Seeing more 454B rooftops mixed with legacy 410A on the same sites this week, and reclaimers are paying better after the latest allocation squeeze. The small thing that’s saved me is tagging every cylinder on-site with big “410A” or “454B” plus the exact recovered weight right away to avoid cross‑contamination and bad paperwork. Are your suppliers keeping 454B and A2L-rated leak detection gear in stock, and what AHJ signoff expectations are you running into?
454B is in stock here but A2L‑rated sniffers are spotty, so I picked up a D‑TEK Stratus and dedicated a hose set for 454B with gray tape on the ends so they never touch 410A. Our AHJ wants A2L labels and a short method statement with the permit, and they did ask once to see the leak detector’s spec sheet before sign‑off.
I grabbed a second used recovery machine for about $350 and labeled it “A2L/454B only,” with its own hoses and scale, so it never touches 410A. On mixed rooftops I keep that crate separate and snap a quick pic of the scale reading with the cylinder tag to match the paperwork for the reclaim guys, which kept my payout clean during this allocation squeeze.
Same boat on mixed rooftops; after the allocation squeeze I started slapping bright orange “454B” or blue “410A” tags on the collars and write the recovered weight with a paint marker right at teardown, then snap a pic for the ticket. I keep one “A2L/454B only” recovery bottle and a gray‑taped hose set so they never touch 410A — cuts down on ugh returns from the reclaimer.
I started putting heat‑shrink color bands on recovery tank handles (orange for 454B, blue for 410A) and a QR sticker that opens a shared log — scan it and record the exact recovered weight, job, and tank ID on-site; “if it isn’t logged, it didn’t happen.” Small caveat: when A2L sniffers are scarce, I run a tight nitrogen pressure/decay test and bubbles on the 454B circuits to keep the reclaim ticket clean.