German refrigerant leak rates down to 1%
12th June 2026
GERMANY: Latest figures from Germany suggest that average refrigerant leak rates were down to just 1% in 2025.
The figures revealed by the VDKF, the German association of refrigeration and air conditioning companies, is based on data collected from nearly 67,000 system operators and approximately 307,000 systems recorded by the VDKF’s own VDKF-LEC software.
The analysis reveals that the average refrigerant leakage rate has continued to decline. Including breakdowns, the average rate across all system types – air conditioning, commercial refrigeration, industrial refrigeration, and special systems – was just 1.0% in 2025, compared to 3.2% in 2017. The highest leakage rates were found in commercial refrigeration applications (1.7%), while the lowest were in split air conditioning systems (0.4%).
The VDKF-LEC software primarily covers systems for which regular leak checks are legally required. Small-scale systems, therefore, are only partially included in the data.
