Determine the appliance and activity
The federal appliance leak-repair rules have specific coverage and exclusions. Review §82.157, §84.106 and our scope comparison before applying their recordkeeping provisions. Separate recovery, certification, safety and other duties can apply outside those leak-repair rules.
Confirm who must provide, retain or submit each record. Owners and operators hold many appliance recordkeeping and reporting duties. Technicians performing covered service, inspections or verification must provide the documentation required by the applicable rule. Running a one-person service business does not make every obligation the same.
Keep the required evidence together
Paragraph (l) of each leak-repair rule specifies the relevant records. Depending on the covered activity, these include appliance identity and location, full-charge basis, refrigerant identity and quantities, service dates and work performed, leak-rate inputs and method, inspections, repairs and verification results. Applicable extensions, retrofit or retirement plans, purge exclusions and reports need their own supporting evidence.
Record the actual work and results, including who performed it. Preserve the original inputs and distinguish a service date from a later recording or correction date. A generic list of thirteen fields or a completed app checklist cannot establish that every required record is present.
Apply the correct retention period
Sections 82.157(l) and 84.106(l) generally require the identified records to be kept for at least three years, unless otherwise specified. Their full-charge provisions require the foundational information and revisions to remain until three years after the appliance is retired. Use the period applicable to the particular record; a blanket expiry measured from every service date is insufficient.
Chronic-leaker reports and other submissions are separate duties. Retain required submission and response records, and check the applicable deadline and submission route. A report generated in an app is not confirmation that EPA received it.
Use FieldPad to support the review
FieldPad keeps equipment, service and refrigerant records together and offers exports. Review the scope, required fields, supporting documents and signatures before relying on a determination or report. Retention guards and reminders support that work; they do not establish every legal obligation.
Keep and verify independent exports for records you need to retain. Local storage and private iCloud synchronization do not eliminate every data-loss risk. Preserve original evidence and document corrections rather than silently rewriting historical results.
