Very low temperature (VLT) refrigeration systems offer reliable, efficient protection for medical freezers and environmental chambers that store temperature-sensitive samples, specimens, and pharmaceuticals.
Many factors—including size, ambient environmental temperature, and airflow around units—impact the performance of VLT refrigeration systems. Ultimately, the refrigerant that each system uses will have the greatest impact on its effectiveness.
While older VLT systems used R-13 and R-503 refrigerants, stricter global regulations mandated by the Montreal Protocol and other legislations are phasing out these refrigerants because of their ozone-depleting potential (ODP).
Original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) have since switched to freon 23. Both new and retrofitted existing systems can use this hydrofluorocarbon (HFC), which works as retrofit refrigerant for medical freezers and environmental chambers applications requiring very low temperatures (VLT)—below -40 to -73 °C. Freon 95, a perfluorocarbon (PFC) refrigerant, can also be used in similar applications requiring temperatures below -40°C to -101°C.