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Plant water, under control.

Name: Definitive Water Technologies Johannesburg
Address: Unit 067, Inospace Allandale Exchange, 917 Morkels Close, Halfway House, Midrand, Gauteng, 1685, ZA
Telephone: +27 75 084 5743

CTCape Town+27 21 851 0133 JHBJohannesburg+27 75 084 5743 WhatsApp JHBJohannesburg

Start here: what does your plant make?

Scale in the boiler, a chlorine taste in the product, an auditor asking for water results. Choose your plant; the three steps below change to match it.

Food processing plants

In one line: prove the water is potable at every point of use, take the chlorine out before it meets product or membranes, and keep the records the auditor asks for.

Under R638 every drop of water in a food premises is potable water to SANS 241: the ingredient water, the rinse, the hand-wash, the ice. The audit expects proof, and the municipal supply is not proof. Most food plants need the same four things: a barrier against whatever the mains delivers, chlorine and chloramine out before the product, hardness out before the boiler and the CIP (clean-in-place) system that washes the lines, and a record that shows it.

What is usually wrong

Match what you see on the floor to what is happening in the water.

What you seeWhat is happeningThe fix

The auditor wants water results and a treatment plan: R638 of 2018 (food premises) defines water as SANS 241 potable water, and HACCP and FSSC prerequisite programmes list water. You need results at the point of use and a barrier for each of turbidity, chlorine and microbiology.; Point-of-entry barrier train
Brown or cloudy water after an outage or water shedding: Pressure loss stirs sediment in the mains. Turbidity above 1 NTU shields germs from disinfection, and the 2023 Blue Drop report found 46% of supply systems with poor or bad microbiological compliance.; Sediment and media filtration
Scale in the boiler, the heat exchangers and the CIP heating: Hardness. Boiler feed water must be under 0.3 mg/L hardness at any pressure, so a softener is the entry ticket; scale on the hottest surfaces wastes fuel long before it threatens tubes.; Water softener
A chlorine or medicinal taste in the product; sanitiser demand keeps rising: Chlorine or chloramine in the supply. Rand Water chloraminates at its boosters, and chloramine needs several times the carbon contact of free chlorine.; Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine
The final rinse fails its plate count: Rinse water must be potable with a total count at or below 100 cfu/mL and coliforms absent; it is the last thing to touch the product surface.; UV disinfection
Condensate lines corrode; blowdown and fuel bills climb: Alkalinity breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and returns as carbonic acid in the condensate; make-up TDS sets how much hot water goes down the drain to hold boiler water under about 2 000 to 3 500 ppm.; Reverse osmosis and remineralisation

What to test, and what the numbers mean

One laboratory analysis and the regulation you audit against answer most questions. These are the lines to read first for this plant, with the numbers in plain words.

Read these first for this plant
The line on the certificate	What it tells you	Product and ingredient water	Boilers, steam and hot water	Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
E. coli and coliforms	Faecal contamination or a biofilm; the pass or fail line of every food audit.	None in 100 mL (SANS 241, which R638 makes the law inside a food premises; SANS 10049 applies it to ingredient water, ice and steam regardless of the source). The post-mix specification asks for zero coliforms as well.	Not a boiler number, but culinary steam that touches food starts from potable water.	Final-rinse water potable, total count at or below 100 cfu/mL, coliforms absent (dairy engineering guidance). Cooling towers run their own Legionella programme.
Turbidity (the cloudiness)	Sediment that shields germs from chlorine and UV and fouls everything downstream.	At or below 1 NTU (SANS 241 operational). The post-mix (fountain soft-drink) specification asks for 0.5.	Solids foul the softener and the boiler; filter the make-up.	In a recirculating pack-house loop, clarity is what the chlorine can reach. Filter the loop.
Free and total chlorine, chloramine	The municipal disinfectant. Good in the pipe, bad in the product, and it attacks membranes and resins.	SANS 241 allows up to 5 mg/L. Post-mix asks for total chlorine at or below 0.5; brewing wants effectively zero (chlorophenols are tasted at parts per billion); coffee and ice want none.	Take it out with carbon before any RO membrane or resin bed.	Pack-house process water: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV, checked by DPD kit and logged each shift (CRI). Storage tanks should keep a small residual.
Hardness (the scale)	Calcium and magnesium, as mg/L CaCO₃. It comes out of solution wherever water is heated or evaporates.	SANS 241 sets no limit. Post-mix at or below 100 mg/L; coffee around 68 (roughly 50 to 175); combi steamers roughly 70 to 360 per the manufacturer, but chloride governs.	Feed water under 0.3 mg/L at any pressure, on the ASME consensus figures for water-tube and shell boilers. Your boiler maker's own specification governs, so read it first. A softener is always the first step.	Scales CIP heating and spray balls. In a cooling tower, calcium hardness of about 350 to 400 mg/L in the tower water caps how far the water may be concentrated before it is bled off.
Alkalinity	Bicarbonate, mostly. It buffers pH in the product and turns into acid in the boiler.	Post-mix at or below 150 mg/L. Brewing: the style sets it, pale beers want low residual alkalinity. Coffee around 40.	Breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and grooves the condensate lines as carbonic acid. With condensate return below about 40%, or heavy raw water, remove the alkalinity (a dealkaliser) or use RO make-up.	Buffers the dump tank, so more acid is needed to hold pH 6.5 to 7.5.
TDS or EC (the dissolved salts)	Everything dissolved. It stays behind when water boils or evaporates, so it drives blowdown and cycles.	Under 1 200 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix at or below 500; coffee around 150.	Boiler water is held at roughly 2 000 to 3 500 ppm (BS 2486 guidance), so the make-up TDS sets the blowdown and the fuel it wastes. RO make-up cuts both.	Cooling tower cycles of concentration are the tower limit divided by the make-up value; lower make-up TDS means more cycles and less water.

