EPA 608 Type II is the federal certification for maintaining, servicing, repairing, and disposing of medium-, high-, and very-high-pressure appliances — the three pressure classes above low-pressure.
Residential split systems and heat pumps sit in that category, because EPA classifies R-410A as a high-pressure refrigerant.
The Type II exam adds at least 25 questions on top of Core, and the bar is 70 percent.
What equipment does EPA 608 Type II cover?
Under 40 CFR 82.161, Type II certification covers anyone who maintains, services, repairs, or disposes of medium-, high-, or very-high-pressure appliances.
Its carve-outs are small appliances, MVACs, and MVAC-like appliances.
What lands in the category is decided by the refrigerant, not the equipment name.
EPA defines a high-pressure appliance as one using a refrigerant with a liquid phase saturation pressure between 170 psia and 355 psia at 104 °F, and its example list is R-22, R-407A, R-407C, R-410A, and R-502.
Run the chain for a home system: a split-system AC or heat pump charged with R-410A uses a high-pressure refrigerant, so it is a high-pressure appliance, so it is Type II work.
The same chain covers light-commercial equipment charged with those refrigerants.
One label to get right before the exam: EPA's own definition classifies R-410A as high pressure — not "very high pressure," the way many prep sources describe it.
Type II covers the three pressure classes above low-pressure — medium, high, and very high — but the required evacuation level depends on which class the appliance is in.
The boundaries are just as testable.
Small appliances — factory-sealed units with 5 pounds or less of refrigerant — stay Type I no matter where you find them.
Vehicle AC is MVAC territory, handled under Section 609; MVAC-like appliances sit on that boundary, and EPA lets a technician servicing them hold either Type II or Section 609 certification.
And chillers running R-11, R-123, R-113, or R-245fa are low-pressure appliances, which is the one pressure class Type II does not touch.
The full side-by-side is in our guide to epa 608 types.
Why do residential and light-commercial techs need it?
Because of how EPA's categories fall: a split system, heat pump, or packaged light-commercial unit charged with a high-pressure refrigerant is a high-pressure appliance by definition — R-410A, with R-22, R-407A, R-407C, and R-502 on the same example list — and high-pressure appliances are Type II work.
Anyone opening those circuits to maintain, service, repair, or dispose of the appliance needs a 608 certification of their own — with one exception for closely supervised apprentices, just below — and the type that matches this equipment is Type II.
The EPA 608 certification overview covers who exactly the rule reaches and how the exam process runs.
The rule bites in a practical place: refrigerant purchasing.
Only EPA-certified technicians may buy ozone-depleting or substitute refrigerants such as HFCs, with limited exceptions — an employer can buy only if it gives the wholesaler written evidence that it employs at least one certified technician.
Without a card, you cannot legally buy that charge yourself.
New to the trade?
Apprentices are exempt from 608 certification only while they are closely and continually supervised by a certified technician, and the supervising technician and the apprentice share responsibility for compliance.
The rule sets no time limit on that exemption — but the first time you open a refrigerant circuit on your own, Type II stops being optional.
Certified and looking?
Open HVAC technician jobs are on our board.
What leak-repair and recovery rules are tested?
EPA publishes the Type II topic list.
The items it names include leak detection, the leak-repair rules, recovery requirements sized by appliance charge — under 200 lb versus 200 lb and over — and the ban on system-dependent recovery equipment on systems containing more than 15 pounds of refrigerant.
The leak-repair numbers come from 40 CFR 82.157, and they apply to appliances with a full charge of 50 or more pounds of class I or class II refrigerant — the ozone-depleting kind.
For those appliances, the leak-rate thresholds that trigger a repair are:
- 10 percent for comfort cooling and other appliances
- 20 percent for commercial refrigeration
- 30 percent for industrial process refrigeration
When a covered appliance crosses its threshold, the owner must repair it within 30 days — extended to 120 days when an industrial process shutdown is needed — and a certified technician must perform the leak inspection.
Do not carry those percentages onto an HFC system.
EPA's 2020 rule removed the 82.157 leak-repair requirements for appliances using only substitute refrigerants such as HFCs, while keeping the certification, sales restriction, evacuation, certified-recovery-equipment, safe-disposal, and reclamation rules for them.
HFC leak repair came back under a different regime: the AIM Act's Emissions Reduction and Reclamation rule re-imposed leak repair from January 1, 2026 on appliances with 15 or more pounds of refrigerant with a GWP above 53 — and it excludes residential and light-commercial air-conditioning and heat-pump appliances.
The recovery half of the topic list is the evacuation table.
