Ontario, Calif. — IAPMO R&T, North America’s premier third-party certification body for plumbing and mechanical products, has earned approval to begin certifying weather‐based irrigation controllers to the U.S. EPA’s new final specification for the WaterSense® consumer product‐labeling program, the first outdoor product category eligible to earn the WaterSense® label.
Weather‐based irrigation controllers use local weather data to tailor irrigation schedules to actual site conditions. IAPMO R&T can now provide independent certification to prospective WaterSense®‐labeled models that meet EPA’s water‐efficiency and performance criteria, “ensuring that they are able to meet the water needs of the plants without overwatering,” according to EPA.
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 and showerhead 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.
“IAPMO R&T has been with WaterSense® since the start of the program and brings the highest degree of credibility to each product certified as meeting the program’s efficiency standards,” said Anish Desai, director of Certification for IAPMO R&T. “Our experience and reputation among WaterSense® program partners is something in which irrigation controller manufacturers can place their complete trust.”
Manufacturers wishing to have their irrigation controllers identified as meeting the WaterSense® criteria 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.
For more information on having products listed, contact Charles Gross (charles.gross@iapmort.org) or Brenda Madonna (brenda.madonna@iapmort.org) at (877) 4‐UPC‐MARK, or for more information on the WaterSense® Specification for Weather‐Based Irrigation Controllers, visit www.epa.gov/watersense/products/controltech.html.
