The EPA 608 regulations for technicians are your on-the-job rulebook.
Once certified, you may not knowingly vent HFC and other substitute refrigerant (narrow hydrocarbon exemptions apply), you must recover to EPA's required evacuation levels with certified equipment, you must know the leak-rate thresholds, and, with limited exceptions, only a certified technician may buy refrigerant.
Enforcement is personal: EPA may suspend or revoke a certificate, and the Clean Air Act's civil-penalty ceiling is $124,426 per violation.
What is prohibited: the refrigerant venting ban
Start with the prohibition itself: venting.
Knowingly releasing HFC and other substitute refrigerant to the atmosphere is prohibited by Clean Air Act section 608(c)(2).
EPA restates the ban in its A2L SNAP listings, so moving to lower-GWP refrigerants does not loosen it.
There is a carve-out: EPA notes that certain hydrocarbon substitutes in specific end-uses are exempt from the venting prohibition.
Outside that exemption, knowingly releasing substitute refrigerant falls under the ban.
The ban follows you into the exam room: EPA lists the venting prohibition among the Core exam topics it publishes.
Venting is one duty among several.
EPA's 2020 rule removed the leak-repair requirements of 82.157 for appliances using only substitute refrigerants such as HFCs, but it kept the certification, sales restriction, evacuation, certified-recovery-equipment, safe-disposal and reclamation requirements for them — six duties that still apply on HFC work, plus leak repair, which came back under a different rule and gets its own section below.
This page covers what those rules demand of you after certification.
What the credential is, which type to take and how the exam runs are covered in our EPA 608 certification guide.
Recovery and evacuation requirements
Recovery is where EPA's rules get numeric.
When you recover refrigerant, the equipment has to reach a required evacuation level, and the level depends on the appliance's pressure class and charge size — and on how old your recovery equipment is.
The levels below are for recovery equipment made on or after November 15, 1993; equipment made before that date is measured against a different column of EPA's table.
| Appliance | Evacuation level (recovery equipment made on/after Nov 15, 1993) |
|---|---|
| Very-high-pressure | 0 in. Hg |
| High-pressure, under 200 lb | 0 in. Hg |
| High-pressure, 200 lb or more | 10 in. Hg |
| Medium-pressure, under 200 lb | 10 in. Hg |
| Medium-pressure, 200 lb or more | 15 in. Hg |
| Low-pressure | 25 mm Hg absolute |
Small appliances run on different numbers: with recovery equipment made on or after November 15, 1993, you must recover 90 percent of the refrigerant when the compressor is working and 80 percent when it is not, or evacuate to 4 inches of mercury vacuum.
The machine itself is part of the rule.
Certified recovery equipment is one of the requirements EPA kept in force for substitute refrigerants when it rewrote the rules in 2020, so what you pull with is a compliance decision, not just a purchase.
Leak-repair thresholds you must know
Leak repair is the duty with two rulebooks.
One covers ozone-depleting refrigerants; the other, newer one covers HFCs.
The percentage thresholds are the same — the equipment they apply to is not.
| ODS refrigerants (CFC, HCFC) | HFCs and substitutes | |
|---|---|---|
| Rule | 82.157 | AIM Act ER&R rule (40 CFR 84) |
| Applies to | Appliances with a full charge of 50+ lb, as of April 10, 2020 | Appliances with 15+ lb of HFC, or a substitute with a GWP above 53, from January 1, 2026 |
| Leak-rate thresholds | 20% commercial refrigeration · 30% industrial process refrigeration · 10% comfort cooling and other appliances | 20% commercial refrigeration · 30% industrial process refrigeration · 10% comfort cooling, refrigerated transport and other appliances |
| Excluded | Appliances under 50 lb | Residential and light-commercial AC and heat pumps |
On the ozone-depleting side, a leak above the threshold starts a repair clock: the owner must repair within 30 days, or 120 days where an industrial process shutdown is needed, and the leak inspection itself must be done by a certified technician.
Chronic leakers add reporting — an appliance with 50 or more pounds of ODS refrigerant that loses 125 percent or more of its full charge in a calendar year must be reported to EPA by March 1 of the following year.
The HFC side runs on the AIM Act's Emissions Reduction and Reclamation rule.
From January 1, 2026 it re-imposed leak repair on appliances with 15 or more pounds of HFC or of a substitute with a GWP above 53, and like the ODS rule it requires leak inspections by a 608-certified technician.
The exclusions matter on residential calls.
Residential and light-commercial air conditioners and heat pumps are outside the HFC leak-repair rule.
Separately from leak repair, EPA has stated that existing systems may be serviced and repaired for their whole useful life, including replacing components, and that replacement components for existing equipment may still be manufactured, imported and sold.
One edge is still moving: EPA proposed in May 2026 to exempt road and intermodal transport refrigeration units from leak repair.
That remained a proposal, not a final rule, as of late September 2026.
The 50-pound thresholds are not for HFC systems
Refrigerant purchase restrictions
Refrigerant purchases are restricted under EPA's sales rule.
Only EPA-certified technicians may buy ozone-depleting or substitute refrigerants such as HFCs — your 608 card covers stationary refrigerants, while vehicle air conditioning is Section 609 territory.
The exceptions are limited, and one matters on the job: an employer may buy if it gives the wholesaler written evidence that it employs at least one certified technician.
The restriction has edges.
It does not cover equipment or components that already contain refrigerant, and small cans of MVAC refrigerant — 2 pounds or less with a self-sealing valve — may still be sold to uncertified do-it-yourselfers.
The supply behind your purchases is shrinking on a schedule.
The AIM Act phase-down caps HFC production and consumption at 90 percent of baseline in 2020–2023, 60 percent in 2024–2028, 30 percent in 2029–2033, 20 percent in 2034–2035 and 15 percent from 2036 on.
That is a cap on supply, not a ban on servicing; what it means for R-410A work is covered on our refrigerant phase-downs page.
Cylinders carry a duty of their own: from January 1, 2028, anyone using a disposable refrigerant cylinder must send it for heel removal before discarding it, under the conditions EPA sets in the rule.
Can a tech be fined personally?
What the rule puts on you personally is real: EPA may require you to show at your place of business that you can properly recover and recycle refrigerant, and it may suspend or revoke your certificate for failing that demonstration or for breaking the Subpart F rules.
The credential itself is on the line.
On money, our sources establish the Clean Air Act's penalty ceilings, not a technician-specific fine schedule: under EPA's inflation-adjustment table, for penalties assessed on or after January 8, 2025, the maximum civil penalty under section 113(b) is $124,426 per violation, and EPA's administrative penalties are capped at $59,114 per violation and $472,901 total.
How EPA applies those ceilings to individual technicians is not something our research covered — confirm with EPA before assuming a number.
Recordkeeping is personal too.
Certified technicians must keep a copy of their certificate at their place of business, and keep it until three years after they stop working as a technician.
It is a duty the rule assigns to you, not to the shop's filing cabinet.
Supervising an apprentice extends your exposure.
An apprentice may work without certification only while closely and continually supervised by a certified technician, and the supervising technician and the apprentice share responsibility for compliance.
We cover the employer side of Section 608 separately, in our EPA 608 rules for employers.
And if you are weighing what these rules mean for where you work next, the openings are on our HVAC technician jobs board.
This page is career information, not legal advice. Confirm the current Section 608 requirements with EPA before you act on them.