Faucet Basics: Part 3 Keeping Faucets Safe & Reliable

Fau­cets are strictly regulated products in North America. Not just anything with a shiny chrome finish that delivers water can be sold as a fau­cet. It has to first be tested and certified to meet certain reliability and safety standards and must comply with a number of laws and regulations.

Because Can­ad­a and the U.S. are federations with decentralized governments, The enforcement of fau­cet regulations is spread across multiple levels of government. The U.S., in particular, has laws at the local, state, and federal levels that fau­cet companies have to meet. In fact, the matrix of laws is complicated enough that most major fau­cet companies have compliance officers whose job is to ensure that their fau­cets comply with the many laws that regulate them.

Plumbing Codes

State and Provincial plumbing codes are the public's first line of defense against an unreliable or dangerous fau­cet. In all Canadian provinces and American states, there is a province- or state-wide plumbing code. Local governments are usually permitted to adopt their own plumbing codes or modify the state or provincial code to fit local needs. Rather than research and write such a complicated law, almost all jurisdictions have adopted one of the model plumbing codes.

There are four model plumbing codes in North America, and every state and province has adopted one of them, except Kentucky. (See the Quick Guide to State Plumbing Codes, below):

• International Plumbing Code (IPC), the most widely adopted code in the U.S. holding sway in the Northeast and Southern States is published by the International Code Council (ICC).
• Uniform Plumbing Code (UPC), the oldest model plumbing code, maintained and published by the International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO) since 1927 has been adopted by most of the Western and Midwestern United States.

• National Standard Plumbing Code (NSPC), has been published by the National Association of Plumbing-Heating-Cooling Contractors since 1933. New Jersey and a few counties in Maryland are the jurisdictions still using this model code as the basis for their state plumbing codes. Louisiana changed to the International Plumbing Code in 2015. With the loss of Louisiana, the NSPC became too expensive for the PHCC to maintain, so in 2018 ownership of the code was passed to IAPMO which has assumed "the responsibility of maintaining and further developing the NSPC."
• National Plumbing Code of Canada (NPC) published by the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) is the most widely adopted code in Canada.

These codes have slight variations in their requirements for plumbing systems but they all have one thing in common. They have all adopted exactly the same standards for household fau­cets. Even Ken­tuc­ky, which has enacted a plumbing code not based on any of these model codes, has adopted the same standards.

The people who write plumbing codes are usually not engineers. They are typically industry volunteers who donate their time to the process. They rely on engineers to figure out the necessary standards.

In the U.S.the American Society of Mechanical Engineers (ASME) determines what standards a household sink fau­cet should meet. In Can­a­da, it is the Can­adi­an Stand­ards As­so­cia­tion (now CSA Group).

Years ago these two organizations got together and developed joint U.S./Canadian standards for fau­cets and the code writers merely incorporate these requirements into the plumbing codes. State, provincial and local governments then adopt the codes, and they become the law.

Three code standards address potential problems with fau­cets.

ASME A112.18.1 / CSA B125.1 Physical and performance standards for fau­cets, covering design and general use, are embodied in ASME A112.18.1 for the U.S. and CSA B125.1 for Canada. These standards have been what the standards writers call "harmonized", that is, they have been made essentially the same for both countries, which is why a fau­cet legal for use in San Francisco is also likely to be legal in Ottawa, and vice versa. The combined standard is usually written as ASME A112.18.1 / CSA B125.1.

ANSI / NSF 372 ANSI / NSF 372 is a content standard that limits the amount of lead that may come into contact with the water flowing through a fau­cet. It specifically addresses lead in fau­cets and generally follows the testing and standards outlined in the U.S. Safe Drinking Water Act, so that a fau­cet that meets the standard will also comply with the requirements of the Act.

ANSI / NSF 61 ANSI / NSF 61 is a health standard that tests for various harmful materials that may come in contact with water. The list of materials tested includes lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, and other materials that may be in the components of a fau­cet that leach into the water passing through a fau­cet.

