The ASSE Seal is the most recognized certification mark for backflow assemblies and mixing valves. Authorities Having Jurisdiction (AHJs) trust products with the ASSE Seal, resulting in fewer issues in project sign-off and faster time to occupancy. But, providing product certification is only one piece of the puzzle when bringing products to market.
Evaluation Reports1
A manufacturer’s goal is to bring products to market quickly and with no barriers to entry. New products, however, require some public education to help specifiers, designers, installers, and AHJs understand the needs that are met. ASSE Evaluation Reports show how a novel product fits in with existing standards and code requirements. As a respected leader in water safety, the reports created by ASSE are third-party technical marketing tools.
Listing Evaluation Criteria (LEC)1
Local codes generally require third-party certification or Professional Engineer (PE) approval for plumbing products, but what happens if a product is too innovative and there is no accepted standard for it? A manufacturer’s timeline for a product release can grind to a halt when they realize they missed the AHJs as an interest group during development. LEC documents are likened to prototype standards, but they are not considered standards, as they do not go through the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) or Standards Council of Canada (SCC) consensus processes. These documents are written between ASSE and the proponents and are typically completed in four to nine months. These are intended to gain an understanding of the market and expire after five years. The resulting LEC provides the basis for testing to be performed and, therefore, third-party certified with the ASSE Seal.
Product Standards Development
As the innovation creates buzz and gets accepted by the market, fast-followers, imitators, and those that use the trailblazing as inspiration begin to enter as competitors, saturating and maturing the product category. At some point, a group of products will outperform the rest. The manufacturers of those products look to set the bar for the industry and band together to write or revise consensus standards.
ASSE is available at this critical point to lend the infrastructure, expertise, and brand name to anchor what will become the performance criteria that these high performers aim to achieve. The ASSE Product Standards Committee receives drafts of proposed standards and ensures that the proper safety requirements are in place – if not, the committee will give instructions to the working group to do so. ASSE International is committed to safety and protecting the public from backflow, thermal hazards, waterborne pollutants, improper structural design, and cyclic failure, to name a few. Furthermore, ASSE is an ANSI-accredited standards developer and is itself routinely audited to ensure we follow the ANSI development process.
Code Acceptance
It is in the industry’s best interest that the standards that cover water safety products get adopted by model codes. The standards reflect an ever-rising level of performance that serve public interest. Products in the marketplace, especially in plumbing, that can potentially have an adverse effect on public safety need to be regulated. The final stop on the long trail of innovation is acceptance by code.
ASSE itself does not promote acceptance of standards into code as a policy, however, many industry members already promote ASSE’s standards, given the technical merit they find in the consensus standards.
Product Listings
Once a standard is adopted into the model codes, it is paramount that those products that fit the scope of that standard receive certification. ASSE’s certification process is trusted by AHJs to ensure that only the products that meet the standard on an ongoing basis are able to display the ASSE Seal. We pride ourselves on being ANSI- and SCC-accredited to ISO 17065 for product certification. This means that with ASSE International, you have access to both U.S. and Canadian markets with a single point
of service.
By partnering with ASSE, manufacturers can be sure that their product has proper market access to be installed and accepted. For more information about any product, standard, or service, feel free to contact us:
LECs and Product Standards Development:
staffengineer@asse-plumbing.org
Evaluation Reports:
es@asse-plumbing.org
Product Certification:
listingcoordinator@asse-plumbing.org
1ASSE Evaluation Reports and Listing Evaluation Criteria are not ANSI- or SCC-accredited activities.
