Buying it now is unethical and harmful.
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That’s why I don’t do it, I recover them.
But many techs here don’t care.
You don’t necessarily need anything special to do so, you can just use the compressor to do it. Or put the refrigerant tank in a freezer and recover while system is off. Or you can use an old fridge compressor to recover.
If you’re moving a mini split, you turn the compressor on, and there’s a valve on both suction and discharge line. The discharge line is the smaller pipe of the two. Close the discharge valve, wait for pressure to go vacuum, then close the suction valve. You can safely remove the condenser.
Even in Taiwan you should recover r22 because it’s a bit expensive.
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Glad to hear that. Repairing your AC unit yourself including responsibly charging it with refrigerant is an impressive piece of work.Shows real resourcefulness.
Not to mention it didn’t take you months to figure it out with a trip to the junkyard in the end despite months of effort.
It’s only that sometimes it can’t be avoided, like purging manifold hoses to avoid introducing noncondensibles and water into the system, broken compressor making recovery difficult. I basically used the freezer trick multiple times and recovered as much as I can.
I need to buy a recovery machine but it’s extremely expensive.
It’s also a good idea to recover when moving or changing systems, condensers, evaporators, etc because the oils and such inside can turn into acid when exposed to moisture or excess heat, which kills compressors. The shops I used they do that, just cut the line set when changing systems and basically letting refrigerant go everywhere. I seen a tech who was just about to do that and I told him, you’re just going to release r22 into the air? He said yea. I said go recover the shit. I had to yell at him to get him to do it. Think of how many techs in Taiwan who just do that.
This is why the used ac systems I bought has problems, because they just cut the line without doing any recovery and just let’s it sit in the shop, the compressor insides open to the atmosphere. No wonder they either don’t work or develop problems.
Be careful when choosing an ac repairman.
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So you admit you released some dangerous chemicals into the atmosphere because you wanted to save money by not using professional equipment. And you consider that ethical? 
Beside i think you completely miss the point as usual so i will spell it out to you.
Purchasing and using internationally banned chemicals that are widely recognized as been dangerous perpetuates the supply chain. This makes you part of the problem. Not the solution.
No you’re being difficult. Even licensed techs in the us will release a little bit from purging the manifold, removing the gauges when they’re finished, but we minimize release as much as we can because not only is it phased out, but it’s valuable since there are a lot of r22 systems out there and the gas is limited, so people pay big money for it.
But some release is inevitable no matter what not to mention leaks.
its not that difficult to understand. 
Do you have any r22 systems? If so do you have it replaced with r410 systems?
I own a few properties in Taiwan and US, In Taiwan they are all in newer buildings, and i believe they are R32 units, which is by far the responsible choice.
and judging from your pictures i have doubts that your methods are anywhere near US licensed standards., so i dont see how you manage to conflate US technicians with yourself as WE.
but i suspect this is more about you not wishing to admit fault and shifting goal posts so you can have the last word. so please do reply, and have the last word. 
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Is R453A / RS70 not available in Taiwan? this is a genuine question.
No I can’t find any. But if you’re going to charge a system with any r22 replacements you must first recover the r22 and re oil the compressor before you put them in.
You can get r417a which is a r22 alternative but you shouldn’t mix it with r22 and you must replace the oil inside the compressor after recovering the refrigerant.
Both use different oil.
R290 is supposed to work but it’s a hydrocarbon and so can’t be used in air conditioning.
Edit: r417a can be retrofitted meaning you don’t need to re oil your compressor, but you must recover the r22 first.
Are you a licensed HVAC tech? Name your price, come examine my system and tell me what I’ve done wrong.
Because jobs done, I don’t have any progress pictures, and so the gauge isn’t going to be hooked up.
Also the gauge comes out unless I’m monitoring stuff, they do leak.
Yes you can, but you want to avoid that, but if you are mixing label it.
This is important so when you recover you have pure r22 and not mixtures, because in the us these gases are expensive as heck and is not manufactured anymore (at least in first world countries) and so the gas is valuable.
But all the stuff I read suggests that r417a shouldn’t be mixed, r22 needs to be recovered first. As I can’t get rs 70 in Taiwan except have it shipped in, I can’t comment on it, but r417a is available here.
But we are not in the US and if you’re topping up you’re not recovering. Unless you are registered no one will buy a random bottle of gas from you.
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Point is most techs caution strongly against mixing refrigerants because you can have unpredictable performance and equipment damage, and that gases taken in for reuse must also be purified and brought up to standard.
Yes I’ve read many sites and the consensus is you don’t mix refrigerant.
Does that include the gas bottle and the gas?
How did you recover when your compressor is broken?
Did you find the root cause of why the compressor failed? Did you test for acid level? How did you replace the oil in the system?