counterfeit refrigerant internationally. It is cheap, which is why it is used as a cutting agent.
Inside a system it reacts with aluminium components to produce trimethylaluminium, which ignites spontaneously on contact with air or moisture. That is not a slow degradation problem. It is an explosion risk, and R-40 contamination has been linked to fatal incidents in refrigerated shipping containers.
This is why AHRI 700, the industry purity standard, sets a specific limit on R-40 rather than treating it as an ordinary impurity. See the full technical explanation.
How to check, as a customer
You do not need technical knowledge for any of this. Ask to see the cylinder before it is connected, and look for four things.
- A brand name. A real cylinder carries a manufacturer's brand. A plain cylinder with a handwritten marking and no brand is a warning.
- The correct gas designation. R-32, R-410A, R-22 and so on, matching what your outdoor unit's nameplate says. If they do not match, stop.
- A batch or lot number. Genuine product is traceable to a production batch. No batch number means no traceability.
- An intact seal. The cylinder should not look like it has been opened, repainted or relabelled. Repainting over old markings is prohibited under the cylinder rules precisely because it hides history.
Ask for a bill that names the gas and the brand. A technician buying from a proper supplier will have no difficulty with any of this.
What we do about it
We supply Stallion and Refron (GFL) products in original factory-sealed cylinders. We are registered under Rule 6 of the ODS Rules to sell R-22, and every sale is invoiced naming the brand and the product.
We are not a testing laboratory and we do not claim to test what we sell. What we can honestly say is where it came from, that we have not opened it, and that the paperwork names what is in the cylinder. In a market with a counterfeit problem, that chain is the thing that matters.
If you are a technician or contractor rather than a householder, the buyer's checklist goes further.
Quick answers
Is fake AC gas really a problem in India?
Yes. Counterfeit and adulterated refrigerant circulates through unregistered sellers, and the buyer usually cannot tell by looking at the gas itself.
What does fake gas do to an air conditioner?
It runs at the wrong pressures, fails to return oil to the compressor, and cools poorly. The compressor often fails months later, which hides the cause.
What is R-40 and why is it dangerous?
Methyl chloride, used as a cheap cutting agent. It reacts with aluminium inside a system to form a compound that ignites on contact with air, and has been linked to fatal explosions.
How can I check the gas going into my AC is genuine?
Ask to see the cylinder. Look for a manufacturer's brand, the correct gas designation matching your nameplate, a batch number, and an intact unrepainted seal.
- AHRI Standard 700 · purity specification including the limit on R-40 · ahrinet.org.
- US EPA · guidance on counterfeit and contaminated refrigerant · epa.gov.
- Gas Cylinders Rules, 2016 · marking requirements and prohibition on repainting over markings · peso.gov.in.
This guide is general information compiled from the cited sources — not legal, safety or engineering advice. Read our full disclaimer.
Related: What a gas refill involves · Does your AC need gas? · The technical detail · Buyer's checklist