When you recover with equipment manufactured on or after November 15, 1993, the required evacuation levels for Type II appliances are:
| Appliance class | Required evacuation level |
|---|---|
| Very-high-pressure | 0 in. Hg vacuum |
| High-pressure, under 200 lb | 0 in. Hg vacuum |
| High-pressure, 200 lb and over | 10 in. Hg vacuum |
| Medium-pressure, under 200 lb | 10 in. Hg vacuum |
| Medium-pressure, 200 lb and over | 15 in. Hg vacuum |
Equipment manufactured before November 15, 1993 has its own, less stringent column: 0 in.
Hg for very-high-pressure and for high-pressure under 200 lb, and 4 in.
Hg for high-pressure at 200 lb and over and for the medium-pressure rows.
And note the second half of the recovery rule: system-dependent recovery equipment is banned on systems containing more than 15 pounds of refrigerant, so larger charges need recovery equipment that is not system-dependent.
Two leak-repair rules — check which one applies
How hard is the Type II section?
The shape first.
Every 608 exam pairs at least 25 questions from the core group with at least 25 from each relevant technical group, so sitting Type II means two sections back to back — Core, then your 25-plus Type II questions.
Type II is a closed-book test, proctored in a secure environment, and the passing score is 70 percent.
EPA states the bar as a percentage, not as a count of missed questions.
What makes the section passable is that the syllabus is public.
The topics EPA names in advance — leak detection, the leak-repair rules, recovery requirements by appliance size, and the system-dependent-recovery ban — are all on the published list, and the evacuation levels and leak thresholds in this article are the substance behind two of them.
The honest limit: the question bank itself is not public.
EPA releases it only to approved certifying programs, and the public topics page we read still frames the leak-repair questions around the 50-pound threshold and ozone-depleting equipment — it does not mention A2L refrigerants or the AIM Act, and our research found no public confirmation that the bank has been rewritten.
Study the published topics; do not assume your form does or does not include newer material.
Type II practice questions
Five Type II-style questions, answered from the rules above.
Answer each before you read the explanation.
Question 1. A residential heat pump is charged with R-410A. Which certification covers servicing it?
- A. Type I
- B. Type II
- C. Type III
- D. None — heat pumps are exempt
Answer: B.
R-410A sits in EPA's high-pressure class — 170 to 355 psia liquid saturation pressure at 104 °F — so an R-410A heat pump is a high-pressure appliance, and high-pressure appliances are Type II territory, alongside split-system AC.
Question 2. Your recovery unit was manufactured on or after November 15, 1993. To what vacuum must you evacuate a high-pressure appliance holding less than 200 lb of refrigerant?
- A. 0 in. Hg
- B. 10 in. Hg
- C. 15 in. Hg
- D. 25 mm Hg absolute
Answer: A.
High-pressure appliances under 200 lb evacuate to 0 in.
Hg.
The 10 in.
Hg figure is the high-pressure answer at 200 lb and over — the size split is exactly what the section tests.
Question 3. Under 40 CFR 82.157, what leak-rate threshold triggers the repair requirement for a comfort-cooling appliance?
- A. 10 percent
- B. 20 percent
- C. 30 percent
- D. 15 percent
Answer: A.
Ten percent for comfort cooling and other appliances, against 20 percent for commercial refrigeration and 30 percent for industrial process refrigeration.
Scope matters with it: the thresholds apply to appliances with a full charge of 50 or more pounds of ozone-depleting refrigerant, not to HFC equipment.
Question 4. EPA defines a high-pressure appliance as one using a refrigerant with what saturation pressure at 104 °F?
- A. Low enough to be a low-pressure appliance
- B. 170–355 psia liquid saturation pressure
- C. High enough to be a very-high-pressure appliance
- D. Whatever the equipment manufacturer specifies
Answer: B.
The definition is 170 to 355 psia at 104 °F, and it is why R-22, R-407A, R-407C, R-410A, and R-502 all sit in the high-pressure class.
Learn the classes EPA's way.
Question 5. A medium-pressure appliance holds 200 lb or more of refrigerant; your recovery equipment was made on or after November 15, 1993. Evacuate to what level?
- A. 0 in. Hg
- B. 4 in. Hg
- C. 10 in. Hg
- D. 15 in. Hg
Answer: D.
Fifteen inches of mercury for medium-pressure appliances at 200 lb and over.
Watch the 4 in.
Hg distractor — that figure belongs to the pre-November 1993 equipment column, not the column that applies to equipment made on or after November 15, 1993.
These five sample what the section asks; a full free set covering Core, Type I, Type II, and Type III is on our epa 608 practice test page.
When you are passing those consistently, book the proctored exam through an EPA-approved certifying organization.
This page is career information, not legal advice. Confirm the current Section 608 requirements with EPA before you act on them.