Our Restroom Faucets Don’t Have to Meet NFS-61 Standards. But They Do.

Have you ever brushed your teeth in an office restroom? Ever seen kids drinking from a faucet?

Those faucets may not be certified for clean drinking water. Sensor faucets in commercial restrooms don’t have to meet the same standards as manual, residential or commercial kitchen faucets, because they’re not specifically intended to dispense water for human consumption.

Sloan is the exception. We’re the commercial sensor faucet manufacturer that has the most certified  touch-free faucets that meet the industry’s toughest standards for safe drinking water.

Here’s the background behind NFS 61 certification, and why we insist that our faucets meet it.

What is NFS 61 Certification?

When water passes through a water system, it may absorb impurities from the components of that system. Some of these impurities may be harmful to humans.

NSF was founded in 1944 as the National Sanitation Foundation. NFS 61 standards—also known as ANSI (American National Standards Institute) 61—were first developed in the 1980s as voluntary third-party consensus standards, with a certification program for all direct and indirect drinking water additives¹.

Today’s NFS 61 standard limits the amount of impurities that individual products—including faucets, pipes, drinking water fountains, water meters, and water storage tanks—can introduce into a water supply. The impurities that must be limited include lead and other metals, volatile organic chemicals, phthalates, and bisphenol A (BPA)². These substances have been shown to correlate with health hazards such as liver damage, reproductive problems, and cancer.

To demonstrate that a product meets the NFS 61 standard, it must be certified by an independent, third-party organization that reviews the manufacturing process and determines that the final product complies with specific standards for safety, quality, or performance³.

If a faucet isn’t NSF 61 certified, it may introduce more impurities than the standard permits.

Why Don’t Commercial Sensor Faucets Require NSF 61 Certification?

In 2021, California passed Assembly Bill 100, which prohibited the manufacture or sale in the state of endpoint devices that did not meet the NSF 61 standard. It also required that endpoint devices be certified by an accredited third party to show compliance with lead-free requirements⁴.

As is often the case, California standards became de facto standards for the entire plumbing products industry.

But the law doesn’t actually apply to commercial restroom faucets. Lawmakers in California recognized that sensor faucets installed in commercial or public restrooms are not specifically intended to dispense water for human consumption. In fact, section 9.1.2 of the NSF 61 standards specifically exempts electronically activated nonkitchen faucets⁵.

So, commercial sensor faucets do not have to meet NFS 61 standards. They may legally introduce more impurities than the standard permits, so the water they dispense may be less healthy.

That wasn’t good enough for Sloan.

Many Sloan Faucets are certified to NFS 61 and AB 100 Standards

We make sure many of our faucets are certified to the NFS 61 requirements of California AB 100, even though they’re exempt. Why? Because we believe health, safety, and hygiene should be a top priority. From airports and sports venues to offices, schools, and shopping malls, anyone who uses a Sloan faucet in any location should experience the cleanest water possible.

After all, people brush their teeth in office restrooms. Kids drink from faucets. And even if you’re just washing your hands, isn’t it reassuring to know that the faucet delivering the water is certified to meet the industry’s toughest standards for safe drinking water?

Health, hygiene, and safety are also the reasons why all our faucets are touch-free. The fewer surfaces people touch, the less likely they are to spread germs.

Other manufacturers sell certified manual faucets. Other manufacturers also sell commercial sensor faucets that aren’t certified to meet NSF 61 standards.

Our standards are higher. We meet the standards we don’t have to meet, and we only sell faucets that we’d want in our own restrooms.

Want to learn more ways Sloan products help promote health, hygiene, and safety? Contact Sloan.

1—https://blog.ansi.org/nsf-ansi-61-2022-drinking-water-system-components/#gref
2—https://www.nsf.org/consumer-resources/articles/faucets-plumbing-products
3—https://www.nsf.org/knowledge-library/what-is-third-party-certification
4—https://www.supplyht.com/articles/104330-governor-gavin-newsom-signs-ab-100-into-law
5—https://d2evkimvhatqav.cloudfront.net/documents/NSF-ANSI_61_watemarked.pdf