Water Hygiene Services

Shower Head Descaling & Disinfecting

Routine shower maintenance is considered good practice to ensure that shower heads and hoses are free from scale build up. Scale can become a form of nutrition to legionella and other waterborne bacteria.

Quarterly shower head and hose descaling is a suitable way of controlling this build up and ensuring that showering is safer.

Annual Water Heater Inspection

Water Heaters / Calorifiers / Hot Water Storage Vessels. Whatever you call them, they all pretty much relate to a vessel that contains large amounts of stored hot water which will be distributed throughout the property to the various hot water outlets. It is an essential part of maintenance to carry out thorough inspections of these systems. 

Flushing / purging of the drain valve and internal inspections (if practical) should be carried out at least annually to check the condition of the water within the vessel and in particular at the base.

The temperature should also be noted to ensure that stratification is not present. The element / heat source should be descaled if scale build up is present.

Cold Water Storage Tank Inspections

Regular inspection of cold water storage tanks is an effective way of managing potential contamination of water systems from stored water sources. This is particularly important if the cold water tank is supplying drinking water outlets. Drinking water storage tanks should be kept clean at all times as mentioned in BSEN 806-5.

Cold Water Storage Tanks that don’t supply water for drinking can still pose a risk to the other systems they supply if they are not managed and inspected adequately and installed and maintained to be fit for purpose.

Thermostatic Mixing Valve Maintenance

TMV maintenance is an essential part of water safety in the workplace. TMVs (Thermostatic Mixing Valves or Taps) are used in many applications such as handwashing, bathing, showering and for any other hot water supplies in which a risk of scalding has been identified. If TMVs are not serviced and maintained to the manufacturers specification, then this can result in poor operation and could result in the users of the water outlet being scalded.

TMVs can also become an area for potential Legionella Proliferation. Through experience, it has been noted that a TMV fed outlet is far more likely to result in a positive Legionella sample than a directly supplied hot water outlet. This is due to the lower temperature they operate at.

The mixed supply pipe from the valve to the outlet should be kept to an absolute minimum and point of use mixing would be the preferred method. Therefore, TMVs should only be installed where it is an absolute necessity. Regular use and flushing of mixed outlets and regular servicing and maintenance should help prevent colonisation of mixed outlets and the supply pipes.

Expansion Vessel Maintenance

The presence of expansion vessels is becoming more and more common on domestic water systems in the workplace. This is due to Cold Water Storage Tanks being removed where practical and direct mains water supplies being preferred.

Expansion vessels will usually cause a dead leg to the water system so it is essential that they are flushed thoroughly at regular intervals in accordance with the guidance in HSG274.