The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has published Version 1.1 of its WaterSense® showerhead specification, reflecting recent revisions in applicable standards and enabling rain shower manufacturers to obtain the label for their suitably efficient products.

The specification has been revised to directly reference ASME A112.18.1/CSA B125.1 where these standards underwent minor revisions concerning testing procedures and marking requirements. The new showerhead specification further updates the spray force test protocol to accommodate rain showers, which were not previously included, and clarifies product packaging requirements for WaterSense-labeled showerheads, according to EPA.

"We are pleased EPA has issued this revision and look forward to assisting rain shower manufacturers in obtaining WaterSense certification for this popular, but not previously eligible line of showerheads," said Jin Luo, Executive Vice President with IAPMO R&T.
Currently labeled showerheads are unaffected by this revision; it merely seeks to ensure that future showerheads certified as meeting the WaterSense requirements continue to meet EPA's criteria for efficiency and performance.

The new specification replaces Version 1.0, which EPA released in March 2010, and can be viewed in its entirety at https://www.epa.gov/watersense/showerheads#tab-3.

IAPMO R&T has been a licensed provider of WaterSense certification since 2007, certifying the first high-efficiency toilet (HET) to the standard in April of that year. To date, IAPMO R&T has certified thousands of lavatory faucet, toilet, urinal, showerhead and weather-based irrigation controller models to the WaterSense specifications. Products bearing the WaterSense label must not only save water, but also perform as well or better than conventional models on the market.

Manufacturers wishing to have their showerheads identified as complying with the WaterSense specification must have them certified as such by a qualified third-party certification body such as IAPMO R&T, which is accredited by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as a provider of certification services to WaterSense specifications.

IAPMO R&T is happy to assist any manufacturer wishing to better understand the new specification and learn how to achieve compliance. For more information or assistance, call (909) 472-4100, email info@iapmort.org, or direct your Web browser to http://www.iapmort.org/Pages/WaterSense.aspx.