Guide · the technician's record · 40 CFR 84.106(l)(4)
What a technician must record and hand over
Published · 2026-09-08Published 2026-09-08 · by the Wuzler team · sections verified 2026-09-04
The 15-pound rule binds the owner to keep records and the technician to produce them. Three moments on a job end with a document in the owner's hands: adding refrigerant, inspecting for leaks, and testing a repair. This page is what each document contains, by paragraph, and how one ticket carries all three.
After adding or removing refrigerant
Persons adding or removing refrigerant must, on conclusion of the installation, service, repair or disposal, provide the owner or operator with documentation that meets the service-record requirements (84.106(b)). When the work is done by someone other than the owner, the record handed over must carry the appliance and its location, the date, the parts installed, serviced, repaired or disposed of, the type of work on each, the name of the person who did it, and the amount and type of refrigerant added or removed (84.106(l)(4)).
The owner then adds two things to make it the full service record: the full charge, and the leak rate with the method used (84.106(l)(2)). Both are arithmetic on numbers the technician wrote down and one number the owner already has on file, so a ticket that carries the full charge and the previous addition's date can carry the leak rate too, computed on the spot. The calculator does it from the truck.
After a leak inspection
A leak inspection is conducted by a certified technician using methods the technician determines are appropriate (84.106(g)(2)), on all visible and accessible components with the exceptions the rule lists (84.106(g)(3)). The record the technician provides on conclusion of the service carries the date, the methods used, the location of every leak identified, and a certification that all visible and accessible parts were inspected (84.106(l)(5)). An appliance that has exceeded its leak rate is inspected once a year after a successful follow-up test, or quarterly at 500 pounds and above in refrigeration, until the calculations show it under the limit (84.106(g)(1)).
After a repair: two tests, two records
A repair of a leak above the limit is made by a certified technician within 30 days of the addition that exceeded it (84.106(c)(1), (d)). It is documented by an initial verification test after the repair and before refrigerant is added back, and a follow-up test within 10 days of a successful initial test at normal operating conditions (84.106(e)). The technician conducting each test provides the owner with its date, the location of the repaired leaks tested, the type of test and the result (84.106(l)(7)). The follow-up test is the record that stops the clock and starts the inspection schedule.
One ticket, three moments
The three records share most of their fields: the appliance, the date, the technician. A service ticket with a line for what happened (added, inspected, repaired, tested), the refrigerant in pounds and ounces where it applies, the technician's 608 number, and the leak rate where the entry is an addition, meets all three paragraphs on one sheet. The ledger prints one per visit with a cut-here border and an attribution line, and the owner opens the same record by link; the contractor page walks the office side.
What this page is not
Advice on how to service an appliance, or a statement that any technician or job is in compliance. It says what the paragraphs require to be written down and handed over, and links each one. The ledger records and computes; it certifies nothing.
Common questions
- Does the technician calculate the leak rate?
- The owner or operator must calculate it (84.106(b)), and the technician must hand over the documentation that makes the calculation possible: the amount added, the date, the appliance. In practice the technician on site is the one who has the previous addition's date in front of them, which is why the ledger computes the rate when the addition is logged and puts it on the ticket.
- Who must be certified?
- Repairs of leaks above the limit must be made by a certified technician (84.106(c)(1)), and the leak inspection that locates them is conducted by a certified technician (84.106(g)(2)). Certification here means the section 608 technician certification the older rule established.
- What if the owner does not want the paperwork?
- The rule puts the obligation on the person doing the work to provide it (84.106(l)(4)) and on the owner to keep it (84.106(l)). A ticket handed over and declined is still handed over; a contractor who keeps a copy can show that it was.
The tool that does the work
Leak rate calculator. Free, no signup, nothing stored.
What this page rests on
Each entry is from the rules library, with the section, the requirement in the library's words and the date the section text was read. The sources page lists them all.
If the work is done by someone other than the owner or operator, that person must provide the owner or operator with a record of the appliance, the date, the parts, the type of work, who did it, and the refrigerant added or removed.
The owner or operator must calculate the leak rate every time refrigerant is added to an appliance, unless the addition immediately follows a retrofit or a new installation, or qualifies as a seasonal variance. The person adding the refrigerant must give the owner or operator documentation of the service.
For each installation, service, repair or disposal: the appliance and its location, the date, the parts worked on, the type of work, the name of the person who did it, the amount and type of refrigerant added or removed, the full charge, and the leak rate and the method used.
Records of the dates and results of every initial and follow-up verification test, the repaired leaks tested, and the test methods; the technician provides this documentation on conclusion of the service.
Leaks must be identified and repaired within 30 days of the refrigerant addition that exceeded the applicable leak rate (120 days if an industrial process shutdown is required). Repairs must be made by a certified technician.
An initial verification test must be performed within 30 days (120 with an industrial process shutdown) of exceeding the leak rate, after the repair and before refrigerant is added back.
A follow-up verification test must be performed within 10 days of the successful initial verification test, or within 10 days of the appliance returning to normal operating characteristics and conditions if it was evacuated for the repair.
Commercial and industrial process refrigeration appliances with a full charge of 15 or more but less than 500 pounds that have exceeded the leak rate must be inspected once per year after a successful follow-up verification test, until the calculations show one year under the limit.
84.106(l)(4); 84.106(b); 84.106(l)(2); 84.106(l)(7); 84.106(c)(1), (d); 84.106(e)(1); 84.106(e)(2); 84.106(g)(1)(ii) · verified 2026-09-04 · information with its sources, never advice; the product records and computes and certifies nothing