EPA 608 Equipment Certification

What “certified” means, by equipment era

• Made/imported before November 15, 1993: considered certified if capable of achieving the Table 2 evacuation level when tested with a properly calibrated pressure gauge (§82.158(c)).
• On/after November 15, 1993: must be certified by an approved equipment testing organization to achieve the Table 2 level under the applicable appendix B test conditions — B1 (ARI 740-1993) for 1993–2003 equipment, B2 (ARI 740-1995) for 2003–2017, and B3 (AHRI 740-2016, non-flammable) or B4 (flammable refrigerants) for equipment from January 1, 2017 onward (§82.158(d)).
• Small appliances have their own test: certified equipment must recover 90% of the test-stand charge with the compressor running and 80% with it not running, or achieve a 4-inch vacuum (§82.158(e)).
• Every certified machine must carry a label naming the approved testing organization and the appliance category it is certified for, plus its date of manufacture and serial number, in a visible location on material expected to last the equipment's lifetime (§82.158(h)). No label, no proof of certification — check before you trust a machine.

Table 2: what certified equipment must be able to pull

Table 2 (§82.158) mirrors Table 1's evacuation levels, including the low-pressure row: 25 mm Hg absolute in both equipment columns. A machine certified for high-pressure work is not automatically certified for low-pressure work — the label's appliance category is what counts, and §82.156(a) requires equipment certified for that refrigerant and appliance.

When a machine stops being certified — and must be repaired or retired

• Altered design: altering a certified machine's design in a way that would affect its ability to meet the certification standards, without resubmitting the altered design for certification testing, makes the equipment uncertified until it is tested and shown to meet the standards (§82.158(b)). A field modification that changes performance is not a repair — it is a decertification until retested.
• Can't hit the level: a machine that can no longer achieve its Table 2 evacuation level no longer meets the certification standard it was certified against. It must be repaired back to standard (and, if the repair alters the design, retested) before it is used for regulated service again — using it while it cannot perform is using uncertified equipment.
• Revocation: EPA may revoke a model line's certification if it is later determined to fail the certification criteria, after notice to the manufacturer or importer stating the basis (§82.158(j)).
• Manufacturer retesting: at least once every 3 years, manufacturers or importers must have approved testing organizations either retest certified equipment or inspect manufacturing facilities to confirm each certified model line still meets the criteria (§82.158(i)). Note whose duty this is: the 3-year retest is the manufacturer's obligation, not a technician's annual sticker — a common exam trap.

Built-in requirements: purge devices and low-loss fittings

• Purge devices: equipment with a noncondensables purge device must not release more than 3% of the quantity of refrigerant being recycled through purging, under the applicable appendix B conditions (§82.158(d)(6)).
• Low-loss fittings: certified equipment must be equipped with low-loss fittings on all hoses (§82.158(d)(7)). A low-loss fitting closes automatically — or is closed manually — when disconnected, minimizing release (§82.152).
• Use as directed: all recovery/recycling equipment must be used in accordance with the manufacturer's directions unless those directions conflict with Subpart F (§82.156(g)). “The manual said otherwise” is not a defense when the manual conflicts with the rule — the rule wins.

Leak-checking your equipment: what the rule says, and what it doesn't

The CFR sets no technician leak-check interval for recovery equipment — there is no “check it every X days” rule in §82.158 to quote, and this page does not invent one. What the framework does require, in substance, is that the machine you use is certified and performs to its standard: a machine leaking refrigerant at its fittings is not achieving its evacuation level and is not being used as its certification assumes. Exam-prep materials teach checking the recovery device for refrigerant leaks as routine maintenance — treat that as sound practice and likely exam content, but as practice, not a CFR interval. If a question asks for a CFR-mandated check frequency for recovery equipment, the honest answer is that the CFR does not set one; the 3-year figure belongs to manufacturer retesting (§82.158(i)), not to your pre-job check.

Two scope limits worth knowing

• System-dependent (passive) equipment may not be used on appliances with a full charge over 15 lb, unless it is permanently attached as a pump-out unit (§82.156(e)).
• Owners servicing only their own appliances that contain pump-out units are exempt from the requirement to use certified, self-contained recovery/recycling equipment (§82.156(f)). That exemption is narrow — own appliances, pump-out units, nothing else — and it does not exempt the technician-certification or venting rules.