Mechanical Plumbing System Components

The Mechanical Plumbing Program works with voluntary standard NSF/ANSI Standards 24 and 61 that represent consensus of manufacturers, users, and regulatory people. NSF offers a conformity assessment program which includes performance and health effects testing, certification, and production facility inspections -- to verify compliance.

The registered NSF Certification Mark on a mechanical plumbing product confirms that NSF has assessed – and certified – its conformity with the relevant standard. In addition:

  • the production facility is audited once each year to assure that only authorized materials are used in the product;
  • quality assurance and quality control procedures are followed in fabrication, and all the requirements of the applicable standards continue to be met;
  • products are sampled and retested on schedule; and
  • labeling and product literature are true and accurate with respect to the NSF listed products.

Faucets

The 1996 amendments to the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) require that pipe, fittings, and fixtures introduced into commerce after August 6, 1998, be lead-free. For pipe, fittings, and devices, this requires that the products not contain more than 8.0% lead.

In addition, for devices that are intended by the manufacturer to dispense water for human ingestion (faucets, drinking fountains, etc.), these SDWA amendments also require that the product comply with the lead leaching requirements of NSF/ANSI Standard 61, Section 9. Under this standard, certified products are limited to 11 parts per billion (ppb) of lead in water from endpoint devices.

Endpoint devices subject to the lead leaching requirements of NSF/ANSI Standard 61 include faucets, hot and cold water dispensers, drinking fountains, drinking fountain bubblers, water coolers, glass fillers, residential refrigerator ice-makers, supply stops, and endpoint control valves.

To receive NSF Certification, faucets must meet three basic requirements:

  1. Review of materials and formulations
  2. Inspection of the manufacturing facility
  3. Testing of finished products selected at random during the facility audit

Only after successful testing and inspection can the NSF Mark be used on the product packaging and product literature. Continued certification involves annual inspections of the production facility and repeat product evaluations to assure conformance to NSF/ANSI Standard 61.

Search the Drinking Water System Component Listings to determine which faucet products are currently certified.

Search the Plumbing and Related Products Listings to determine which plastic plumbing products are currently certified.