Electronic items getting junkier and more dangerous?

[Vidya]

Our fridge technician told us if we buy a new fridge today, it will be unsafe to keep it in the kitchen. If the gas in it leaks, it could start a fire.

He said the fridges and ACs being manufactured today are being filled with some cheaper, flammable gas, unlike the older ones.

Now i’m dismayed and afraid to buy new ones.

Anyone know anything about this? Are fridges and ACs in the west being filled with flammable gas too?

How about putting the safety of consumers first instead of money? Instead of electronic items getting exponentially better, they’re getting junkier and more dangerous.

Or is this an India-specific problem?

[TimothyEllis]

Gasses used in Aus were changed a long time back, because the old ones contributed to green house gasses.

I've not heard of any changes in recent times.

[notthatamanda]

Maybe they are talking about butane?  See below.
Or maybe the tech is full of crap, and he wants you to pay him to fix the fridge you have.
In the US the refrigerant is listed on the label on the unit inside the door, mine is less than 2 years old and is R134A. This list doesn't say it's flammable.
Can you go to an appliance store and ask them? And look at the units?
Here, or at least in our state, we are picky about disposal, so old refrigerators are supposed to be properly decommissioned and the refrigerant collected so it doesn't get released into the air.

There are many different types of refrigerants used in refrigerators. The specific refrigerant used depends on many variables.The more common refrigerants I see in my day to day work include:
R22 - Chlorodifluoromethane. Common in older fridges. This refrigerant is ozone depleting and is being phased out. You will not find this in modern day fridges.
R134A - Tetrafluoroethane. Commonly used. This refrigerant is ozone friendly but is a potent greenhouse gas and and such will be phased out in the future.
R438A - This is a replacement refrigerant for R22 that is non ozone deleting. Often found in repaired systems that originally ran on R22.
R600A - Iso butane. Commonly used in small modern fridges. Flammable.
Other refrigerants are used in fridges but are much less common these days.

[Scrapper78]

R134a is being phased out. There are a few replacements coming out.

Most cars have already switched to R1234yf, (2,3,3,3-Tetrafluoropropene) and the commercial/residential refrigeration market will likely follow. It has an extremely low global warming factor, is very stable, and has beneficial saturation  temperature and vapor pressure properties (it's efficient). R1234yf is technically flammable under certain conditions, but nothing that anyone is ever going to see in a kitchen (other than the kitchen already being on fire...rendering the point moot.)

Essentially, 1234yf will burn in a fire, but it does not CATCH on fire any easier than most other things you'll find/use in your life.  Your fridge guy is being a big baby.

[Edward M. Grant]

Personally, I'm far more worried about cheap Chinese crap with unsafe lithium batteries that catch fire.

[DougM]

Hyperbole. The gas is flammable (like leather), not INFLAMMABLE (like gasoline). If it's hot enough to light that stuff on fire, your entire kitchen is on fire.