Standards Development

Scope

This standard specifies the characteristics and the requirements of an air break to drain for use when connection to a drain is required for the prevention of contamination of the water supply by backflow.

This standard applies to air breaks to drain in factory assembled products and to constructed air breaks in situ and specifies test methods to verify conformity during normal working use.

Purpose

In England and Wales, the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 (‘the regulations’) regulate how water systems are designed, installed and operated.

In the regulations ‘Regulator Specifications’ it only details the air break to drains dimensional requirements but not detailed performance requirements, multiple inlets, verification and installation requirements etc.

The technical specifications available for air breaks to drain is very limited and doesn’t cover the variety of products that are currently readily available.  Manufacturers are therefore excluded from being able to provide documentation that shows the arrangement is suitable as there is no available criteria to verify that their air break to drain is compliant.

A BS would ensure that future innovation and development will be co-ordinated with industry as standards undertake a 5-year review whereas the DEFRA Regulators Specifications are never updated with this recent update being the first in 25 years.

The availability of the specification as a British Standard will consolidate the installation to eliminate the unnecessary variety of designs that are present in the marketplace.