Mergers and Consolidations In recent years, these standards have been merged. ANSI / NSF 372 became a section of ANSI / NSF 61. The combined standards are usually referred to as ANSI / NSF 61/9.

Then, in 2012 ANSI / NSF 61/9 was merged into ASME A112.18.1 / CSA 125.1. a fau­cet tested and certified as complying with ASME A112.18.1 / CSA 125.1 in 2012 or later also complies with ANSI / NSF 61/9.

(However, to avoid confusion, most testing agencies still issue separate certificates, one for each standard.)

Testing and Certification
ASME A112.18.1/CSA B125

No agency of government performs the tests that ensure fau­cets comply with plumbing codes. They just publish the regulations and leave it up to the fau­cet industry to police itself.

It is all handled privately. ASME, CSA, and ANSI authorize organizations to certify fau­cets. These are identified in the panel at right. Faucets are submitted to one of these accredited organizations and tested by an approved laboratory. If they pass the tests, they are "listed" in a "Certificate of Listing".

A company like that sells nearly 100 different fau­cets may have a listing certificate that goes on and on for dozens of pages. If a fau­cet does not appear in a certificate of listing, then no matter how long or loudly the fau­cet seller insists that it complies with the plumbing codes, it, in fact, does not.

The codes require that the fau­cet be tested and "listed" as certified. So, if it complies it will be listed. If it's not listed, it's not in compliance. Pretty simple.

To meet the requirements of A112.18.1 / CSA B125.1 a fau­cet is subject to a daunting battery of tests to ensure that …

• The fau­cet's configuration meets standards,
• Its mechanical operation is safe, robust, and reliable, and
• Its finish will hold up in the environment in which it will be installed.
• Faucets are examined to ensure that routine maintenance such as replaceing a ceramic cartridge can be performed "above the sink" without uninstalling the fau­cet.
• Finishes are tested for durability and longevity by spraying them with chemical concentrations to simulate many years of exposure to the normal household environment, including typical cleaning solutions.

De-Mystifying Certification Marks

A fau­cet that is tested and certified will not just be listed on a "Certificate of Listing", it must also bear the mark of the certifying organization.

Un­for­tu­nate­ly, there are several such organizations, and the certification marks nor only vary but are usually cryptic references to a bunch of logos, letters, and numbers that make sense only to industry insiders.

To de-mystify the marks and their meanings, here is a list of the most common certifying organizations and an explanation of what their marks mean.

Marks indicating certification are required to be permanently etched or stamped on some part of the fau­cet itself, "located in such a way that they are visible after installation".

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International Association of Plumbing and Mechanical Officials (IAPMO-RT)

The UPC Shield is applied to fau­cets that are certified by IAPMO-RT as meeting the standard specified. The "c" under the shield indicates that the fau­cet complies with both the U.S. and Canadian standards for fau­cets. IAPMO-RT is the premier testing and evaluation service in the U.S. and this is the most common mark found on fau­cets in North America.

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International Codes Council (ICC-ES)

The ICC-ES mark is applied to fau­cets that are certified by ICC-ES as meeting the standard specified. The optional "c" indicates that the fau­cet complies with both the U.S. and Canadian standards for fau­cets.

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CSA Group

CSA Group (formerly the Can­a­di­an Stand­ards As­so­cia­tion) is the premier testing and evaluation service in Can­a­da. A CSA mark signifies that a fau­cet is listed on a certificate of listing for the standard specified. The optional "US" or "NRTL" means that the fau­cet meets the applicable U.S. standards. A CSA mark with both indicators, "C" and "US", or "NRTL/C" means that the product meets both U.S. and Canadian standards.

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Intertek Testing Services NA, Inc.

Intertek is an international testing service operating in 100 countries that tests to North American fau­cet standards but also to other standards. The "C" and/or "US" mark must be present to indicate certification to ASME A112.18.1 / CSA B125.

