Munich water. Calk? Kalk? Calcium?

That shiny stuff that floats on the surface of your tea, the reason why the pits of your shirts never get quite white, the grit on your wine glasses after using the dishwasher, the white stuff that clogs your clothes iron, the white stuff that remains after you boil water, the reason why you have to use 50% more detergent when doing laundry... argh ... can anyone find an advantage to this calk-y water? The germans at the office swear its the best water to drink in the world ... is it?

I agree isaak, it's nasty stuff, especially in your tea. I have a Brita water filter and that clears up the problem nearly 100% for your drinking water. Also good to use in your iron, but not much use for the washing machine or dishwasher I'm afraid.

If the calc really annoys you, you can get a filter that attaches to the inlet pipes of your washing machine or dishwasher. Like this one for example.

I agree, it is incredibly annoying when it bungs up your shower, your kettle and goodness only knows what. We have a entkalker which you wraps around your mains supply and allegedly gets rid of the kalk. Don't ask me how. Seems to at least help though.
But the Germans at work when they say it's the best water to drink. Lots of minerals which are really good for you. God this post sounds really professional. Yeah, so basically, you can use anti kalk tabs in your washing machine, salt in your dishwasher etc - but if you're drinking tap water, you should leave the kalk in.

The amount of calcium in the water depends also on the region where you are living. There are regions with a lot of calcium in the water, and there are regions where a less in it.
Your colleagues mean perhabs that the surveillance of german drinking water is the best and the limits for harmfull substances like lead or bacteria are very very low. So you can drink the water without to boil it - unlike to many other regions of world.

Ben

The water that comes out of the taps in Munich is sourced from the river Mangfall. This water flows fresh from the Alps. Yeah, it contains lots of carbonates, but otherwise it's pretty good stuff. Not as good Highland spring water, granted, but much better that you get anywhere in Englandshire. And if you let the tap run for 60 seconds so that it gets really cold, well, kalk or no kalk it tastes pretty damn good (hey Kathie? )

So tap water here is meant to be of a high quality?

In that case, why on earth do so many Germans go through the hassle of buying shedloads of bottled water? With deposits on the bottles meaning you have to drag them back too?

Also no flouride, I hear, which would help with some of those teeth problems.

What I can't stand is every german who thinks you need a lesson jumps on the chance to tell you how great the water is and that it comes from the Alps and is the best water in the world. Why, just yesterday I was hesitating on using the water hose in the sauna and got a 'lesson' in English from someone who thought this obvious foriegner should know about it all. I still didn't drink it. It's a hose on the floor of the steam room for crying out loud.

When I traveled through the Alps during x-mas, half of the water sinks in places said in English "Water not potable. Do not drink." Not to say that the Mangfall river isn't great. It just makes me scrub out my shower head after every third use with a wire brush 'cause of the buildup.

The water in Hamburg isn't calky. Noticeable difference in the shower when we went over Christmas.

edit: but some of this might explain why the stain in our bathtub (here in Munich) from a leaky faucet is BLUE.

Cos the Germans like to have to pay for such things. It's fashionable, no? Sorta keeping up with the Schmidts type mindset perhaps.

...because they have more money than sense.

I wonder whether in San Pellegrino the locals drink bottled "Bayerische Mangfall".

Or... because you can't get carbonated water from the tap?

As a water engineer, thought I would add my 2 cents... water is termed "hard" or "soft" depending on the kalk content, with Munich's water being "hard". It doesn't have any affect on the quality of the water - healthwise, and Munich's water is of a very good quality due to the Alps source. It gets treated before hitting your sinks, so it isn't direct from the source or anything. The kalk isn't removed at treatment because that would be damn expensive and is not harmful - so why bother? 'Course, it is a pain for cleaning, but I've lived in places with soft water, and it leaves your hair feeling a little slimy after washing - weird. Guess the grass is always greener.

As for buying drinking water, an editorial in Scientific American titled "Bottled Twaddle" ( http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa...88EF21&colID=13 ) a few months back reported that most bottled water is worse than tap water (in America). I bet that holds true for industrialized Europe too. I told this to my flatmates once since they spent 5 euros or more on drinking water, but they didn't listen. The taps okay with me though. I think it's sorta like buying my own product.

One last note, Brita filters are excellent for removing everything.

could be that the calcium has eaten away the thin porcelain lining. my leaky throne has no stains and it is an american bowl. btw, the water seemed to have a stronger chalky smell in September. It was overwhelming when ever I walked into the house. Now I don't notice it.

too bad it doesn't contain calcium bicarbonate. I can hear the commercial now...
Got an upset stomach from too much bratwurst? Drink some water!

Vinegar (essig essenz) is an amazing scrub-free calcium remover

Actually, you can sort of get carbonated water from the tap. We have this thing called "Soda Club" in which you take the tap water (could filter it through Brita first) and put it in a resuable plastic bottle, then place it in a contraption which adds the carbonation from a replaceable gas cartridge. Works pretty well in fact -- and no lugging bottles to and from the store. There are are competitive products as well.

That's a pet hate of mine, when you go anywhere in Germany and ask for water, you have to remember, as standard here in Germany, it fizzy, and in every other country, well that I have been to so far, they give you still.

Water does not come from the tap as fizzy, so why should the automatic to the response some water, be fizzy water !

Having just returned from Spain, it's the same there in that if you order water you'll automatically get the carbonated stuff. I just always specify which I want when I'm ordering it and then there's never an issue.

On the 'Soda Club' thing, I saw some of these yesterday going cheap in the downstairs section of Hertie by Hauptbahnhof. The machine itself and the various bottles of syrupy stuff that you can use with it. Brings back memories of the good old "Soda Stream" of the 80's I think it was.

Leitungs wasser bitte Herr Ober. Danke.

Yeah, you gotta ask for tap water. I always ask for stilles Wasser and it comes in an itty bitty bottle and still has a low level of fizz to it. Not to mention pulling another 2,50 euro from my wallet.

I like to leave my tap water stand for a few hours.

I'm not sure if its because the chlorine evaporates off, or if homeopathy really has something and water "remembers", but I swear it tastes better after standing.

Before I got a Brita filter, the water standing in my kettle used to make the bottom of the kettle look absolutely horrible !

When the water stands, the kalk just moves to the bottom. Its still there.