In February of this year, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) signed a final rule that eliminated the leak repair and maintenance requirements on appliances containing 50 or more pounds of substitute refrigerants such HFCs. As a result, the leak repair provisions now only apply to class I and class II ozone-depleting refrigerants, as defined in the regulations.
The final rule was not a surprise to most in the HVACR industry, as EPA proposed these changes to Section 608 of its Refrigerant Management Regulations back in 2018, but ACCA members were hoping to maintain the leak repair provisions, said Todd Washam, vice president of public policy and industry relations at ACCA.