Read these first for this plant

E. coli and coliforms
Faecal contamination or a biofilm; the pass or fail line of every food audit.
Product and ingredient water
None in 100 mL (SANS 241, which R638 makes the law inside a food premises; SANS 10049 applies it to ingredient water, ice and steam regardless of the source). The post-mix specification asks for zero coliforms as well.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Not a boiler number, but culinary steam that touches food starts from potable water.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Final-rinse water potable, total count at or below 100 cfu/mL, coliforms absent (dairy engineering guidance). Cooling towers run their own Legionella programme.
Turbidity (the cloudiness)
Sediment that shields germs from chlorine and UV and fouls everything downstream.
Product and ingredient water
At or below 1 NTU (SANS 241 operational). The post-mix (fountain soft-drink) specification asks for 0.5.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Solids foul the softener and the boiler; filter the make-up.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
In a recirculating pack-house loop, clarity is what the chlorine can reach. Filter the loop.
Free and total chlorine, chloramine
The municipal disinfectant. Good in the pipe, bad in the product, and it attacks membranes and resins.
Product and ingredient water
SANS 241 allows up to 5 mg/L. Post-mix asks for total chlorine at or below 0.5; brewing wants effectively zero (chlorophenols are tasted at parts per billion); coffee and ice want none.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Take it out with carbon before any RO membrane or resin bed.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Pack-house process water: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV, checked by DPD kit and logged each shift (CRI). Storage tanks should keep a small residual.
Hardness (the scale)
Calcium and magnesium, as mg/L CaCO₃. It comes out of solution wherever water is heated or evaporates.
Product and ingredient water
SANS 241 sets no limit. Post-mix at or below 100 mg/L; coffee around 68 (roughly 50 to 175); combi steamers roughly 70 to 360 per the manufacturer, but chloride governs.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Feed water under 0.3 mg/L at any pressure, on the ASME consensus figures for water-tube and shell boilers. Your boiler maker's own specification governs, so read it first. A softener is always the first step.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Scales CIP heating and spray balls. In a cooling tower, calcium hardness of about 350 to 400 mg/L in the tower water caps how far the water may be concentrated before it is bled off.
Alkalinity
Bicarbonate, mostly. It buffers pH in the product and turns into acid in the boiler.
Product and ingredient water
Post-mix at or below 150 mg/L. Brewing: the style sets it, pale beers want low residual alkalinity. Coffee around 40.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and grooves the condensate lines as carbonic acid. With condensate return below about 40%, or heavy raw water, remove the alkalinity (a dealkaliser) or use RO make-up.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Buffers the dump tank, so more acid is needed to hold pH 6.5 to 7.5.
TDS or EC (the dissolved salts)
Everything dissolved. It stays behind when water boils or evaporates, so it drives blowdown and cycles.
Product and ingredient water
Under 1 200 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix at or below 500; coffee around 150.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Boiler water is held at roughly 2 000 to 3 500 ppm (BS 2486 guidance), so the make-up TDS sets the blowdown and the fuel it wastes. RO make-up cuts both.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Cooling tower cycles of concentration are the tower limit divided by the make-up value; lower make-up TDS means more cycles and less water.

