Tap water is the most controlled foodstuff in Germany.

Some cities even offer tap water that comes from the same sources as bottled mineral water, and the results of regular tap water tests are published in newspapers.

Does this mean that German tap water is safe for you and your family?
Not quite.

There’s a reason why the average German currently drinks 144 liters of bottled mineral water per year – the highest consumption in Europe.
This is because we are aware that Germany is a highly industrialized country, which has led to chemical contamination of our water sources. Although the concentration of harmful chemicals in German tap water is within the recommended limits, harmful contaminants such as lead, nitrates and chromium are still present in the water.

In addition, chlorine is added to water in water treatment plants to disinfect it, which can give the water an unpleasant odor and taste – especially in areas with hard water in Germany.

The role of your plumbing

While the government can easily regulate and test water quality at a treatment plant, it has no control over the impact your plumbing systems have on water quality.
Depending on how old your home is, your plumbing can alter the chemical profile of the water that comes out of your faucet, potentially loading it with lead and other unwanted deposits:

Lead and other unwanted deposits released by water pipes with age
Bacteria, algae and mold that can colonize and thrive near water pipes
other pollutants that can enter the water supply through cracked and broken pipes.

While these contaminants won’t cause you to visit the restroom when you drink a glass of tap water, the cumulative effects of drinking them over years can cause significant harm to your family’s health and well-being.

To make matters worse, it is difficult to determine if and how much your water is contaminated by plumbing. And even if you know your water is contaminated, repairing problematic plumbing can be very complicated and expensive.

And bottled water is not better…

As we mentioned earlier, most Germans are suspicious enough of their tap water to drink dozens of liters of bottled water every year.
However, bottled water is not necessarily safer than tap water. The problem in this case is not the water, but the plastic bottles in which it is bottled. These bottles release microplastic particles into the water.

One study found an average of 325 microplastic particles per liter from 11 of the most popular water bottle brands in the United States.

What are the implications for human health? The answer is that the scientific community does not know this, having only recently become aware of the problem. However, there is ample evidence that plastics and the chemicals from which they are made are playing a role in the rapid increase in chronic health problems in the Western world, ranging from diabetes to reproductive problems. It can be scary to realize how contaminated the “safe” tap and bottled water your family drinks and bathes in might be.

However, there is one piece of good news. With an affordable, high-quality German-made carbon filter, you can remove most of the impurities and pollutants in your water.

How carbon filters can benefit your family’s health

We know Simple coal sounds like an extremely simple solution to a complex problem. How can a substance made from simple ingredients like coconut or charcoal remove potentially dangerous contaminants from water?

The answer lies in the structure of the coal granules. These are provided with thousands of pores, which are able to bind impurities. When the coal undergoes a special process called “activation”, the pore density increases. A single gram of activated carbon granules has so many pores that it has a surface area of 3000 m2!

This means that each activated carbon water filter acts like a giant net, capturing a wide range of water impurities. Remove all carbon filters:

• Chlorine
• Sediments
• volatile substances
• organic compounds such as benzene
• some pharmaceutical substances
• bad tastes
• unpleasant odors.

Advanced filters like carbon block filters can also remove dangerous heavy metals like lead from your water.

Which filter should I use?

Germany makes some of the highest quality water filters in the world, and there are a number of carbon filter systems and types to choose from.

Which one you use depends to some extent on your budget. You have the following options:

Filter cans. These jugs are divided into two sections separated by a removable carbon filter. You fill water into the upper part of the jug, and it filters the water into a container below the filter. They are cheap, but the filters need to be changed frequently, and the constant refilling of the jug can become annoying.

Countertop filters are a good option if you want an uninterrupted supply of filtered water. In these systems, water is drawn from the faucet and passed through a filter system that sits on a countertop. Countertop filters are cheap and easy to maintain, but may require installation and compatible faucets.

Under-sink filter systems. They are located outside the field of view and can therefore be larger and more complex than under-surface filters. These systems have a long filter life (about half a year or 10,000 liters) and can filter the widest range of contaminants. However, there is no way to direct the water past the filter, which means that all water consumption activates the filter.

Regardless of which filter you use, your family will immediately notice that the clarity, odor and taste of your tap water will improve.
This means that you no longer have to drink bottled water at home. And that brings us to the next point….

Water filter systems save money

It’s always cheaper to keep your family healthy than to pay for their medical care when they get sick. But water filtration systems not only reduce exposure to health risks, they also cost less than the alternative. Every German spends about €95 a year on bottled water. For a family of four, that’s almost 400 euros a year. A table water filter, on the other hand, costs between €100 and €200 one time and will provide your family with clean, uncontaminated water for years. Once in operation, high-quality, German-made replacement filters for the system cost as little as €40. If you do the math, you’ll find that for the price of 1 liter of bottled water, you get about 100 liters of water from your carbon filtration system.

It also saves you a trip to the supermarket to buy the water. Not to mention that your water consumption creates less plastic waste, which is better for the environment. So, if you want to have the cheapest water of the best quality right at home, water filters with activated carbon are the right solution. At Sanquell, we offer a wide range of activated carbon water filter systems and replacement filters manufactured in Germany to the highest standards.