Guides › Air Con & Refrigeration
Refrigerant handling and leak test records
The short answer
If you hold a Refrigerant Trading Authorisation, the ARC audits your records, not your workmanship. Every charge, top-up, recovery and transfer needs logging, records are kept for a minimum of 5 years, and incomplete records are the main thing permit condition checks catch.
What an audit actually asks for
ARC permit condition checks look at your quarterly purchase, sale and recovery records, your cylinder test dates, and your equipment maintenance records. Audits typically ask for the last two quarters. The failure mode is almost never a technician doing the wrong thing on site, it is the paperwork not existing or not adding up when someone asks for it months later.
Weighed transactions, not estimates
A refrigerant log is only useful if the quantities are real. That means cylinder weight before and cylinder weight after, with the recovered or charged mass falling out of the difference, plus the running system charge after the transaction. An estimate written down as a round number is the kind of thing that unravels an audit.
Systems over 3 kg need a logbook
AS/NZS 5149.2 requires a logbook for systems with a charge over 3 kg, recording maintenance and repairs, the quantity and kind of refrigerant charged or removed on each occasion, and component changes. Your job record and the system logbook are two different things, and the logbook lives with the plant.
Venting is an offence
Worth stating plainly because it sits behind everything else here. Venting refrigerant is a Commonwealth offence, not an industry guideline. The recovery record is what demonstrates that gas removed from a system was actually recovered.
Who is responsible for what
The Refrigerant Trading Authorisation holder is accountable for the records, even where the work is done by an employed technician. The technician doing the handling needs a current ARCTick licence, and their licence number belongs on every record.
What the report should record
- Customer or site name and address, and the unit location
- Equipment type, make, model, serial number and asset ID
- Refrigerant type and the system total charge in kg
- Transaction type: charge, top-up, recovery or transfer
- Quantity in kg, and whether the refrigerant is new, reused or recycled
- Cylinder serial number, and cylinder weight before and after
- Running system charge after the transaction
- Leak check method and result, the leak location, whether a repair was done, and whether the verification retest passed
- Technician name, ARCTick licence number, signature and date
What commonly goes wrong
- Quantities estimated rather than weighed, so cylinder weights and logged amounts do not reconcile
- Leak found and repaired but no verification retest recorded
- Cylinder test dates out of date
- Records kept for less than the 5 year minimum
- Systems over 3 kg with no logbook entry, only a job sheet
Do the check on your phone, hand over the report before you leave
Safety Check Pro walks you through the checkpoints, records your test results and photos, and produces a branded PDF report with your own logo on it. Works offline, syncs when you have signal.
See how it works All report types
Free plan includes 4 reports a month. No card needed to start.
Common questions
How long do refrigerant records need to be kept?
A minimum of 5 years. ARC permit condition checks typically ask for the last two quarters, but the retention obligation runs to 5 years.
What does an ARC permit condition check look at?
Quarterly purchase, sale and recovery records, cylinder test dates, and equipment maintenance records. Incomplete records are the most common finding.
When does a system need a logbook?
AS/NZS 5149.2 requires one for systems with a refrigerant charge over 3 kg, recording maintenance, repairs, quantities charged or removed each time, and component changes.
Who needs an ARCTick licence?
Any technician handling refrigerant. The business holding the Refrigerant Trading Authorisation is separately accountable for the records.
More Air Con & Refrigeration guides
Air conditioning preventative maintenance reports All trades
Last reviewed: September 2026. General information for tradespeople, not legal advice. Standards and regulations change. Governing references for this page: Ozone Protection and Synthetic Greenhouse Gas Management Act 1989 (Cth) and Regulations; ARC RTA permit conditions; Refrigerant Handling Code of Practice; AS/NZS 5149.2. Confirm the current position with the Australian Refrigeration Council before you rely on it.