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35 multiple-choice questions and 14 flashcards on Core — Recovery, Recycling and Reclamation, about 12% of the HVAC: EPA 608 Tech Cert bank. Every one carries a written rationale.
Core — Recovery, Recycling and Reclamation is one of 8 chapters in CoStudy's HVAC: EPA 608 Tech Cert bank, and it holds 35 of the bank's 300 multiple-choice questions — roughly 12% of the total. That proportion is not arbitrary: chapters follow the certifying body's published exam outline, and the number of questions in each is set by that domain's published weight, so the share of your practice time this chapter takes matches the share of the real exam it accounts for.
Studying by chapter is worth doing once you have a diagnostic score. A single overall percentage tells you whether you are close; it does not tell you which domain is dragging. Working a weak chapter in isolation, and re-testing it in isolation, is the fastest way to move a score that has stalled — and it is why the mock exams in CoStudy report by domain rather than as one number.
10 questions drawn from this chapter, with the full rationale shown — the controlling principle behind the right answer, and why each wrong option tempts and fails.
Disposable refrigerant cylinders should be handled in which way once emptied?
Answer: B — Evacuated, marked empty and sent out as scrap metal
B) Correct — disposable cylinders are evacuated, marked, valve-opened and sent to scrap metal recycling. A) is prohibited and dangerous, since disposable cylinders are not built or tested for refilling. C) is venting and violates the prohibition. D) applies to refillable cylinders, which do require periodic retesting.
A technician removes refrigerant from a system into an external container without testing or processing it in any way. This operation is called which of the following?
Answer: A — Recovery
A) Correct — recovery is simply removing refrigerant into a container without analyzing or processing it. B) adds a cleaning step such as oil separation and filter drying, which did not happen here. C) requires processing to a purity specification and laboratory verification. D) refers to converting a system to a different refrigerant, which is unrelated to removal.
Why is hydrostatic expansion the specific hazard behind the cylinder fill limit?
Answer: D — Liquid refrigerant expands as temperature rises and can burst a liquid-full cylinder
D) Correct — a cylinder with no vapor space has nowhere to absorb liquid expansion, so a modest temperature rise produces enormous pressure. B) describes a vacuum failure mode that overfilling does not cause. C) is a real housekeeping issue but not the mechanical hazard. A) confuses acid and moisture contamination with the overfill hazard.
System-dependent recovery equipment may be used on which appliances?
Answer: A — Small appliances only, as EPA defines that term
A) Correct — system-dependent methods are restricted to small appliances because they depend on the unit's own pressure and compressor. B) invents a fifty pound cutoff borrowed from the leak repair provisions. C) would allow the method on large commercial systems, which is not permitted. D) is backwards, since low-pressure chillers require specialized self-contained recovery.
Refrigerant that has been reclaimed must meet which purity requirement?
Answer: C — The industry purity standard, verified by chemical analysis
C) Correct — reclaimed refrigerant must be brought to the recognized industry purity standard and verified analytically before resale. A) sounds rigorous but is not the benchmark the rule names. B) describes recycling, which involves no verification of the result. D) confuses an evacuation field test with a laboratory purity specification.
A recovery cylinder must not be filled above what percentage of its capacity?
Answer: C — 80%
A/B) Wasteful. C) Correct — 80% maximum fill leaves 20% headspace for thermal expansion of liquid refrigerant. D) Overfilling risks rupture from expansion.
A scale used during recovery and charging should be:
Answer: B — Electronic, accurate within manufacturer's spec, zeroed and verified before use
A) Insufficient accuracy. B) Correct — accurate electronic scale is essential to avoid overfill (DOT 80% rule) and incorrect charging. C) Gauges cannot confirm mass. D) Scale is needed for both phases.
A small appliance is brought in with a burned out compressor. Which recovery approach is appropriate?
Answer: C — Self-contained recovery, since the compressor cannot run
C) Correct — with a dead compressor the recovery machine must supply its own pumping, which is what self-contained equipment does. A) fails precisely because system-dependent methods need a working compressor. B) is a venting violation dressed up as a technicality. D) tempts because burnout does contaminate the charge, but the question is how to get the refrigerant out, and burnt refrigerant should go for reclamation rather than field recycling.
When charging R-22 into an R-22 system that has been topped off many times, the technician should:
Answer: A — Add reclaimed R-22 only if needed and only after fixing the leak; document leak rate and repair
A) Correct — only reclaimed/recycled R-22 is legal for service, only after leak repair, and with proper recordkeeping. B) Virgin R-22 production ended Jan 1, 2020. C) Direct R-410A substitution is unsafe and unapproved. D) Venting illegal.
A recovery cylinder must not be filled with liquid refrigerant beyond what fraction of its water capacity to prevent hydrostatic rupture?
Answer: D — 80%
A) Overly conservative; not the rule. D) Correct — DOT/EPA: never exceed 80% of the cylinder's rated capacity, leaving 20% vapor space for thermal expansion. C) Risk of rupture rises sharply above 80%. B) Hydrostatic rupture nearly certain.
4 cards from the 14 in this chapter.
What must a technician do before charging recovered refrigerant into a recovery cylinder that has been used before?
Evacuate the cylinder to remove residual refrigerant, air and non-condensables, verify it is the correct DOT cylinder for that refrigerant, confirm the retest date, and weigh it so the 80 percent fill limit is not exceeded.
Define recovery, recycling and reclamation as the three Rs of refrigerant handling.
Recovery is removing refrigerant from an appliance and storing it in an external container without testing or processing it • Recycling reduces contaminants on site by oil separation and filter-drying • Reclamation reprocesses refrigerant to the AHRI 700 purity specification and requires chemical analysis to verify it.
Recovery?
Removing refrigerant in any form and storing it for transfer/reuse.
Under what condition may used refrigerant be sold to a different owner without being reclaimed?
It may not. Used refrigerant must be reclaimed to AHRI 700 purity by a certified reclaimer before being sold for use in a system owned by someone else; otherwise it may only be returned to the same owner's equipment.
These are a sample. The full Core — Recovery, Recycling and Reclamation chapter runs 49 items with per-chapter progress tracking, on the web and in the iOS app.
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