Even if true, no one is going back to an R-12 refrigerant because CFCs contributed to a hole in the ozone layer that the entire world agreed was a bad thing. [1

Even if true, no one is going back to an R-12 refrigerant because CFCs contributed to a hole in the ozone layer that the entire world agreed was a bad thing. [1] The "last a long time" bit might be survivorship bias. They might last a long time (or not) but having one old working fridge does not prove reliability. As far as I know, there was no ban on using old fridges and I don't think people usually throw away major appliances that work. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montreal_Protocol