WRAS approved

WRAS approval is evidence that a fitting satisfies the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999 in England and Wales, the equivalent Scottish Byelaws of 2014, and the Northern Ireland Regulations of 2009. Regulation 4(1) requires every water fitting to be of an appropriate quality and standard and suitable for the circumstances in which it is used. Schedule 2, paragraph 2(1) bars any material that causes or is likely to cause contamination of water supplied for domestic or food production purposes.

It is not the only route to compliance, and a specifier who treats it as one will rule out equipment for no reason. Regulation 4(2) also accepts a fitting that bears a CE marking under the relevant Directive, conforms to a harmonised standard or a European technical approval, conforms to a British Standard or an equivalent national specification of an EEA state, or conforms to a specification approved by the regulator. So "no WRAS approval" is not the same finding as "not compliant". It is a finding that you now have to demonstrate compliance some other way, which is more work and is why most manufacturers selling into UK potable duties get the approval.

A WRAS Product Approval covers a whole fitting. A WRAS Material Approval covers one non-metallic material or component on its own, such as a rubber sheet, an O-ring or a coating. They are separate certificates, tested to different scopes, and listed in different sections of the directory.

The distinction matters because the two get conflated in tender documents and in supplier claims. A pump built entirely from materials that hold WRAS Material Approvals is not a WRAS Approved Product. If a specification asks for an approved pump and you are offered a schedule of approved materials, you have been sent the wrong evidence. Ask which it is.

A sewage pump, an effluent transfer pump or a drainage pump in a car park sump cannot be WRAS approved, because none of them carry mains water. The regulations apply to fittings that carry or receive water from the public mains supply, and they bite between the boundary of the property and the point of discharge. Most of what we supply is wastewater and hygienic rather than potable, so most of our range sits outside the scheme by definition.

The directory says the same thing in its own structure. It has one pump section, code 1610, and the subtitle on it is "Wholesome water use". Wholesome water is the legal term for water fit for drinking.

So asking a sewage pump supplier for a WRAS certificate is asking for the wrong document, and a supplier who produces one has probably handed you a material approval. On a wastewater duty the evidence that actually protects you is elastomer and material compatibility with the medium, and equipment certification for the zone where the area is classified as hazardous. Specify against those instead.

A WRAS certificate is not proof that an approval is current. The scheme is blunt about it: a certificate is sometimes requested as evidence of compliance, but approvals can be modified, and a check of the WRAS Approvals directory is the only reliable way to verify that an approval is valid. A PDF in a submission pack proves what was true on the day it was issued and nothing after that.

An approval lasts a maximum of five years from the date it is granted, and the product has to be retested to keep it. Secondary approvals expire with the primary one they hang off. The directory holds the last five years of listings, and each entry carries its own expiry date, so a five-minute search settles a question that an email chain will not.

A worked example from the directory. Approval 2206044 sits in section 1610 and covers the Ebara 3ME range: stainless steel bodies and impellers, EPDM O-rings, a carbon, ceramic and EPDM shaft seal, maximum working pressure 10.0 bar, maximum operating temperature 100°C, installation requirements R001 and R415, expiring on 30 June 2027. The E build is what the approval names. A different elastomer specification on the same hydraulics is a different product as far as the scheme is concerned, which is why we ask what the medium is before quoting the Ebara 3M.

Approval covers the fitting. It does not cover the installation, and there is a second obligation that catches booster pumps specifically. Under regulation 5 of the Water Supply (Water Fittings) Regulations 1999, the table of notifiable operations includes at item 4(d) "a pump or booster drawing more than 12 litres per minute, connected directly or indirectly to a supply pipe". You give notice to the water undertaker, you do not begin work without its consent, and you comply with any conditions attached to that consent.

Two details people get wrong. The approved contractor exemption in regulation 5(2) applies to a water system extension, an ascending spray bidet and a reduced pressure zone valve assembly. It does not cover the pump at 4(d), so using an approved contractor does not remove the notification. And the undertaker has ten working days to withhold consent or attach conditions; if it says nothing in that window, consent is deemed granted unconditionally. Build the ten days into the programme rather than discovering them. The sizing consequences are in the booster set sizing guide.

Tell us at enquiry that the duty is potable, and say whether it is fed straight off the main or through a break tank. That decides the build before it decides the pump: the wetted materials, the elastomers and the shaft seal all have to sit inside the scope of an approval, and often only one variant of a range does.

Send the flow, the head, the medium and the connection, and say if a specification names a required approval number. We will come back with the variant that carries the approval and the directory entry that proves it. Where no pump in our range holds one for that duty, we will tell you that instead.