Certified Backflow Testing Ohio Water Suppliers Accept

Backflow testing Ohio requirements: who is covered and how often?

If your building has a service connection that could push water back toward the public main, the water supplier holds you responsible for protecting it. Ohio Administrative Code Chapter 3745-95 places cross connection control on the public water system, which is why the test notice arrives from your city water department rather than from the state. The Ohio EPA backflow prevention program sets what those suppliers have to enforce.

In practice, every backflow prevention assembly on a commercial, industrial or institutional service is tested by a certified tester on the supplier’s cycle, usually once a year, and the report goes back to the supplier. Suppliers in Erie, Huron, Lorain, Ottawa and Sandusky counties each run their own notice schedule, so a company with buildings in Sandusky and Norwalk can sit on two different calendars. We track the due dates so nobody in your office has to.

What happens during a commercial backflow test?

A test is a short, measured procedure, not a look at the device. The tester closes the downstream shutoff, connects a calibrated differential pressure gauge to the test cocks, and reads each check valve and, on a reduced pressure assembly, the relief valve.

• The first check has to hold a measurable differential against the direction of flow.
• The second check has to hold tight under back pressure.
• On a reduced pressure principle assembly, the relief valve has to open before the differential across the first check falls below 2 psid.

Assemblies are built and listed to standards published by ASSE International, including ASSE 1013 for reduced pressure principle assemblies and ASSE 1015 for double check valve assemblies. A gauge that has drifted out of calibration will write a passing report on a failing device, so gauge calibration is kept on its own schedule.

Which assembly belongs on which connection?

Degree of hazard drives the choice. A connection that could return a health hazard, such as a chemical feed line, a boiler carrying treatment chemicals, an irrigation main or a laboratory bench, needs a reduced pressure principle assembly. A connection with no health hazard, such as a closed loop with no additives, may be protected by a double check valve assembly. Cross connection control practice published by the American Water Works Association is the reference most Ohio suppliers work from.

Hospitals raise the count quickly, because sterilizers, dialysis, lab benches, cooling towers and food service each carry their own protection. Wilkes has performed mechanical work at Firelands Regional Medical Center in Sandusky, and our healthcare mechanical group plans this work around occupied departments.

Why do assemblies fail during Lake Erie winters?

Freeze damage is the leading failure we find. A reduced pressure principle assembly is designed to discharge through its relief valve, so it cannot sit anywhere that discharge will freeze or flood. Assemblies in unheated vestibules, loading docks and outdoor enclosures split when a January cold snap comes off Lake Erie and the enclosure heater has been dead since fall.

Debris is the second. Scale and grit off older mains land on a rubber check disc and hold it open by a few thousandths of an inch, which is enough to fail the test even though the device looks fine. Our commercial plumbing maintenance checklist covers the seasonal walkthrough that catches both, and our article on backflow testing rules in Ohio goes further into the paperwork.

How does a backflow prevention assembly repair get scheduled?

A failed assembly is usually rebuilt rather than replaced. We carry rebuild kits for the common makes and sizes, so a fouled check or a worn relief valve seat is often corrected on the same visit and retested before the crew leaves. Replacement earns its cost when the body is cracked, the assembly is undersized for current demand, or parts for the model are no longer made.

Either way the water is off for a while, and that is the part worth planning. Where the supplier will allow a temporary bypass, we arrange it in advance. This work runs through the same crews as our commercial plumbing and commercial plumbing and HVAC service, from Sandusky east to Lorain and west to Fremont.

Schedule your annual backflow test

Send us the notice from your water department and we will handle the rest. Call (419) 433-2325, email info@wilkesandcompany.com, or request a quote with the building address and the number of assemblies. Our office in Huron is open Monday through Friday, 8:00 AM to 4:00 PM.