I took the 609 test and got my card. The test seemed to mostly check if you had a heartbeat and weren’t asleep. I went away without much confidence that 608/609 certification was really worth much in terms of trusting certified people to really be on top of the whys and how’s of proper refrigerant handling.
It’s an educational test, not a proof of knowledge.
If you came away knowing not to vent, to use the right refrigerant, not to vent, to take your waste to the reclaimer, not to vent, to leak test with nitrogen, not to vent, and that you can be fined $43,000/day for not having your paperwork in order… then it worked enough.
Technically, yes - "de minimis releases" are allowed because there's no practical way to avoid them. This is the small amount of refrigerant burped out to purge hoses, for instance.
This is downvoted but got a chuckle from me. Recently had to replace a radiator on a vw TDI and had a remove the A/C line, there was a little bit of venting that occurred (the A/C didn't blow cold before so thought there was little if any refrigerant in the system).
TLDR I suck!
I don't think there a mechanic out there who doesn't make doesn't accidentally break the integrity of those flimsy AC lines weekly. They are thin walled pipes, and connected with tiny green O-rings.
There are no standards on how many pieces of thin walled pipe a vechicle can use. It's usually a spiders nest of hoses.
You need to change you blower motor, or do anything that involves the dash, radiator, you are taking a calculated risk. Most mechanics might have a recovery system, but it's usually in the corner of the shop covered in dust.
It might help if the federal government standardized parts for the AC system?
I'm very careful, but the last time I changed my blower I borrowed a recovery system, but still made a mistake, and released all the gas. I was going to recharge it, but the generic evaporator core outlet to an ac line was 1" short. I had to go genetic because I couldn't find OEM.
And no don't make a mechanic's life harder with a bunch of regulations. They are already over regulated, and it's a hard job.
It’s just a card that can be used to beat someone over the head with the law harder because ‘they definitely knew better’. Eventually (seems like CA is trying?) there will be paperwork that needs to
be filed with fines attached, so maybe even 50% of folks will actually do it.
It's a certification that shows the technician is aware of the law, similar to no trespassing signs and lease agreements. If it's not enforced that a problem that needs to be fixed. If people aren't following the correct procedure because they know they most likely won't get caught and don't care then that's a problem with them.
The “starve the beast” legislators underfund the EPA to the point that there is no money for enforcement, and enforcement at the technician level is going to be really unpopular with lots of “The government fined me out of business” stories. The path I used to acquire refrigerant is a break in the chain that has been operating for years in the open and probably moved >100 tons of refrigerant. I was unreasonably disappointed that I didn’t have to provide my brand new EPA card number.
Specialized labor certification just requires that you memorize the safety requirements (that will almost always be obvious for engineers), and at most repeat a set of steps.
It can not be too onerous, because people need the work, and people capable of solving systems of differential equations have better opportunities than work on them.
Memorizing the location of fire exits is also obvious and yet we do drills to burn it in because when you’re in the shit it’s hard to think rationally about this kind of stuff.
> Memorizing the location of fire exits is also obvious and yet we do drills to burn it in
I don't think that's what the drills are for. You do drills so that everyone is familiar with an organized process of exiting the structure, so that an evacuation can occur quickly.
In the absence of drills, everyone will still know where the exits are, but they'll form giant traffic jams that block people from using the exits.
Its usually just one of the steps to doing it professionally. Most states AFAIK also have a licensing regiment required to work on anything not covered by the small appliance 608 type 1 which covers more theory of operation code compliant installation/etc.
So the EPA cert by itself isn't usually enough to work professionally (unless your repairing home refrigerators).
