What You Need to Know About the New Section 608 Exam

Notable Changes 

ESCO Institute, which provides training and study materials for HVACR technicians, recently held a webinar outlining the changes to the revised Section 608 exam. According to Jason Obrzut, director of industry standards and relations at ESCO Institute, the revision follows a roughly year-long process involving EPA and approved technician certification organizations, with the revised exam questions pilot-tested in the first quarter of 2026. 

“The reason we’re choosing this time and place for this revision is all of the changes that our industry has been going through,” said Obrzut. “We want to make sure that the entry-level exam, the gate that everyone has to pass through in order to get in here and buy refrigerant and service refrigerant systems, is current and reflects what technicians are going to see in the field today.” 

The basic structure of the exam will not change. It will continue to have four sections — Core, Type I (small appliances), Type II (refrigeration and air conditioning), and Type III (low-pressure systems) — and technicians seeking Universal certification will still have to pass all four sections. There will not be a new Type IV designation for A2L refrigerants. 

Instead, the updated question bank includes newer refrigerants, and Obrzut said obsolete questions involving refrigerants, systems, tools, and equipment that are no longer common in the field have been removed. Other questions have been revised for clarity and to reflect current equipment, so a question that once referred to an R-22 system, for example, may now reference R-32 or R-454B. 

“There are a whole bunch of questions that have been revised,” said Obrzut. “The wording has been changed around to be a bit more user-friendly.” He described the revision as a “quality of life update” that improves readability, while making the exam more relevant to current field conditions. 

Refrigerant Management 

One of the biggest changes in the updated exam is the addition of general knowledge questions on A2L and A3 refrigerants — specifically newer refrigerants such as R-32, R-454B, and R-1234yf — as well as hydrocarbon refrigerants in the A3 safety classification. 

Test takers may be surprised to learn that the revised Section 608 exam will not cover AIM Act regulations. Obrzut said that’s because Section 608 comes from the Clean Air Act, which addresses ozone-depleting CFC and HCFC refrigerants and their substitutes, while the AIM Act is separate legislation governing HFCs.  

“Stuff from the AIM Act, specifically regulatory stuff from the AIM Act, will not be on the Section 608 exam,” he said. “These are two different pieces of legislation.” 

As a result, those taking the 608 exam must still understand the leak rates that apply to CFCs and HCFCs, said Obrzut.  

“There are leak rates that apply to HFCs, but those are under the AIM Act, so that information — the specific regulatory requirements and things that are required under the AIM Act — will not be on the Section 608 exam.” 

Technicians must also understand how certain Section 608 requirements apply to today’s refrigerants through EPA’s Refrigerant Management Program (RMP), which Obrzut likened to the “Ten Commandments” of refrigeration, because it spells out what technicians can and cannot do. 

Those requirements extend beyond the older ozone-depleting refrigerants that were Section 608’s original focus. Obrzut said several RMP requirements — including technician certification, the venting prohibition, and refrigerant sales restrictions — also apply to HFCs and HFOs. Leak repair requirements under Section 608 do not apply to HFCs and HFOs in the same way, he added, but recovery and other handling requirements still do. Contractors must also retain refrigerant records for three years. 

Recovery will take on greater importance as the HFC phasedown increases the industry’s reliance on recovered and reclaimed refrigerant to service installed equipment. Currently, only about 3% to 6% of refrigerant used each year makes it back to reclamation. 

“We’re going to need [reclaimed refrigerant] moving forward to bridge the gap for the phase down,” said Obrzut. “In order to meet the service needs of legacy systems, we’re going to have to have reclaimed refrigerant be a big part of that equation.” 

Format Familiarity 

Although the bank of questions is changing, the format of the Section 608 exam will remain the same. Obrzut said the new bank contains roughly 400 questions divided among the Core, Type I, Type II, and Type III sections. Test providers will create 10 different versions of the exam so that technicians sitting next to each other are not taking identical exams. The exam will also remain closed-book and proctored, with no study materials or digital devices permitted during testing. 

Both the current and revised versions may be available during the remainder of 2026, but on Jan. 1, 2027, exams developed from the previous question bank will no longer be accepted. That overlap creates a practical problem: a technician could study from material designed for one version of the exam and sit for the other. 

“If you are utilizing material from some other source, whether it be YouTube or Reddit or wherever you find your free online review material, just be sure that it is the right material for the test that you are taking,” said Obrzut. “There’s going to be multiple generations of review material out there.” ESCO is in the process of updating its study guide and other online materials for the new test. 

For contractors and technicians who hold only one certification type and eventually want Universal certification, the transition does not erase what they have already earned. For example, technicians holding Type II certification can take the remaining sections later; however, after Jan. 1, those additional sections will come from the revised exam. 

Existing certification cards also remain valid, and as noted earlier, there is no federal requirement for technicians who already hold Section 608 certification to retake the exam. Still, technicians remain responsible for keeping up with changing refrigerants, regulations, and service practices after they are certified. 

Technicians should also understand that passing the Section 608 exam is not a measure of technical competency. “This is not a real nuts-and-bolts type of HVAC exam. It’s more of a regulatory, environmental, very high-level overview exam,” Obrzut said. “This test does not certify you as a technician. It certifies that you understand the rules and regulations regarding the use of refrigerant.”