We present experimental differential cross sections for the elastic scattering of electrons from CF3H and CF3I for scattering angles from 10° or 20° up to 180° at incident electron energies of 5, 10, 20, 30 and 50 eV. We also estimate integral and momentum transfer cross sections with the present measurement of differential cross sections as well as with our previous (Varella et al 2002 Phys. Rev. A 65 022702 for CF3H; Kitajima et al 2002 J. Phys. B: At. Mol. Opt. Phys. 35 3257 for CF3I) differential cross section sets for both molecules. The agreement with the previous results is generally good with a few exceptions.