Check Product Labeling, Certification, and Testing

What does product certification or labeling mean?

A product certification or label indicates third party testing or review regarding a particular attribute or performance metric in addition to ongoing oversight and inspection of the manufacturing process to ensure consistency and quality are maintained. A certification provides assurance that a product or material will meet certain standards of performance related to attributes such as fire or life safety, energy efficiency, water efficiency, and environmental sustainability. In some cases, a product may hold a certification regarding overall quality, such as the Quality and Performance Mark by Intertek. In many cases, some of the same companies that perform product testing also offer product certifications. The federal government also offers product certifications or labels such as the EPA’s ENERGY STAR or Water Sense labels. The following labels frequently appear on building products, equipment, or appliances.

Are product certification and product testing the same?

No. Product testing is more a snapshot in time that demonstrates a product performed to a particular standard when it was tested. Certification, on the other hand, involves ongoing oversight of the manufacturing process and product sampling to ensure that a uniform level of performance and quality is maintained over time. Certification is likely to cover a broader range of performance attributes than testing to a single standard. When evaluating a certification, make sure that the certification agency is ISO accredited by an agency approved by the International Laboratory Accreditation Agency. Do the same for product testing laboratories that you may encounter when reviewing manufacturers’ literature. A comparison from the website of NTA Testing, Inc. (www.ntainc.com) provides a good comparison of the differences between testing and certification.

Although in-house testing may certainly be reliable, it does not carry the weight or offer the assurance of testing by an outside third party. Third party testing and certification provide a level of confidence that a product will perform according to the manufacturer claims. As a building owner, the verification provided by an independent third party gives you confidence that the manufacturer’s claims regarding performance relative to a specific attribute are warranted. Keep a few things in mind, however—

1. Products are most often tested in a laboratory situation—not as they are typically installed in the field.
2. Products are typically tested in isolation—not as they behave in a building assembly alongside of other materials.
3. Products are tested with respect to their behavior under a very specific set of conditions. Thus, test standards do not warrant the overall quality of a product or material; they warrant only its ability to withstand certain effects, exposure, and so on.
4. Neither product testing nor product certification automatically implies that the product meets the international building code or is accepted by your local code official.