Refrigerant compliance

Federal regulation restricts the sale of most refrigerants. To buy a restricted refrigerant you must be an EPA Section 608 certified technician, an EPA Section 609 certified technician where the work is motor-vehicle air conditioning, an authorised representative of a certified technician, or a wholesaler buying for resale to certified technicians.

We do not collect certification documents at checkout. Placing an order for a restricted refrigerant is your confirmation that you are permitted to buy it. The obligation is real whether or not anyone asks you for paperwork, so if you are not sure which category you fall into, contact us before ordering rather than after.

Product pages for restricted refrigerants carry a notice saying so. As a rule of thumb, bulk cylinders of HFC and HCFC refrigerant are restricted; small self-sealing cans intended for motor-vehicle air conditioning are sold under the separate arrangements that apply to those, and cleaners, flushes and gauges are not refrigerants at all.

Several states regulate the sale of higher-GWP refrigerants more tightly than federal law, and some restrict virgin product while continuing to permit reclaimed. We are confirming exactly which of those rules apply to the lines we stock, and this section will state them specifically once we have. Until then: if you are buying into California or New York in particular, contact us before ordering and we will tell you what we know about that line.

Knowingly venting refrigerant to the atmosphere during service, maintenance, repair or disposal is prohibited. Recovery equipment and proper disposal are the buyer's responsibility, and nothing on this site changes that.

Cylinders are pressure vessels. Keep them below their rated temperature, out of direct sun, upright and secured. Never refill a disposable cylinder, never heat one with a flame, and never mix refrigerants in a system — a mixture has none of the published properties of either gas, and no pressure–temperature chart describes it.

A2L-classified refrigerants such as R-454B and R-32 are mildly flammable. They call for A2L-rated service equipment, leak detection and ventilation, and local code may cap how much you may hold on site.