11 factors for optimal drinking water hygiene

by Jamie Bullock · 26th May 2022

Unclouded drinking water quality

Hygienically perfect drinking water is our most important foodstuff and a basis for our health. Plumbers, planners, contractors, users and everyone else should always keep this fact in mind.

This means that all negative influences on the quality of our drinking water – such as lead, legionella, chemical and biological impurities, to mention just a few – must therefore be avoided under all circumstances.

1. Reasons for loss of quality

Deterioration of drinking water quality can occur, among other things, due to faulty piping installations, contact with unsuitable materials, stagnation in less used pipeline sections and heating (i.e. PWC and PWH pipes are perhaps too close together or not properly insulated). If these factors are ignored in a drinking water installation, the growth of bacteria is pretty much a given.

This can lead to damage to health and even endanger life and limb.

SANHA piping systems fully meet the high demands placed on the material used. Depending on the application and the quality of the drinking water, we have systems available from various types of stainless steel, copper, lead-free silicon-bronze copper alloy (CuSi) and/or plastic. Therefore we are able to provide a solution that meets the requirements and guarantees optimum protection of the drinking water quality when it comes to material.

Besides the material used, the installation itself, the “lay of the land”, plays a very important role. In addition to the correct selection of hygienic materials and system components, a system design that is coordinated with hygiene is of course a basic pre-requisite for the quality, durability and sustainability of any and all drinking water installation.

In recent years, scientific studies have made it increasingly clear that bacteria from drinking water are far more responsible for infections than previously suspected.

For this reason, engineers, installers and everyone else involved must increasingly focus on this “microbiological problem” in order to ensure hygienically perfect, pure drinking water at the tapping points at all times.

The following explanations are intended to give the planner and plumber a general overview of the leading bacteria relevant for drinking water installations, hygienic installation methods and professional commissioning.