The Refrigerant Compliance Glossary

The appliance and its location, the date, parts serviced, the type of work performed, who performed it, refrigerant type and amount added or removed, full charge, and the resulting leak rate with the method used.

A refrigerant marketed as requiring no component or lubricant changes. In practice nearly every substitution requires at least oil compatibility checks and metering device adjustment.

Converting an appliance to a different refrigerant, which typically involves recovering the original charge, changing lubricant, replacing elastomers and the metering device, and re-establishing full charge.

Payment or credit offered by reclaimers and distributors for recovered refrigerant returned for reclaim, priced by refrigerant type, quantity, and purity.

A facility that destroys refrigerant or processes containers to remove residual refrigerant, at the end of the lifecycle. From January 1, 2028, used disposable cylinders must be routed to a reclaimer, fire suppressant recycler, or final processor unless evacuated by a certified technician.

Refrigerant must be recovered before a small appliance is disposed of, with the final person in the disposal chain responsible for verifying recovery.

The documented trail of a quantity of refrigerant from purchase through charging, recovery, transport, and reclaim or destruction, with each handoff recorded.

Accounting for refrigerant across the whole chain — purchased, held on trucks and in storage, charged into appliances, recovered, and sent to reclaim — so that quantities reconcile.

Sellers retain the purchaser’s name, the date, the quantity sold, and proof of technician certification for three years. Buyers should be able to reconcile purchases against what was charged into which appliance.

Refrigerant may be sold only to certified technicians, to employers of certified technicians with proof of certification, for eventual resale to certified persons, or already charged into equipment. Sellers keep invoices and certification proof for three years.