Thermodynamic and dynamic analysis has been conducted to investigate performance variations induced by substitution of alternative refrigerants, HFC134a or HC600a for CFC12 in hermetic reciprocating compressors. For the thermodynamic analysis, mass and energy conservation laws are applied to the cylinder volume and Helmholtz resonator modeling method is adopted to describe gas pulsations at suction and discharge system. The modeling of the dynamics of the compressor mechanism has been performed with lumped mass method to analyse the bearing loads and friction losses at each bearing. To verify the correctness of this analysis, results of the performance simulation have been compared to those of calorimetric measurrements of compressor operating with CFC12. Analysis of the various losses, noise and reliability as well as performance has been conducted to present the design guideline for the compressor development with alternative refrigerants. It is found that compressors with alternative refrigerants, HFC 134a or HC600a give better COPs than those with CFC12 under the same operating conditions and especially, compressors with HC600a show better reliability and noise characteristics also.