Why Tap Water Should Be Filtered

Tap water – hardly any foodstuff worldwide is subject to so many controls and limit values to protect you as a consumer. As the most important food for humans, there is no doubt about the necessity of the highest water quality and absolute purity. But what does "clean water" actually mean? Which impurities should be removed, when is water considered drinkable, and is the Drinking Water Ordinance even able to adequately assess the quality of our tap water?

The Importance of Clean Water for Humans

You need an average of two to three liters of fluid per day. Depending on body weight, season, and activity, this corresponds to approximately 35 milliliters per kilogram of body weight.

Because although water is indispensable for the functionality of your cells, the vital transport of substances and information in the organism, and for detoxification and temperature regulation of the body, your body can hardly build up its own water reserves. A qualitative or quantitative lack of water can quickly lead to serious health hazards.

The Drinking Water Ordinance (TrinkwV 2001) guarantees the quality of your drinking water. It defines binding limit values for possible pollutants throughout Germany and obliges water suppliers to strictly adhere to them. The water quality in waterworks is constantly monitored through complex treatment processes and regular checks.

The Long Road of Water

After successful purification, the tested drinking water leaves the waterworks and flows several kilometers through a widely branched pipe network until it is fed into your internal water pipes. Although the water here has often already been exposed to considerable contamination from the public pipe network, no further quality assurance takes place at the transfer point. The water leaves the responsibility of the water supplier here and thus also the necessity of complying with the limit values according to the TrinkwV.

From then on, the homeowner is responsible for the impeccable condition of your internal water pipes and thus for a significant proportion of the cleanliness of your tap water. At the expense of residents, there are no mandatory controls here either, which particularly oblige landlords.

Lead, Copper and Germs: Contamination of Tap Water

Until well into the 1970s, almost exclusively lead pipes were installed for domestic drinking water systems. Even though the harmful effects of lead on the human organism have long been known, numerous old water pipes can still be found today that have never been replaced due to ignorance or cost reasons.

In addition, there are dangerous germs that settle in pipes, dead ends, and fittings as so-called "biofilm" and are ingested when drinking. But it's not just old contamination that clouds the purity of your drinking water: even brand-new copper pipes or chrome-plated fittings release their components into the drinking water every day, which can lead to regulations and limit values being unknowingly exceeded and problematic foreign substances accumulating in your body over years.

Limit Values in Tap Water – Insufficient Consumer Protection?

These limit values are intended to protect you from excessive exposure to harmful pollutants and thus reduce the risk of health (long-term) consequences. If the maximum values are met, even the blatant detection of toxins in tap water is generally not considered problematic by the health authorities – a practice that can be debated.

Industry, medicine, and agriculture also present the authorities with the challenges of modern development: the list of residues to be tested must be continuously adjusted and expanded to include new substances. However, thematic complexity and time-consuming research often mean that pesticides, medicines, hormones, and chemicals never appear in the relevant regulations, or only with many years of delay.

Growing Awareness of Drinking Water Treatment

With the variety of potential hazards, your health awareness is also rapidly increasing: the per capita consumption of mineral and healing water has almost tenfold in the last 50 years. Although bottled water does not guarantee overall purity, it once again reflects your desire to do something good for your body and be on the safe side.

Unfortunately, mineral water sources have long been affected by significant contamination from pesticides, nitrates, and heavy metals, which drastically reduces their original purity and therefore often makes them unsuitable for infants and children. Elaborate bottling processes, long delivery routes, and large quantities of (plastic) waste additionally burden the environment and not only present manufacturers with challenges. Thus, the time and costs for purchasing and transporting quickly add up to unforeseen amounts in your household.

The Solution: An In-House Filtration System

A comprehensive solution for health, financial and ecological concerns can be filtered tap water. Installed directly at the point of use, state-of-the-art filter systems deliver the purest tap water directly to your house or apartment.

This means fresh and uncompromisingly clean water is available at all times and without restriction – which not only benefits your health, but also tastes great! When cooking, the flavors of the dishes are better preserved and can be seasoned more finely, and you can rediscover tea and coffee without limescale. A treat for the palate and body!

Water Filtration by Reverse Osmosis

Originally developed for medical and aerospace technology, the reverse osmosis method represents the most effective and reliable water purification to date. Bacteria, viruses, pollutants (e.g., hormones, drug residues, nitrate, nitrite, fungicides, pesticides, uranium, asbestos, etc.), and limescale can only be reliably removed by reverse osmosis.

Purest Water Thanks to Osmotic Membrane

The core of a reverse osmosis system as a water filter for household use is the osmotic membrane inside the filter. The pore size of the semipermeable (semi-permeable) membrane is just the diameter of a single water molecule. To filter drinking water, one side of the osmosis cartridge is filled with unfiltered inlet water, and on the other side is the filtered pure water – separated by the osmotic membrane. While the contaminated inlet water now has a particularly high concentration of dissolved substances, there are almost no dissolved substances in the pure water. This significant concentration difference between the liquids causes the creation of the so-called osmotic pressure – a physical striving for equalization and balance of the different concentrations.

Principles of Action from Nature

In nature, the process of osmosis occurs: the pure water flows from the area of low concentration through the osmotic membrane into the highly concentrated raw water to deconcentrate it.

Inspired by this naturally occurring process, reverse osmosis systems now reverse this principle of action for filtering tap water: On the side of the osmotic membrane where the inlet water is located, pressure is now applied from the outside, exceeding the natural osmotic pressure – the process runs in reverse. To compensate for the pressure difference, the tap water now diffuses through the osmotic membrane to the pure water side of the water filter, instead of the other way around as in osmosis. The dissolved impurities in the raw water remain, because only the water molecule, as the smallest compound in the periodic table, can pass through the fine pores of the membrane. The impurities are flushed into the wastewater, which prevents the membrane from clogging and thus leads to a longer membrane life.

Conclusion:

Clean water is essential for life – but despite strict controls, responsibility for water quality often ends at your doorstep. Old pipes, germs, and modern pollutants such as drug residues or pesticides can contaminate your tap water. If you want to be on the safe side, modern water filter systems – especially with reverse osmosis – offer an effective and sustainable solution. They not only provide health protection but also better taste, environmental friendliness, and long-term cost benefits.