A Florida marine air conditioning manufacturer, Flagship Marine, has been analyzing various new refrigerants that have been developed to comply with the ever more stringent regulations. It has finally decided to use a patented UK firm’s zero ozone-depleting refrigerant, ISCEON 59, commonly known as R417A.

This is the first refrigerant that has almost identical performance and operating pressures of the longtime industry standard, R22, while most importantly remaining compatible with the user friendly refrigerant lubricating oils that have been used for decades. Flagship Marine’s biggest hurdles in their decision was avoiding the highly hydroscopic oils that some of the other refrigerants required and the dramatic alterations necessitated with the radically increased refrigerant pressures of some of the other alternative refrigerants.

The two refrigerants are so similar in their characteristics, they are actually interchangeable. They can't be mixed, however either refrigerant can be removed and replaced with the other with impunity.