IIAR 6-2025 Inspection Requirements Update

Understanding updated best practices can be difficult, especially when trying to determine what has changed and what actions are necessary to comply. The ammonia refrigeration industry is consistently expanding, and it is essential to adhere to new safety standards to ensure compliance.

We plan to create concise article updates for each of these new changes. This article is going to focus on the update made to IIAR 6 inspections, this update doesn't focus so much on refrigeration equipment inspections, but rather on more detailed guidelines for the 5th-year inspector.

Let's examine what the earlier IIAR 6 standards indicated:

ANSI/IIAR 6-2019 5.4 Inspection Requirements. The owner or owner’s designated representative shall ensure an inspection program is developed and maintained to meet the requirements of Sections 5.1 – 5.3 and this section.

5.4.1 *When a deficiency is identified, the owner or owner’s designated representative shall ensure a timely evaluation is arranged to determine the appropriate corrective action(s) and the time frame to execute each task.

5.4.2 *Equipment inspections shall be performed by a qualified inspector(s). Every fifth (5th) year, at a minimum, the annual inspections shall be conducted by a qualified inspector who shall not be influenced by the facility’s record keeping, operations, maintenance, or management. This person shall not present a conflict of interest and shall report instances of deficiencies.

Thoughts:

Section 5.4.2 has been the primary driver for what many facilities were attempting to comply with efficiently. The main issue is that many facilities were hiring a third-party to conduct these inspections, such as mechanical contracting companies or consulting firms, these organizations would also conduct testing and maintenance tasks. Which is completely acceptable if that is what the facility requests, but most facilities would do this because they were unaware of the IIAR requirements. This misunderstanding arose because the 5th-year inspections were believed to require everything outlined in IIAR 6, including testing and maintenance.

The IIAR 6 book is titled "Inspection, Testing, and Maintenance," is often misinterpreted to mean that every 5th-year, all ITM tasks must be done by an outside agency, which is incorrect. The only part of the ITM that specifies the need for a 5th-year third-party inspector is in the inspections section, and it is not mentioned in the testing or maintenance sections. IIAR 6 is a single book, but it encompasses three separate categories (ITM) that each have different requirements.

When a facility is unaware and just taking someone's word, this results in extra expenses for a facility to perform the ITM tasks, as they are now paying for services that aren't necessary to meet IIAR 6 standards. Our team is quite familiar with this issue because, when providing quotes for 5th-year inspections for facilities, we often had to clarify why the quote didn't include testing and maintenance tasks. This is because it became common practice in the industry to include testing and maintenance tasks during the 5th-year inspections, despite not being technically required by IIAR. We would explain that IIAR 6 specifies the 5th-year requirement is only for the inspection sections, and convincing people of this was challenging. Fortunately, the IIAR team recognized this industry-wide confusion and updated the wording to make it clearer.

Let's examine what the newest IIAR 6 standard indicates:

ANSI/IIAR 6-2025 5.4 Inspection Requirements. The owner or owner’s designated representative shall ensure an inspection program is developed and maintained to meet the requirements of Sections 5.1 – 5.3 and this section.

5.4.1 *When a deficiency is identified, the owner or owner’s designated representative shall ensure a timely evaluation is arranged to determine the appropriate corrective action(s) and the time frame to execute each task.

5.4.2 *Annual equipment inspections shall be performed by a Qualified Inspector(s). Every fifth (5th) year, at a minimum, the annual inspections in the normative Chapters of IIAR 6, not including testing and maintenance tasks, shall be conducted by the fifth (5th) year Qualified Inspector who shall not be influenced by the facility’s record keeping, operations, maintenance, or management. This fifth-year Qualified Inspector shall not present a conflict of interest and shall report instances of deficiencies.

5.4.2.1 *During the fifth-year inspection, if operational or scheduling constraints prevent any annual inspection tasks from being performed by the fifth-year Qualified Inspector, these inspections shall be conducted within the inspection frequency range in Table 5.2 by a Qualified Inspector(s) of the facility’s choosing, who shall not be influenced by the facility’s record keeping, operations, maintenance, or management.

Conclusion:

Section 5.4.2 has been updated, and section 5.4.2.1, which was not part of the 2019 edition, has been added. Section 5.4.2 now includes specific details indicating that testing and maintenance tasks are not required for compliance with the 5th-year inspections requirement. Sections 5.4.2.1 explains, if scheduling or operational issues prevent the 5th-year Qualified Inspector from completing certain annual inspection tasks, those tasks can still be done within the approved inspection frequency (per Table 5.2) by another Qualified Inspector chosen by the facility. However, this inspector must remain independent and not be influenced by the facility’s management, maintenance, or record-keeping activities.

We're pleased to see section 5.4.2.1 added because a facility's production schedule can change at any moment. The time you had scheduled for equipment shutdown on a Saturday may no longer be available, preventing the third-party inspector from conducting their inspections. We've encountered situations where facilities requested refunds for incomplete inspection hours or expected us to return the following weekend without compensation for additional travel and hours. The latest IIAR updates should provide facility owners with clarity on the requirements for 5th-year inspections, and now we just need to bring the industry up to speed on these updates.

Stay tuned to the MySafety blogs. Reach out to us if you have additional questions or concerns. Our team will be pleased to assist you.

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Updates on IIAR 6-2025: Essential Inspection Requirements Unveiled by MySafety LLC.