Effective lime protection in the Rintheimer Feld neighborhood in Karlsruhe
When you drive through the Rintheimer Feld district in Karlsruhe, you can see it immediately: A lot has been done and improved - not least in the many apartment blocks in the district. But it's not just the facades that look nice and new. The interior of the buildings has also been modernized. In addition to the thorough renovation of the apartment blocks, which date from 1954 and 1974, the building installations have also been renewed, including the local water supply. Here, BIOCAT limescale protection systems now ensure lime-free pipes and hygienic, tasty drinking water.
Karlsruhe is an important address for the company WATERCryst. Not only are BIOCAT systems installed in many residential buildings, but the city is also home to the technology center of the DVGW, the German Technical and Scientific Association for Gas and Water. In this center of excellence for water supply, all BIOCAT limescale protection systems are tested with the drinking water available in the area before receiving the DVGW type test certificate.
The city with the most BIOCAT systems
The water in the Karlsruhe neighborhood of Rintheimer Feld has a relatively high lime content (approx. 18°dH), so it's not an easy task for the local descaling plants. But the more than 135 BIOCAT systems (72 of which are in the municipal housing association "Volkswohnung") ensure lime-free water pipes and hygienically perfect drinking water, just like in the DVGW laboratory next door. With 30 plants on two hectares, Rintheimer Feld has the highest density of large BIOCAT plants in Germany. Here, the DVGW-certified lime protection systems demonstrate their effectiveness both during certification in the test center and in daily operations in the real world.
The systems paid for themselves in seven years
The catalyst granulate in the systems only needs to be replaced every five years. This means relatively low annual running costs of around 300 euros per plant. In comparison, cleaning the plate heat exchangers of a single system costs around 1,500 euros per year. The BIOCAT system has thus already paid for itself after seven years.
Why BIOCAT systems were chosen
"Five years ago, we planned the renovation of our properties in Rintheimer Feld and looked at various solutions to protect against limescale in the drinking water pipes", says Markus Elsässer, manager of the property company "Volkswohnung". He continues, "At first, we considered the usual water descaling systems that use salt. But then the catalyzing principle used by WATERCryst came into play." According to Elsässer, two aspects tipped the scales in favor of the WATERCryst systems: "We wanted to change the constituents of the drinking water as little as possible - and avoid maintenance as much as possible. This ruled out the classic softening using salt flushing".
"The property company's experience with conventional systems was characterized by high maintenance costs and sometimes salt was forgotten to be replenished. With a BIOCAT system, the granulate only needs to be changed every five years. In addition, WATERCryst guarantees that the BIOCAT system will work for 30 years with regular maintenance and that it will prevent 98% of limescale deposits," says Elsässer, explaining that this guarantee was the basis for the decision and a decisive factor in choosing a single test system from WATERCryst.
"Among other things, we installed a new heat exchanger and put some shims in the water pipes to have a reference for the installations and equipment. The test ran for nine months, after which the employees of the property company took the heat exchanger out and cut it up," says Elsässer. There were no limescale deposits and this test result convinced the employees.
Many new systems with different capacities
Since then, more than 30 BIOCAT limescale protection systems with different capacities have been installed in the Rintheimer Feld neighborhood. The reason for the different sizes is that the capacity of the limescale protection system must match the respective water flow and extraction profile. To achieve the desired limescale protection effect and to avoid unnecessary costs for the customer in the case of oversized systems, the right design is necessary. That's why the experts at WATERCryst take a close look at each project.
Another important aspect of installing a BIOCAT limescale protection system, according to Piesche, is that the landlord does not have to inform the tenants, as the drinking water itself does not change. In addition, the BIOCAT systems can look after themselves. The control and monitoring electronics integrated in the systems ensure automatic and correct operation. Microbiological damage to the units is prevented by regular and automatic thermal disinfection. During this process, the individual BIOCAT system is disconnected from the drinking water supply line via a valve unit - a bypass in the valve also ensures the drinking water supply during this process.