A good refrigerant should have

- The refrigerant should have low boiling point and low freezing point.
- It must have low specific heat and high latent heat. Because high specific heat decreases the refrigerating effect per kg of refrigerant and high latent heat at low temperature increases the refrigerating effect per kg of refrigerant.
- It must have high critical pressure and temperature to avoid large power requirements.
- It should have low specific volume to reduce the size of the compressor.
- It must have high thermal conductivity to reduce the area of heat transfer in evaporator and condenser.
- It should be non-flammable, non-explosive, non-toxic and non-corrosive.
- It should not have any bad effects on the stored material or food, when any leak develops in the system.