I must say that I haven't been in the refrigeration business a long time, but my experience with R600a has been bad. In fact the first job I done solo was on an r600 Fridge, it was only 6 months old from currys, and only a week out of guarantee. I looked at it and straight away I suspected the compressor had seized. I rang my dad and he couldn’t believe that a compressor so new has seized, and suspected a rookie mistake. He came round to confirm that the compressor had in fact seized. Ok fair enough, maybe not the gas, maybe a faulty compressor.
The lady decided ring up currys to complain and they agreed to fit a new compressor cheap. 8 months later the same lady called, same fridge playing up. It turns out that the curries engineers fitted it with another a R600 compressor; it was a different type compressor but it still seized!
It makes you think.


It’s also interesting to point out that once again the lady called currys and they said they would replace the fridge, she said “well the engineer says your fridges are on r600 which seems to have a problem” they replied “Oh, that’s OK, your new fridge will be on r134”. This was the support line and it seems to be strange that they know about r134, it suggests to me they have be instructed of the problem and to reassure the customer

I don't do domestics now so I suppose that things maybe better but I sure hope r600 doesn't start to sneak into Commercial refrigeration