Drinking water

Drinking water is, by definition, water that is suitable for human use for cooking, drinking and preparing food and drinks. Drinking water may only contain substances and organisms in certain quantities. For many substances there are limit values that have been set in the Drinking Water Ordinance. Pathogenic microorganisms (germs) must not be present in drinking water. Minerals should be present in a minimum concentration.

In order to ensure safe removal, various requirements for the pipe network must be met. If the local conditions do not ensure that drinking water is properly extracted, measures to disinfect drinking water may be necessary.

Drinking water supply in Germany

There is a very good supply of drinking water across the board in Germany. The water suppliers usually do an excellent job. For geological reasons, the dissolved minerals calcium , magnesium , sodium , sulfate , chloride and carbonate are often present in tap water . The substances calcium and magnesium , whose concentration in the water is referred to as water hardness , are usually noticeable in the household. If the water hardness is high, the water contains a lot of lime. This means that household appliances, showers and fittings become calcified very quickly. In this case, water softening is used. This is not directly an improvement in the quality of drinking water, but is intended to improve the quality of water for the household.

Own water supply

We are often confronted with inquiries from self-suppliers. As a rule, this is well water that has excessive concentrations of iron , manganese, ammonium or germs. There are special water treatment processes for well water that can be used to obtain the purest drinking water from well water. Ion exchange helps remove iron and manganese from the water. Germs can be killed or rendered harmless using certain disinfection procedures.