The property manager thinks your RTU quote is gouging. Show why it isn't.

Give the property manager a bid they can check line by line. The EPA's sector table sets a 700 GWP limit for stationary residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pumps, with a manufacture and import compliance date of January 1, 2025. Put the refrigerant and the safety components from the unit's submittal on the equipment line. List the curb adapter, ducts, controls and rigging as separate lines. Then put an honest price for patching the old R-410A unit right beside it.

Why 'prices went up' loses the bid to the contractor who offers to patch it

Tell a property manager that prices went up and they have nothing to take to ownership. Nobody has to defend the cheaper bid, so a contractor who offers to recharge the old unit and find the leak can win by default. You can lose to a repair before any other replacement bid comes into play.

We asked four AI assistants this exact question on October 30, 2026, and most of the answers would have led you straight there. One suggested script blamed the increase on supplier pricing, labor, freight and project-specific requirements, and never mentioned refrigerant. Another listed refrigerant and updated efficiency requirements only as vague categories.

A third told contractors to say equipment prices across the industry have risen 15% to 20% over the past year, and gave no source. Don't repeat that line. A property manager can't check an unsourced percentage, so it sounds like gouging.

What the January 1, 2025 EPA cutoff changed for packaged rooftop units

According to the EPA, the prohibitions apply to the manufacture, distribution, sale, installation, import and export of products containing restricted HFCs, and to installing new systems that use them. For stationary residential and light commercial air conditioning and heat pumps, the table lists a 700 GWP limit and a manufacture and import compliance date of January 1, 2025. The material behind this post doesn't establish the dates for selling or installing existing inventory, so don't tell the owner those stopped on the same day.

One assistant answer on October 30, 2026 said the industry has been moving from R-410A to A2L-class refrigerants such as R-454B, and that the move requires new equipment designs and updated safety components. That's the assistant's description of the market. The EPA table sets a GWP limit and doesn't name a refrigerant class, so lead with the limit and hand over the EPA table with it.

The A2L hardware in the box: read it off the submittal

None of the sources behind this post lists the safety hardware that comes on every new rooftop unit, so don't describe it from memory. Take the refrigerant, the sensors and the safety controls from the manufacturer's submittal for the model you're quoting, and leave out anything the spec sheet doesn't show.

Put those items on the quote in plain words, under the equipment line. Factory-installed components are already in the unit price. List them so the property manager can see what the money buys, and don't charge for them a second time.

Line-item the quote: unit, A2L safety scope, curb adapter, ducts, controls, rigging

One assistant answer, citing Department of Energy Better Buildings material, said RTU replacement planning has to account for items beyond the unit itself: curb adapters, duct modifications, controls, and roof or structural work. Another said to break the increase into equipment, freight and crane logistics, code changes, and controls and economizer compatibility, instead of saying everything costs more. Both are right, though neither ties the equipment line to the refrigerant rule.

Price the curb, duct, controls and rigging lines separately from the unit. If the curb adapter is a big share of the number, the property manager should see that it comes from this building's existing curb and not from a markup. We can't tell you how much of any given quote is the refrigerant change versus labor, freight or the crane. That split comes from your distributor pricing and your own takeoff.

Pricing the 'keep patching the R-410A unit' option honestly

Put the repair on the same page. A property manager who doesn't see a patch option may go looking for one, and a repair bid from someone else may not spell out what it leaves uncovered. Write it up as a repair: leak search, the fix, an R-410A recharge, and whatever you found on the coil, compressor or belts during the service call.

Then say plainly what the repair doesn't buy. A recharge doesn't make the unit any younger, and it still runs R-410A. The replacement question stays open, and when the unit fails again it may be an emergency job instead of a planned budget-year one. We have no price data on R-410A, so don't forecast what a recharge will cost next season; tell the owner you'll quote it when it happens.

Some owners will pick the repair, and that's fine if they saw both prices first. Write the replacement into the capital plan as a dated line. On each service agreement visit, check the unit's condition and write down any deterioration, so the owner sees the trend before the budget year closes.

The words to use at the property manager's desk

Say less than you think you need to, and leave the EPA table and the itemized bid on the desk. Ownership will hear your pitch secondhand, so keep each point to one sentence the property manager can repeat word for word.

Leave out industry-wide percentages you can't source, and don't trash the other bidder. If their number is lower, ask the property manager to check it against yours line by line: the unit and its refrigerant, the curb adapter, the controls, the crane. A bid that skips a line the job needs looks cheaper on paper, and the owner pays for that line later.

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