ISO 815-1:2014 specifies methods for the determination of the compression set characteristics of vulcanized and thermoplastic rubbers at ambient (one method) or elevated temperatures (three methods, A, B, and C, depending on the way the test piece is released at the end of the test).

The methods are intended to measure the ability of rubbers of hardness within the range 10 IRHD to 95 IRHD to retain their elastic properties at specified temperatures after prolonged compression at constant strain (normally 25 %) under one of the alternative sets of conditions described. For rubber of nominal hardness 80 IRHD and above, a lower compression strain is used: 15 % for a nominal hardness from 80 IRHD to 89 IRHD and 10 % for a nominal hardness from 90 IRHD to 95 IRHD.