Colored refrigerant gas cylinders (current standard) and gray ones, in compliance with the AHRI Guideline N revision.
Starting next year, refrigerant gas cylinders will no longer be colorful and will have only one standard color – silk gray; containers of flammable substances must have a red band at the top.
The colorful carnival of refrigerant cylinder colors is coming to an end. Starting January next year, the containers for these substances must be painted only with a single-tone silk gray paint (RAL 7044 on the Pantone scale).
The goal of this drastic change is to reduce the risk of misidentifying compounds due to cylinders with very similar colors, which result from the protocol currently used by the global chemical industry, according to the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute (AHRI) of the United States.
Due to the significant number of refrigerants approved in recent years and the consequent increase in the number of colors assigned to these substances, concerns have arisen regarding potential errors in the identification of containers.
In a survey conducted by the organization with industry professionals, more than half of the participants stated that the colors of the cylinders caused confusion — a situation likely to become even more chaotic with the emergence of new products on the market.