What cylinder sizes and formats is refrigerant sold in?

The three families and their jobs

Flag, deliberately: we do not print a kilogram-by-kilogram size list here. Pack sizes vary by brand, product and batch — a published table goes stale and misleads. Tell us the job on the enquiry page and we confirm current formats and availability.

Why the non-refill rule is absolute

A non-refillable cylinder is engineered to a one-trip specification — lighter shell, one-way valve, no requalification life. Refilling one defeats every assumption in that design, which is why GCR 2016 prohibits it outright and why the practice is a reliable marker of a rogue operator. The same economics that tempt refilling tempt adulteration; the two frauds travel together (see counterfeit checks). Spent non-refillables should be vented of residual per good practice and scrapped through legitimate channels — never resold, never cut with a torch (why).

Refillables: custody and care

Refillable cylinders live in a custody loop — filler to distributor to user and back — governed by the licence chain in the PESO guide: filling under Form E, storage beyond exempt quantities under Form F, delivery only to licensed or exempt holders. Day-to-day duties are the familiar ones: valve caps on, upright and secured, in-date test markings, no repainting (storage rules).

Choosing format like a buyer

The right format is a throughput question: high-frequency service work wants refillable trade cylinders; a plant commissioning or an industrial consumer wants bulk economics; one-off small jobs justify disposables. Format also shapes unit economics — deposit and logistics on refillables versus per-kg premium on disposables — so quote comparisons should always be per-kilogram, like-for-like on brand and format. We supply across formats for every line, R-22 through R-404A; sector patterns on the industries page.

Format economics: deposits, logistics and the real per-kilogram price

Formats look like packaging; they behave like pricing structures, and comparing suppliers honestly requires normalising them. Refillables carry a deposit or cylinder-holding arrangement, return logistics, and periodic test costs baked somewhere into the trade — in exchange for the lowest per-kilogram gas price at trade volumes and a custody loop that preserves authenticity (a factory-filled, sealed trade cylinder is the hardest format to adulterate invisibly). Disposables invert the structure: zero return logistics and maximum convenience, paid for through a per-kilogram premium and a disposal duty that is real even when ignored — plus the format's uncomfortable status as the counterfeiters' favourite, since one-way packaging breaks the custody loop that protects refillables (checks that compensate). Bulk rewrites the equation again for industrial consumers: the best molecule price on the market, purchased alongside licensing, storage engineering and handling obligations that only volume justifies (the licence tiers). The comparison discipline that follows: quote everything per kilogram of the same brand in the same format, ask explicitly how deposits and returns are handled, and treat a disposable price that undercuts refillable trade pricing as arithmetic that needs explaining. Format choice, done deliberately, is worth several percent on annual gas spend — done accidentally, it is where several percent quietly leaks away.

Related: PESO licences · Storage safety · Industries we supply