Manufacturers and importers
Your legal responsibilities
If you make or import WELS products you are required by law to register and label them before supply in Australia.
What are the WELS products?
These include dishwashers, clothes washers, toilets, urinals, flow controllers (not mandatory) and tap equipment. Other products are being examined for possible future inclusion. Go to the WELS products page for more information.
Registering your product
To register a product you must:
- have the product tested by an authorised facility
- submit a completed application form (preferably online) with all relevant documentation and
- pay a registration fee.
Go to product registering for instructions and to access the online registration system. Please contact the WELS team at WELS@environment.gov.au or on 1800 218 478 if you have questions regarding registering online.
Registered products must comply with the WELS Standard which can be purchased through Standards Australia. This Standard details the following for each of the WELS products:
- product definitions
- performance and rating requirements
- compliance requirements
- registration and
- labelling specifications including requirements for packaging, swing tags, product displays, publicity and product specifications.
Labelling
Once products have been registered, manufacturers and importers are responsible for producing their own WELS labels and putting them on the product/packaging before they are dispatched.
Annex B of the WELS Standard sets out colour and size specifications for labels. Check here for sample WELS labels. The WELS label may be reduced in size to suit a particular product as long as it keeps to the minimum size-28 mm deep and 18mm wide.
Whitegoods
The label needs to be fixed (e.g. glued) to the upper front portion of dishwashers or clothes washers.
If fixing the label directly on the machine will damage the finish (e.g. permanently mark or stain finishes such stainless steel) the label can be attached to the machine by a doubled-sided swing tag or single-sided non-rotating swing tag.
Plumbing and sanitary ware
For products displayed for sale in packaging
The label needs to be fixed (e.g. glued) to packaging so that it is clearly visible on the front portion of the package when it is hung from a rack or placed on a shelf.
For products displayed for sale outside of their packaging
There are four options:
- the correctly-sized label fixed to the product itself or
- a swing tag showing the correctly-sized label on both sides securely attached to the product or
- a correctly-sized label fixed next to the product so it is obvious that the product and the label are linked or
- a tag (e.g price tag) fixed next to the product showing WELS star rating and the water consumption figure (e.g. WELS 3 Star, 9L/min) so long as there is a clear and obvious connection between the tag and the product.
When a product is sold after being selected from the above forms of unpackaged display items, the product must be provided labelled.
Enforcement
Under the WELS Act, penalties apply for:
- failing to meet registration and labelling requirements
- failing to meet minimum efficiency and performance requirements and
- misusing WELS standards and information.
If you are not sure that you are complying with the Act, contact WELS at wels@environment.gov.au.
WELS inspectors with significant monitoring and investigation powers are in the field checking that manufacturers, suppliers and retailers are complying with the WELS Act.
Strong enforcement powers under the WELS Act include the ability to:
- impose significant fines
- compel the withdrawal of a product or products from supply
- deregister product/s and
- advertise convictions.
For more information about enforcement go to Frequently Asked Questions - How is the scheme being enforced?
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