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NSF International

Formerly the Na­tion­al San­i­tary Found­a­tion, the basic NSF In­ter­na­tion­al certification mark must include a "C" or "US" or both, or a notation such as "U.P. Code" or "I.P. Code" to indicate the national standard with which the fau­cet complies. If the fau­cet has been certified only under the lead-free standard, one of the notations in the bottom row will be shown and an additional mark indicating compliance with ASME A112.18.1 / CSA B125 must also be present.

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Underwriters Laboratories (UL)

Faucets displaying the (UL) mark have been evaluated and found to comply with all applicable nationally recognized health effect and performance standards, and have demonstrated compliance with both the IPC and UPC plumbing codes. The notations "CA", "US" or "CA & US" may be shown to indicate compliance with Canadian and/or U.S. standards.

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Water Quality Association

The WQA mark indicates compliance with either ASME A112.18.1 / CSA B125, ANSI / NSF 61, or ANSI / NSF 372, which will be identified as part of the mark.

• Fau­cets are tested in extremes of heat and cold to duplicate years of mixing hot and cold water and are subjected to many times the normal household water pressure of 60 to see if they can be made to leak.
• The fau­cet is tested to ensure it will maintain a set water temperature and water flow volume without spontaneously changing the temperature or water flow on its own — which would be at minimum annoying and at worst, dangerous.
• Handle stability is tested. Once a handle is put in a specific position, it must stay there without moving away from the set position.
• Faucets are examined to confirm that they will accept standard North American fau­cet fittings. While the rest of the world has gone metric, in North America we still prefer our quaint and archaic "customary units" based on inches and feet. Metric fittings don't work here.

Testing Valves & Cartridges
ASME A112.18.1/CSA B125

Fau­cet valves and cartridges are given special attention because they are the most critical part of a fau­cet. A fau­cet may discolor or rust until it is as ugly as a mortal sin. Its handle may loosen, even fall off. But, as long as its valve or cartridge works, it can control water, which is the essential function of a fau­cet.

For more detail on the types of valves and cartridges used in fau­cets, read Fau­cet Ba­sics, Part 2: Fau­cet Valves & Cart­ridges .

Life-Cycle Test

One standard test for cartridges and valves used in the U.S. and Canada requires operating the fau­cet through 500,000 on/off cycles under 60 of water pressure without a single failure. At one cycle per second, the test takes six 24-hour days to complete. Five hundred thousand cycles are equivalent to about 70 years of ordinary kitchen or bath fau­cet use.

In other countries, the standard is much less rigorous. The European (EN 817) and Chinese (GB18145) requirement is just 70,000 cycles. (For a video showing the operation of the type of machine that puts fau­cets through life-cycle testing, go here. Warning: it's very noisy.)

Some ceramic cartridges are tested to tougher standards. Fau­cet makers can request more cycles. has tested its new Diamond Seal Technology valves through 5 million cycles, or about 700 years of ordinary kitchen use. tests its diamond-like-car­bon-coat­ed single-handle mixing fau­cet valves to 4 million cycles or about 550 years or ordinary use.

These tests have limitations, however, which is why a fau­cet valve that should last 70+ years will probably not last quite that long in your actual kitchen.

The culprit is hard water.

Fau­cets are tested in crystal clear, often distilled, water. Testing labs don't want their testing apparatus gunked up with mineral deposits, so they eliminate minerals from the water used for testing. This is not, however, the typical household environment in which the fau­cet will be used. City and well water routinely contain an abundance of dissolved minerals which tend to deposit themselves on the inner workings of a fau­cet, and, over time, grind away at the fau­cet until some part finally gives up and the fau­cet fails.

Burst Test

The burst test simulates a severe water pressure surge, a surge you are unlikely to ever experience in a domestic water system. It involves pressurizing the cartridge to 500 pounds per square inch for one minute. This is ten times the average water pressure in a North American home. If the cartridge bursts or deforms, it fails the test.

