How can you tell genuine refrigerant from counterfeit?
Why refrigerant attracts counterfeiters
The product is a pressurised gas nobody can eyeball: identical cylinders, invisible contents, verification requiring a lab. Add a price gradient — quota-tightened R-22, duty-affected R-134a (the 2025 ADD) — and the fraud writes itself: cheap hydrocarbons or R-40-cut blends in convincing livery. Chemours and other majors run formal brand-assurance programmes precisely because the problem is real and global; the injury record is in why fakes are dangerous.
The four-layer check
| Layer | What to verify |
|---|---|
| 1 · Source | Registered, established seller — for R-22, demand the ODS registration (ours: ODS/CS/17/6(12)/2024-OC); run the four-step seller check |
| 2 · Documents | Manufacturer SDS for the exact brand, GST invoice naming brand and product, batch/COA where applicable (full set) |
| 3 · Cylinder | Intact factory seal and valve; crisp brand label with batch; stampings consistent; no scraping or repainting (colour proves nothing) |
| 4 · Brand features | Holograms/security codes verified through the brand's own channel where offered |
Red flags that end the conversation
A price far below the market for a quota-controlled gas; "unbranded but same quality"; refilled disposables (flatly illegal); sellers allergic to paperwork; loose or reused seals; labels that misspell their own brand. Any one of these is sufficient reason to walk — the downside is not a weak batch but a flammable or system-killing one.
When suspicion survives the paperwork
Field verification exists: a refrigerant identifier reads composition at the valve, and pressure–temperature sanity checks catch gross substitution (a cylinder's pressure at known ambient should sit on the fluid's curve — the physics from the pressure guide). For consequential volumes, a lab GC against AHRI 700 limits settles it. Our own position is the boring one that works: factory-sealed product from the brands we are appointed to carry, papers attached, every time — see the compliance page.
The economics of the fake — and why scarcity decades are peak risk
Counterfeiting follows margin, and refrigerants in a phase-down era offer margins most contraband would envy. The cost structure explains the behaviour: hydrocarbon blends or R-40-cut mixtures cost a fraction of legitimate fluorochemical production, cylinders and label printing are commodity items, and the product's identity is invisible without instruments — so a fake sold at a mere 15–20% discount to market still multiplies the fraudster's outlay several times over. Now add the demand curves this site documents: R-22 on a shrinking quota staircase, R-134a under a reference-price duty, high-GWP HFCs facing Kigali repricing — every force that lifts legitimate prices widens the counterfeit margin in lockstep, which is why enforcement history worldwide shows fake-refrigerant waves cresting precisely during transition decades. The strategic consequence for buyers is that authenticity discipline must scale with price, not relax under cost pressure: the moment a quoted price makes you exhale with relief is the moment the four-layer check earns its keep, because 'too cheap for the quota environment' is not a bargain signal but a composition question. Institutional buyers can go one step further and make the discipline contractual — specifying registered-seller sourcing, branded sealed product and batch documentation in AMC and procurement terms — which converts every rule on this page from good practice into an enforceable clause, and quietly prices the grey market out of your supply chain.
- Chemours / DuPont brand-assurance programme documentation (authentication features).
- US EPA — counterfeit-refrigerant warnings — epa.gov.
- Cooling India and trade press — Indian-market counterfeit reporting (industry sources, named).
This guide is general information compiled from the cited sources — not legal, safety or engineering advice. Read our full disclaimer.
Related: Verify a licensed seller · Why fakes injure · Documentation set