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It Faces Outward

If you have been testing an assembly every year and wondering what it is for, this page is the answer and it surprises most people.

Key point

EPA separates containment at the service connection from fixture protection inside a building, and recommends the service connection as the primary containment point, installed to protect the public system from hazards inside the building. The assembly a property tests annually almost always faces outward.

Source: U.S. EPA, Cross-Connection Control Manual, EPA 816-R-03-002, February 2003.

CrossConnect is a referral service, not a contractor. We connect property owners and managers with independent contractors. Backflow assembly testing is normally restricted to testers holding a specific certification and using calibrated equipment, and the report usually has to reach your water purveyor — ask to see the certification and ask who files the report. We carry out no testing, we certify nobody, we do not set prices, and we never charge callers anything. Nothing here selects a device for any installation or states that any assembly is passing.

Two different jobs, one component

EPA’s manual distinguishes containment — protection at the service connection — from individual fixture outlet protection. The hardware can be the same. The direction it is facing is not.

A backflow assembly at the service connection compared with one at a fixtureA single water line runs from the public main, across the property boundary, into a building and on to a fixture. Two backflow assemblies are drawn identically on it. The first sits at the service connection where the line crosses the boundary, and faces outward toward the street. The second sits on the short branch feeding one fixture, and faces back into the building.THE PUBLIC MAINYOUR BUILDINGone fixtureCONTAINMENTat the service connection:it keeps your buildingout of the streetISOLATIONat the fixture:it keeps the fixtureout of the building
The same component in two places is two different protections. The one the water purveyor makes you test is almost always the first, and the people it protects are on the other side of the boundary.

Source: U.S. EPA, Cross-Connection Control Manual, EPA 816-R-03-002, February 2003.

What containment is for

The manual recommends the service connection as the primary containment point, where a backflow preventer is installed to protect the public system from hazards inside a building.

From the building. Not for it. If your irrigation system, your boiler, your chemical feeder or your hose ever pushes or pulls something toward the street, containment is what stops it reaching the water everybody else is drinking.

What isolation is for

Fixture outlet protection sits inside the building, on the branch feeding one thing. It protects the building’s own plumbing from that fixture, and it is what actually protects the occupants.

The two are not substitutes. A property can have perfect containment and no internal protection at all, which is a building whose neighbors are safe and whose occupants are not.

Why this reframes the annual test

It stops looking like a fee on your own water and starts looking like what it is: a check that the thing standing between your premises and everybody else’s still works.

It also explains why the water purveyor cares so much, why they want the report rather than you keeping it, and why a failed test is treated the way it is. What the test involves.

Who is responsible for what

The manual describes shared responsibility: purveyors implement, administer and maintain the backflow prevention program at the service connection and the point of cross-connection, while plumbing officials and health departments coordinate, and customers together with other authorities are responsible for preventing contamination.

Practically: the public system and the service connection are the purveyor’s concern, the plumbing inside the building is the property owner’s, and the ordinance is where the line is drawn in your jurisdiction.

Know what is on the tag before you call.Make, model, size and the date of the last test are usually stamped or tagged on the assembly itself, and they decide which test kit and which paperwork the visit needs. We will route you to somebody who covers your area, selected on the ZIP code of the property, and you are never charged. Backflow is our specialty, though the number will take any plumbing request on the property.

Call (888) 764-9890
Call (888) 764-9890