Flow Rate
En­er­gy Pol­icy and Con­ser­va­tion Act

Some standards that fau­cets are required to meet reflect public policy rather than a concern for safety. A case in point is the maximum water flow rate allowed in sink fau­cets. This standard is set by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 as amended in 1992 which limits sink fau­cets to a maximum flow rate of 2.2 gallons per minute. This is the law everywhere in the U.S. Similar standards apply in Canada.

Enforcement in the U.S. is the responsibility of the Department of Energy which was charged with coming up with a test to determine water flow rates in fau­cets. It adopted the flow rate tests that are incorporated into the ASME A112.18.1 / CSA B125.1 standard, obviating the need for and cost of separate testing.

In addition to ensuring that its fau­cets do not exceed the maximum flow rate, a fau­cet manufacturer or company that imports foreign-made fau­cets is required by law to certify in writing that the sink fau­cets it sells do not exceed this maximum rate, and file a copy of the certification with the De­part­ment of En­er­gy each year ( 10 C.F.R. §429.12).

The DOE has been criticized by its own In­spec­tor Gen­e­ral for lax enforcement of the filing requirement in the past, and it is still lax. But, the primary fault lies not with the DOE but with a Con­gress that has starved the Department's enforcement efforts for funding.

a company that is now out of business, imported and sold Asian fau­cets under the Artisan brand. It avoided a nearly half-million-dollar penalty for failing to comply with the registration requirement by entering into a settlement agreement (Order: 2010-CW-0712) that required it to certify all of its fau­cets, and pay a reduced penalty.

Afeel Corporation, the importer of fau­cets, likewise avoided a substantial civil penalty for non-com­pli­ance by entering into a consent agreement (Or­der 2010-CW-07/1414).

An increasing number of statewide and local plumbing or conservation codes permit even less water flow than the federal rules allow. Some are voluntary. Bathroom fau­cets complying with the EPA's WaterSense^® program are allowed a maximum flow rate of 1.5 GPM (5.7 l/m) which is also the maximum flow rate in Europe and much of Asia. WaterSense has not established a maximum flow for kitchen fau­cets.

Some state restrictions are, however, mandatory.

California recently published the most restrictive water flow limits in North America in response to the Great California Drought. Executive Order B-29-15 restricts the flow rate of bathroom sink fau­cets to a maximum of 1.2 gallons per minute

It also made the CalGreen 1.8 gpm maximum flow rate for kitchen sink fau­cets mandatory rather than voluntary. A kitchen sink fau­cet may have a momentary capacity of 2.2 gallons per minute to fill pots.

These requirements, effective on July 1, 2016, prohibit a fau­cet from being sold or installed in California that does not meet these restrictions.

Faucet companies are scrambling to comply, which requires not only that fau­cets be modified (sometimes just a matter of changing to a more restrictive aerator) but of having the fau­cets retested and certified for compliance with the new lower flow.

Many fau­cets, however, already meet the standard, and you can find out which ones do by researching a fau­cet in the California Energy Commission list of approved products.

In our reviews and ratings of fau­cet companies, we will note the companies that comply with the California flow requirements in reports published after July 2016.

In fau­cets sold in North America, there is a flow rate to suit just about any regulation. We looked at a selection of Delta fau­cets in preparing this article and found stated flow rates of 1.2, 1.5, 1.8, and 2.2 gpm.

Some fau­cets are available with variable flow rates — when ordering, you specify the flow rate just like you specify the fau­cet finish.

Commercial Lavatory Faucets: If the lavatory fau­cet in the washroom of your favorite eatery seems much slower than your home fau­cet, it actually is. The maximum flow rate for most public fau­cets by federal law is a miserly 0.5 gpm (1.9 LPM) — slightly more than a trickle.

Many fau­cets made for the Asian and European markets are pre-set with the European standard flow rate of 1.5 gpm. But, fau­cets designed to be sold in North America are often manufactured with a maximum normal flow rate of 2.2 GPM. If a lower flow rate is required, then a device called a flow restrictor is inserted somewhere in the water channel to further restrict flow. It is often a part of the aerator.

