The only downside is that at some point, no water will come through the pipes anymore because of all the limescale.

And if we wait that long, we usually won't be able to get the limescale out of the pipes anymore, because at least some water has to come through if you want to use a dissolving agent to break down the deposits.

 

If it's just the glass shower wall and the coffee machine, then I prefer cleaning or descaling. You can't do without them completely anyway. You can also factor in the cost of the cleaning lady – it will usually work out surprisingly close for the appliance, but the cleaning lady does more. The hot water tank should always be inspected regularly and the limescale removed. So the pipes or the heat exchanger are a really serious problem, and the shower screen also needs to be kept free of limescale with a lot of effort.​

 

So what can you do? There are plenty of limescale protection systems and water softeners available.

There is no one-size-fits-all solution here; each case must be considered individually.

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The following applies to water softeners: Any removal or filtering of lime can make your water corrosive. The calcium-carbonic acid balance is disrupted. When you remove calcium, carbonic acid is automatically released. With hot water, where the solubility of gases is generally lower, this can go so far that you get milky hot water from the tap, which then clears up on its own as soon as the gas has been released.

In many cases, lime-rich water has a pH value in the slightly alkaline range, which is physiologically desirable. Calcium serves as a pH buffer in the blood, so it is not necessarily disadvantageous in every respect.

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All the advantages and disadvantages must therefore always be weighed up against each other.

 

In addition, the solution must be specified – what size and where should it be installed? In the cold water inlet to the hot water tank or heat exchanger, or throughout the entire house, or perhaps only in certain areas of the building because only here (dentist's chair) do the conditions need to be created?

The system can be designed for the hotel in the high season or low season. In the living area and other areas that are used evenly, the average volume flow can be measured, allowing the system to be adjusted very precisely to actual demand.

Oversized systems also carry the risk of bacterial contamination if the system components are not properly flushed through because the normal volume flow is insufficient or because the volume in the system is not replaced often enough and, in the worst case, also heats up because the installation location is unsuitable.

 

Installing a water softener in the boiler room usually has the side effect of heating the water in the ion exchanger due to the ambient temperature. This leads to even faster contamination and should therefore be avoided if possible.

 

There are therefore a number of things to consider when deciding on this type of treatment, so installation should be carefully considered and planned, and should only be carried out by a specialist (plumbing company). Not every plumbing company has sufficiently trained personnel for this.

 

Our advice: If you really need a solution, do your research and ask the plumber a few test questions to assess whether they know what they are installing and have given sufficient thought to why they want to install this system in that location.