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Toilets are the biggest single indoor water user in an American house — EPA puts them at nearly 30 percent of average indoor consumption — and they are also where the efficiency gap is widest. Older, inefficient toilets can use as much as 6 gallons per flush. The current federal standard is 1.6 gallons per flush, and EPA says design improvements have allowed toilets to use 1.28 gallons per flush or less while still providing equal or superior performance, which is the WaterSense threshold and 20 percent below the federal standard.

Showers and sinks work the same way. EPA notes that standard showerheads use 2.5 gallons per minute, while a WaterSense labeled showerhead must demonstrate that it uses no more than 2.0. WaterSense labeled bathroom sink faucets and accessories use a maximum of 1.5 gallons per minute, which EPA says can cut a sink's flow by 30 percent or more from the standard 2.2 gallons per minute. All of these are independently certified rather than self-declared: EPA requires third-party certification for any product carrying the label.

Efficiency at these levels is no longer a performance trade-off, and EPA is direct about the history. The low-flow toilets of the 1990s were sometimes associated with double flushing and poor satisfaction; manufacturers redesigned around new test protocols, and WaterSense criteria — including tests for waste extraction, bowl surface cleaning and drainline waste transport — were subsequently adopted into the national plumbing fixture standard, ASME A112.19.2/CSA B45.1. For showerheads, EPA's user testing found spray force and spray coverage to be the criteria that most influenced satisfaction, which is why the label tests them.

Every part that touches drinking water is governed by a federal definition. Congress first required lead-free pipe, solder and flux in 1986, when lead free meant solder and flux with no more than 0.2 percent lead and pipes with no more than 8 percent. The Reduction of Lead in Drinking Water Act of 2011 lowered the maximum lead content of the wetted surfaces of pipes, fittings, fixtures and plumbing fittings to a weighted average of 0.25 percent and set a statutory method for calculating it. EPA also notes that since September 1, 2023, lead-free certification is required for manufacturers and importers introducing regulated plumbing products into commerce. The statute exempts parts used exclusively for non-potable service, and separately exempts items such as toilets, bidets, urinals, fill valves, flushometer valves, tub fillers, shower valves, service saddles and water distribution main gate valves 2 inches in diameter or larger.

Permits are local. Public Health — Seattle & King County puts it plainly: whenever you install, relocate or change a plumbing or gas piping system, Seattle and King County codes require you to obtain a permit. That agency issues permits and performs inspections in Seattle, Clyde Hill and unincorporated King County, while a property in another King County city gets its permits from that city's building department. Most jurisdictions organize residential plumbing inspection the same way — a rough-in inspection while the pipe is still visible, and a final inspection once fixtures are set.

Which code applies is decided at state level and then amended locally. California's plumbing requirements are Part 5 of Title 24, and the state's Building Standards Commission notes that all occupancies are subject to national model codes adopted into Title 24 and further subject to amendments adopted by state agencies and ordinances implemented by local jurisdictions. Ask a contractor which code edition and which local amendments they are working to; it is a fair question and a licensed installer will have an immediate answer.

Efficient fixtures are one of the few places where a plumbing decision pays back on its own. EPA calculates that replacing old, inefficient toilets with WaterSense labeled models can reduce the water a family uses for toilets by 20 to 60 percent — nearly 13,000 gallons a year for an average household — and that nationally, replacing every old, inefficient toilet would save more than 260 billion gallons a year. For showers, EPA estimates the average family saves more than 2,700 gallons of water and more than 330 kilowatt hours of electricity a year with WaterSense labeled showerheads, enough electricity to power a house for eleven days.

The money side is local rather than federal. EPA notes that in many areas, utilities offer rebates and vouchers that lower the price of a WaterSense labeled toilet. These programs are run by individual water utilities and water districts, they usually require the model to carry the label, and many require approval or a receipt submitted within a window, so check your own utility's program before buying rather than after. WaterSense also publishes a product search so you can confirm that a specific model is labeled before it is ordered.