Some fau­cets, however, are not restricted. For example, your tub spout (technically a tub filler fau­cet) has no official flow limit. Its job is to fill the tub. If your tub holds 50 gallons, then that's the amount of water it will take to fill the tub.

Filling it more slowly does not save any water (but does greatly increase irritation). The flow rate is, therefore, unrestricted (except by the size of your water pipes, which usually impose a maximum flow limit of about 5 gpm, at best).

Lead Content
(ANSI / NSF 372)

Most of the standards a fau­cet must meet are contained in ASME A112.18.1 / CSA B125.1 but at least one is not — metallic lead limits.

Faucets are strictly regulated as to how much lead they may contain, and this requirement is not just a part of the local plumbing code, it is also a federal law that prohibits the introduction of a fau­cet "into commerce" and prohibits the installation of a fau­cet in a public or private drinking water system unless it complies with federal lead-free requirements.

Most fau­cets are made of brass, and brass is a metal alloy that may contain small amounts of lead.

Before 2014, brass in fau­cets in North America could contain up to 8% lead and still be called "lead-free" as long as they did not leach more than 11 parts lead per billion parts water (11 ppb) into the water flowing through the fau­cet.

However, the process used to test for leaching developed by the National Sanitary Foundation (now NSF International) as ANSI / NSF 61 was characterized by environmentalist experts as "unduly generous," and likened to testing an automobile's crash-worthiness by driving it into a "pile of pillows". ^[1]

Studies showed that "lead-free" brass fau­cets actually leached much more lead that the NSF test identified.

The usual slow action by Congress to strengthen national lead-free standards prompted some states to pass laws that more stringently limited lead in water-supply fixtures.

California's AB1953 enacted Section 16875 of the California Health and Safety Code that mandates lead content of less than a "weighted average" of 0.25%.

Beginning January 1, 2010, no fau­cet that does not meet this standard could be "introduced into commerce" in the Golden State.

Vermont enacted almost identical legislation (Ver­mont Act 193), as did Maryshy;land (HB 172) and Loushy;isshy;ishy;ana.

Weighted average means that some components of a fau­cet may contain more than 0.25% lead so long as they are offset by other components that contain less than 0.25& lead so that the average of all the components in the fau­cet do not contain more than 0.25% lead.

Finally, in 2011 a mildly embarrassed Congress got off its duff and stiffened the federal lead-free requirement.

The new federal standard contained in Section 417(d) of the Safe Drinking Water Act, effective as of January 4, 2014, reduces allowable lead content from the former 8.0% to the California standard of a "weighted average" of 0.25% or less.

Manufacturers have dealt with the lead problem in several ways. Some have eliminated lead altogether by fashioning their fau­cets out of plastic parts (not good), PEX ^[2] (good) or stainless steel (very good).

Others plate the brass parts with a non-toxic metal such as copper or chrome, or coat the brass with chemicals, to eliminate lead/water contact.

Delta has re-engineered its Diamond Seal Technology fau­cets so the water flows through non-brass channels separate from the fau­cet body and spout. The water never touches metal, so it cannot pick up any lead.

Health Effects (ANSI / NSF 61)

Lead testing goes beyond the composition limits of ANSI / NSF 372, however. Plumbing codes also require a second test for what is called "leaching".

As water passes through a fau­cet, it can pick up minerals from the fau­cet through a process called leaching, including about 1,800 potential toxins — metals, chemicals, viruses, and microbes of all sorts

All of these have to be screened for and if found, other tests are conducted to see whether they are present in amounts considered unsafe.

If this sounds like a lot of tests, it is. And, it still may not be enough. New chemicals are being created every week.

A 2013 study by the U.S. Geological Survey of 25 water utilities around the county found 18 chemicals in drinking water that are not currently regulated but could be dangerous including a herbicide,fluor­ide compounds, two solvents, caffeine, and the commonly prescribed antidepressants: Ef­fexor (ven­la­fax­ine), Well­bu­trin (bu­pro­pion), and Cel­exa (ci­talo­pram).

