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Interpretation of the new national standard for aging technology specifications for household appliances, to be implemented in May 2026

Time：

2026-10-20

GB/T 46484.1-2025 "Technical Specification for Aging Resistance of Household Appliances Part 1: General Requirements" will be officially implemented on May 1, 2026. It specifies the technical requirements for aging resistance of household appliances, including safety requirements, health requirements, usability requirements, and comfort requirements, and provides corresponding testing methods.

GB/T 46484.1-2025 "Technical specification for age-friendly household appliances Part 1: General requirements" was released on October 5, 2025, and will be officially implemented on May 1, 2026, specifying the technical requirements for age-friendly household appliances, including safety requirements, health requirements, usability requirements, and comfort requirements, and providing corresponding test methods.

I. Safety Requirements

Electrical safety: The safety of household electrical appliances shall comply with the relevant requirements of GB 44246, GB/T 4706 (applicable parts), and Chapter 4 of GB/T 40443-2021.

Cybersecurity: In addition to complying with the relevant requirements of GB/T 41789, the cybersecurity of household appliances must also comply with: strong reminders for pop-up windows of critical operations, key prompts for sensitive information, simplified passwords and unlocking methods, and reduced operational risks.

Personal information protection: Personal information protection for household appliances shall comply with the requirements of 5.7 in GB/T 40979 and GB/T 41529-2022.

II. Health Requirements

Health requirements for household appliances shall comply with the relevant provisions of GB 44498.

III. Usability Requirements

Structure and Interface

· Physical structure: In addition to complying with the relevant requirements of Chapter 5 of GB/T 40443-2021 and GB/T 36947, the usability requirements for control buttons, doors, lids and drawers, handles, accessories, information presentation, and packaging of household appliances shall also meet the following requirements:

· The location and height of the functional operation area of stationary appliances shall be convenient for elderly people to operate; the operating parts of portable appliances shall be easy to hold with one hand (right or left hand); the operating force for opening doors and lids shall be moderate; the operating area shall avoid excessively hard or rough materials.

· Interaction interface: In addition to meeting the relevant requirements of GB/T 36947, the interface of smart control terminals, touchscreens, and other interaction interfaces shall also meet the following requirements:

The operation steps for commonly used functions shall not exceed 3 steps; the names of buttons and icons shall be simple and easy to understand, with a reasonable layout and as few as possible; the network configuration of the smart control terminal should be simplified, and it may feature functions such as one-click connection and NFC.

· Instructions for use: Large font size, easy to understand, important information highlighted, accompanied by clear illustrations or video tutorials.

· Elderly-friendly mode: Household appliances with an elderly-friendly mode shall meet the following requirements: a conspicuous entry point on the main interface to enter the elderly-friendly mode within 3 steps; enlarged and bold font, with the main text ≥ 18dp/pt, clear and easy to read; after entering the elderly-friendly mode, user operations shall receive feedback information that is easy for elderly people to perceive.

Function and Interaction

· Remote assistance function: Household appliances with remote assistance functions shall meet the following requirements: the assistance operation should be simplified, allowing children or caregivers to remotely operate the functional modes; the remote assistance function shall respond quickly.

· Intelligent maintenance function: Household appliances with self-diagnostic functions shall perform automatic detection based on their own operating conditions. If a fault affecting normal operation or a consumable replacement is detected, a prompt or warning shall be issued, and this prompt or warning shall be sent remotely to the preset emergency contact.

· OTA upgrade function: The upgrade operation should be simple, and the operation of commonly used functions after the upgrade should not be complicated.

· Reminder and warning function: Household appliances with monitoring functions shall implement active reminder and warning functions, and notify the preset emergency contact; household appliances with emergency call functions shall have a one-touch assistance or quick response function, and the emergency call button shall be independent of other functional buttons, clearly positioned, easy to reach, and equipped with a mis-touch prevention design.

· Voice interaction function: For household appliances with voice interaction functions, the wake-up word should be simple, common, easy to understand, and easy to remember; the speaking speed during interaction should not be too fast, the volume should be adjustable, and the voice should be clear and easy to recognize; the voice function should be able to be turned off; it is recommended to have a voice prompt function.

· Gesture control function: For household appliances with gesture control functions, the wake-up and operation gestures should be simple; the amplitude should not be too large, and large-scale rotation or twisting of joints should be avoided as much as possible to prevent user injury when using gestures; the gesture function should be able to be turned off.

4. Comfort Requirements

Elderly-friendly household appliances should consider the special needs of the elderly in using appliances regarding temperature, humidity, wind sensation, sound, color, lighting, etc., to improve their comfort in using household appliances.

The standard is clear, and the age-friendly compliance testing is conducted in two ways: objective and subjective. The objective requirement requires evaluation through visual inspection and other professional methods; the subjective requirement specifies that compliance in terms of aspects should be evaluated by at least one of the following methods: assessment by trained professionals capable of considering the needs of elderly users (such as ergonomists, designers, occupational therapists, etc.), or user testing composed of elderly people. Regarding the testing procedures, the standard stipulates specific test conditions and test procedures for each category of requirements.

The implementation of the new national standard for age-friendliness of household appliances will provide a basis for the age-friendly design, production, and testing in the household appliance industry, and will strongly promote the research, development, and application of elderly-friendly household appliance products. Jiayu Testing, as a professional third-party testing and certification service institution, possesses qualifications such as CMA, CNAS, CBTL, and CCC, and is simultaneously recognized by multiple authoritative certification institution laboratories at home and abroad. Equipped with advanced instruments and equipment, it has a professional technical team with exquisite skills, possesses rich industry service experience and strong testing technical capabilities, and is proficient in various laws and standards. It professionally provides one-stop testing and certification services for various electronic and electrical products (such as household appliance products, wireless communication products, smart wearable products, smart home products, information technology products, audio and video products, lighting products, component products, etc.) to ensure that products meet relevant regulatory requirements. Welcome to contact us at 400-9269-886！