Freon Removal Course

In the near future the green guys are going to demand that scrap car haulers be responsible for removing the freon from any car, truck, bus or motor home that has an AC unit installed.

Every State in the U.S.A. has a course available, as each Canadian Province offers the same 3 or 5 day course, prices may vary.

Check with your local environment agency then ask when the next freon removal course is coming up, don't be caught out in the cold when they pass the law.



The landfill sites here all now require that the appliances have been evacuated, the refrigeration guys do not want the job. The remote sites do not have electricity to run their equipment.

I was toying with the idea of getting my freon handling certificate then going after the contracts from the various landfill sites.

This removal ticket does not make you a refrigeration technician, just gives you the right to remove and handle freon according to the laws set fourth regarding this substance. All of which you will learn from taking the course.

Here is a website were you can get 608 certification done online with an openbook test.
http://www.epatest.com/608/
For doing cars I think you need a different cert but this will take care of the scrap appliance part of it though. Im seriously considering doing this myself and then selling the refrigerant. I know a couple months back I found a place online that would give you canisters for free and buy them when they were full and send you empties but I didnt book mark it and need to find it again.

( minutes to late there dewgood

If i do this course and get certified will i have to show my scrap yard that im certified to remove freon?

Originally Posted by YoungScrapper

If i do this course and get certified will i have to show my scrap yard that im certified to remove freon?

I would think that if you did this course you would be able to get the stickers to tag the appliances saying the freon was removed. one of my yards requires the tag even if the compressor is off of it.

gustavus and partimescraper, thank you very much for this information. I am definitively going to do this.

Originally Posted by newattitude

I would think that if you did this course you would be able to get the stickers to tag the appliances saying the freon was removed. one of my yards requires the tag even if the compressor is off of it.

Thanks for the reply. Lets say i get certified do i get unlimited amounts of stickers and where do i get them from? Sorry for all the ?s im still a newbie.

I got certified for the automotive industry back in 1989 when they just started outlawing R-12 refrigerant, and there is no expiration date on my card. The study material is easy and the test covers common sense questions regarding the safe handling and correct operations in recovering refrigerant.

The EPA did perform surprise spot checks and inspections to confirm proper operations after I got certified. If you’re certifying that you’ve evacuated a system, the EPA will want to see your recovered product sooner or later.

Evacuating a system is done with an AC service machine that’s equipped with a refrigerant recover tank. You will need one of these machines if you’re actually going to perform this service. The machine costs start at a few thousand dollars.

Also, recovered refrigerant can’t be mixed.
For example:
R-22 can’t be stored in a recovery tank that already contains R-12.

I don’t know if things have changed since then, but I always ran into the problem of what to do with the full tanks of recovered refrigerant. The course never covered this issue, and the general response was to use the recovered refrigerant in the next AC service; but if you’re strictly evacuating systems, you’ll accumulate a stock pile of full tanks that no one will want to buy or accept.

R-22 refrigerant is commonly used in consumer grade refrigerators and AC units. R-22 is supposed to be environmentally safe, but can be combustible under high pressures. If R-134a and R-22 is environmentally safe, then why all the regulations?

If you want a place to sell your collected refrigerants try this company out. I found them on google when I myself was looking into getting certified.
http://www.refrigerant-supply.com/SalePurchase.htm

I would agree with you joe if my buddy who is an HVAC tech didnt say it wasnt rocket science. Unfortunitly he now lives in canada but he told me its not hard to do. Plus I have experience with liquid oxygen. I use to work for a medical DME company. Thats the only reason I looked into in the first place. ANd who hasnt refilled there AC in the car with the setup you buy from autozone. If you get the right machine its as simple as hooking a hose to the port and turning it on and letting it run. A half trained web tech is still 1 billion% better then a chop and run scrap job anyday in my opinion. This isnt a flame I love you man.

Then you have a piece that comes with the unit that clamps onto the line. Don't know what they are called but Ive seen it.