Lead is still the metal of most concern because it is the toxic metal most likely to be in your fau­cet. There is no safe level of lead. And, unfortunately, there is no way to avoid it. It's in the food we eat and the air we breathe. What regulators try to do is just limit your exposure to lead, especially in drinking water.

Under the current North American standard set out in ANSI / NSF 61 ("Drinking Water System Components — Health effects"), water passing through a fau­cet can pick up lead in amounts no greater than five parts per billion (ppb) – that's billion with a "b". That is not very much lead. In fact, to ingest a single gram of lead from a certified low-lead fau­cet you would have to drink about 250,000 gallons of tap water. Since the average person consumes only 30,000 gallons of water in his or her lifetime, it may take quite a determined effort to drink that much water.

Testing for lead leaching requires a three-week evaluation using water that is more corrosive than the average drinking water.

The Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), however, has challenged the current test protocol as flawed. Its study showed that there could actually be as much as 48 ppb lead in drinking water that has been sitting inside a fau­cet, even though the average of water flowing through the fau­cet tests at below 5 ppb. For that reason, it suggests allowing a fau­cet to run for a few seconds before drawing water for drinking and cooking.

Lead in School Water: The current permissible leaching limit is not low enough for children according to the the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP). Lead is so toxic to children that AAP recommends 1 ppb for fau­cets install in schools.

Other regulated ^[3] "heavy metals" that are potentially toxic are also tested, including arsenic, barium, cadmium, (hexavalent) chro­mi­um, mercury, selenium, and silver. Other metals that are not particularly toxic but which could affect the taste or appearance of water, like nickel and copper, are tested against maximum allowable concentrations.

The irony is that after all this fuss about lead in fau­cets, fau­cets are usually not the primary source of lead in-household water supplies.

Old pipes are the culprit. They were often made of lead, and even after copper became the standard, it was usually soldered with lead solder until lead in solder was outlawed in 1986. If your old house water pipes are galvanized steel or black iron, they probably have several problems by now but none of them is lead contamination. Plastic pipes are safe from lead but have several other problems, and cannot be used in many localities, including most places in Nebraska that aren't farmland.

The answer may be PEX, an engineered material made of cross-linked polyethylene formed into a hose. Stronger and more flexible than copper, and less susceptible to damage from freezing, it has gained widespread acceptance in the plumbing trades for most household water supply applications.

One fau­cet company, bypasses the lead-in-brass problem altogether by running water through its fau­cets in a pex tube. Since the water never touches brass, it cannot pick up any lead. for more information, see our report on Delta Faucets.

The Cost of Certification

Testing and Certification is costly. It can cost as much as $5,000 to test and certify a fau­cet (although when tested in quantity the per fau­cet cost is often substantially less). Certifying fau­cets is a sizeable investment by the fau­cet company, particularly one that offers dozens of different fau­cets and finishes.

Testing affects the price of the fau­cet to the consumer. A fau­cet made in China may sell for 60% of the U.S. price for the same fau­cet. The difference is largely the expense of initial certification and the ongoing cost of maintaining certification.

A fau­cet is not just tested once, then allowed to coast. Certification organizations periodically test samples drawn at random from the production line or warehouse shelves, and if the fau­cet fails the re-test, it loses its certification. This serves to keep fau­cet manufacturers on their toes but also is a substantial additional expense.

Some companies save the cost of certification and give themselves a competitive advantage, albeit, an illegal advantage, by not certifying their fau­cets. Our in-house mathematician, using all of his fingers and toes, calculated that the various certification, filing, and registration requirements add up to $26.80 to the cost of a single fau­cet, so the cost savings to the fau­cet company can be substantial. But, since fau­cet certification lists are public documents, it's simple to find out which companies are cheating.

Companies that sell uncertified fau­cets are identified in our reviews. We base our conclusions on the status of a company's certifications on public records published by each certifying agency. A company that does not own a public certification listing is not selling certified fau­cets no matter how loudly it claims that it is.

Footnotes:

Rev. 05/30/21