States on July 1, 1992, the no-venting of CFCs and HCFCs requirement in the Clean Air Act of 1990 in the USA significantly changed the way the refrigeration system is serviced in unitary air conditioners and heat pumps. The service contractor must now decide whether to recover, recycle or reclaim the refrigerant. Presents guidelines for this. Additional procedures must be followed to ensure that the refrigerant that is put back into the system is clean enough to avoid future equipment performance degradation or reliability problems. To do this, the service contractor must now possess recovery or recycling equipment and must also be aware of Environmental Protection Agency and local regulations and equipment manufacturers' warranties that would affect the way the equipment is serviced.

KEYWORDS: USA, fluorocarbons, air conditioning, equipment, heat pumps, refrigerants, servicing, maintenance, contractors, regulations.