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The kit, the cylinder, and the quote

What physically arrives when you ask for a kit, what has to come back, what a single sample can and cannot answer, and the 5 things that decide the number when you ask us for a price.

01Contents

What is in a kit

Two kits, because the two services need different vessels. Both arrive with the vessel, an identification label, the procedure for that fluid, and the form that travels back with the sample.

AHRI Certified® scope

Refrigerant sample kit

Purity and contamination testing to AHRI Standard 700.

  • Sample cylinder, rated 400 psi — laboratory property, returned with the sample inside it.
  • Sample identification label — goes on the cylinder, not on the box, and stays legible after a day in a van.
  • The sampling procedure — the same one published here, so the crew doing the work is not reading it off a phone.
  • The sample form — tell us the fluid, the system, the source temperature at sampling, and where the report goes. It comes back in the box.
Draw from
Liquid valve
Target sample
350 g
Fill
75–80%
Evacuate to
≤ 50 microns

For low-pressure refrigerant, the source tank may be pressurised through the Vapor valve with dry nitrogen.

Not an AHRI RTL scope

Refrigeration oil sample kit

Condition and wear analysis for chiller and refrigeration compressor oil — mineral, alkylbenzene, POE and PVE.

  • Borosilicate graduated glass sample bottle — graduated so the volume drawn is readable off the bottle rather than estimated.
  • Sample identification label — machine, oil type, and date drawn.
  • The sampling procedure — including the degassing step, which is the one most often skipped. Published here.
  • The sample form — tell us the compressor, the refrigerant charge, and what prompted the sample. It comes back in the box.
Vessel
Borosilicate glass
Before sealing
Degas the sample

POE and Solest oils absorb moisture quickly, even in a sealed bottle. Send samples promptly.

02Returnable asset

The sample cylinder is not a consumable

It is a rated pressure vessel, it belongs to the laboratory, and it comes back to us with the sample inside. Treat it as borrowed equipment, because that is what it is.

A cylinder we own is a cylinder whose history we know — what it last held, and how it was prepared before it went out. A sample arriving in a vessel of unknown provenance carries whatever was in it last, and there is no analysis that can separate that from what came out of your machine.

What that means on site

  • One cylinder carries one sample. Six machines means six cylinders — say so when you ask for the kit rather than discovering it on the roof.
  • It comes back whether the result passes or fails. A failed sample is not a reason to keep the vessel, and the contents are our disposal problem, not yours.
  • Do not repurpose it. It is rated to 400 psi for a sample, not for recovery, storage or transfer.
  • Damaged in the field? Tell us. Do not charge a pressure vessel you have doubts about. We would rather send another one than receive that one.
  • Oil bottles are the exception. Glass sample bottles are single-use and stay with the sample; there is nothing to send back.

03Scope of a test

What one sample answers, and what needs a second

A refrigerant report covers every characteristic in AHRI 700 against the limits for your specific fluid — with a pass or fail on each line. One of those characteristics cannot be read from a liquid sample, and that is the distinction worth understanding before you draw anything.

AHRI 700 characteristics, the sample each one needs, and the method used
CharacteristicSample it needsMethod
Air and other non-condensablesSeparate vapour-phase sample requiredGas chromatography — separate vapour-phase sample
WaterCovered by the liquid sampleKarl Fischer titration
All other volatile impuritiesCovered by the liquid sampleGas chromatography
High boiling residueCovered by the liquid sampleGravimetric — the basis used must be recorded
Particulates and solidsCovered by the liquid sampleVisual
AcidityCovered by the liquid sampleTitration — detection limit 0.1 ppm on a 50–60 g sample
ChlorideCovered by the liquid sampleTurbidity — turbidity appears at roughly 3 ppm by weight

Included in every refrigerant report

Each characteristic reported against the limit for your refrigerant, not a single generic column — the per-fluid limits for 22 single-component refrigerants and 25 blends are published in full. Blends are judged on the composition window per component, which is the test a purity figure cannot perform.

Needs a second sample

Air and other non-condensables. It is a vapour-phase determination defined at a stated temperature, so it needs its own vapour sample and the source temperature recorded at sampling time. Several fluids are exempt from it entirely — and which ones depends on the edition, so tell us which edition applies.

Separate service

Refrigeration oil. Different vessel, different sample, different report — and outside the AHRI Refrigerant Testing Laboratory certification, which covers refrigerant testing only. Oil work stands on its method and its report, not on that certificate.

Which edition you are quoted against

  • 40 CFR 82 subpart F, Appendix A

    The federally incorporated text (AHRI 700-2016 basis). This is the binding one for Section 608 work.

  • AHRI 700-2019

    Adds R-1336mzz(Z) to the non-condensables exemption and introduces the R-40 sub-limit.

  • AHRI 700-2024

    Adds R-1336mzz(E); §4.2.3.2 also exempts R-514A, which the table note omits.

They are not interchangeable, and the difference is not academic: the non-condensables exemption list changes between them. Name the edition when you ask for a quote and the report answers the question your job actually has.

04Requesting one

How to get a kit sent out

Registering first is not bureaucracy — it is what lets the kit arrive already matched to the machine you are sampling, and it means nothing has to be reconstructed from memory when the cylinder lands.

  1. Register the sample

    Which fluid, how many samples, which edition of the specification the job answers to, and where the report goes. It creates the record the sample travels against.

  2. We send the kit

    A 400 psi sample cylinder for refrigerant, or a graduated glass bottle for oil — with the identification label, the sampling procedure and the form that comes back with the sample.

  3. Take the sample

    Refrigerant: evacuate to 50 microns or better, draw from the liquid valve, fill 75–80%. Oil: degas before sealing the bottle.

  4. Send it back with the paperwork

    Cylinder, bottle and completed form together, shipped or hand-delivered to the laboratory. The cylinder is ours and comes home either way.

Register a SampleAsk us about a kit first →Read the sampling procedures →

05Quoting

What decides the number

Testing is quoted per sample. Rather than leave you guessing what moves the figure, here is the whole list — bring these and the quote comes back as a number, not as a question.

  1. 01

    Which fluid

    The refrigerant designation, or the oil type. It decides which characteristics apply and which limits the result is read against.

  2. 02

    Liquid only, or vapour too

    Whether a non-condensables determination is required, which means a second, vapour-phase sample rather than a second test on the first one.

  3. 03

    Which edition

    The federally incorporated appendix, AHRI 700-2019, or AHRI 700-2024. They differ, and the report has to name one.

  4. 04

    How many samples

    One machine, a plant survey, or a standing programme. It also tells us how many cylinders to send and when to expect them back.

  5. 05

    Kits or no kits

    Whether you need vessels sent out, or already hold cylinders of ours from a previous job.

Ask, and you get a figure

We quote per sample rather than publishing a rate card, and we would rather say that plainly than print a number that turns out not to cover the vapour sample your fluid needed. Send the 5 items above by email or read them down the phone, and say whether this is a one-off or a standing programme.

Ask for a quoteSee what the report looks like first →

This laboratory shares common ownership with Chiller Services Refrigerants, a refrigerant reclaimer in the neighbouring unit, and it tests material that company buys. The independence policy sets out what that does and does not mean for your result and for what you are quoted.