Show every line on the certificate

The rest of the certificate
The line on the certificate	What it tells you	Product and ingredient water	Boilers, steam and hot water	Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Chloride	Half of table salt. Softeners do not remove it, and it is what pits stainless steel.	Under 250 mg/L (SANS 241 and the post-mix specification). Combi steamers: 60 to 80 mg/L at most, depending on the manufacturer.	Concentrates with every cycle in the boiler; a driver of blowdown.	With chlorine at low pH it pits flumes and hydrocoolers. In a cooling tower, about 300 mg/L in the tower water is the usual cap.
Silica	Dissolved sand. Harmless to drink, hard glassy scale in boilers and towers.	No potable limit.	The limit tightens as boiler pressure rises and silica carries over into the steam; RO make-up is the normal answer where it matters.	About 150 mg/L in the cooling tower water is the usual cap on cycles.
pH	Below 7 the water is acidic and corrodes; above 8 it drops scale. In a dump tank it decides whether the chlorine works.	5 to 9.7 (SANS 241); post-mix 6.5 to 8.5; brewing lands the mash at 5.2 to 5.6 through alkalinity and calcium, not by dosing the water.	Boiler water is kept alkaline by the treatment programme; condensate needs its own protection.	Pack-house process water at 6.5 to 7.5 so the chlorine is effective and the stainless survives.
Iron and manganese	Borehole water's signature. Stains, taste, and it eats sanitiser before the sanitiser reaches a microbe.	Iron at or below 0.3 and manganese at or below 0.1 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix and brewing want iron near 0.1.	Fouls resin and membranes; remove it first.	Roughly 0.6 mg/L of chlorine is lost per mg/L of iron; it also stains produce and equipment.

The rest of the certificate

Chloride
Half of table salt. Softeners do not remove it, and it is what pits stainless steel.
Product and ingredient water
Under 250 mg/L (SANS 241 and the post-mix specification). Combi steamers: 60 to 80 mg/L at most, depending on the manufacturer.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Concentrates with every cycle in the boiler; a driver of blowdown.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
With chlorine at low pH it pits flumes and hydrocoolers. In a cooling tower, about 300 mg/L in the tower water is the usual cap.
Silica
Dissolved sand. Harmless to drink, hard glassy scale in boilers and towers.
Product and ingredient water
No potable limit.
Boilers, steam and hot water
The limit tightens as boiler pressure rises and silica carries over into the steam; RO make-up is the normal answer where it matters.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
About 150 mg/L in the cooling tower water is the usual cap on cycles.
pH
Below 7 the water is acidic and corrodes; above 8 it drops scale. In a dump tank it decides whether the chlorine works.
Product and ingredient water
5 to 9.7 (SANS 241); post-mix 6.5 to 8.5; brewing lands the mash at 5.2 to 5.6 through alkalinity and calcium, not by dosing the water.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Boiler water is kept alkaline by the treatment programme; condensate needs its own protection.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Pack-house process water at 6.5 to 7.5 so the chlorine is effective and the stainless survives.
Iron and manganese
Borehole water's signature. Stains, taste, and it eats sanitiser before the sanitiser reaches a microbe.
Product and ingredient water
Iron at or below 0.3 and manganese at or below 0.1 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix and brewing want iron near 0.1.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Fouls resin and membranes; remove it first.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Roughly 0.6 mg/L of chlorine is lost per mg/L of iron; it also stains produce and equipment.

Sources: R638 of 2018 (general hygiene requirements for food premises), which defines water as SANS 241 potable water; SANS 10049:2019 (ingredient water, ice and steam); the Red Meat Regulations R1072; SANS 241:2025; the published post-mix beverage water specification; Specialty Coffee Association water targets; combi-steamer manufacturer installation limits; EN 12953-10 and BS 2486 shell-boiler guidance and the ASME feed-water hardness limit; GLOBALG.A.P., Citrus Research International's chlorine management guidance and the Hortgro post-harvest guidance; the Cape Town and Johannesburg water and effluent by-laws. Rules of thumb are marked.

No results in your file yet? Here is how to get them.

1Ask a SANAS-accredited laboratory for a SANS 241 analysis of the water at the point of use, a tap inside the plant, plus hardness, alkalinity, chloride, silica and free and total chlorine where boilers, steam ovens or product water are involved. On Rand Water supply, ask for monochloramine as well.
2Sample after the storage tank with the laboratory's sterile bottles: run the tap for a minute, do not touch the rim or the cap, fill to the top, keep cool, deliver within a day.
3Test the raw supply and the treated water separately, so the file shows the barrier working, and keep the results with the HACCP or scheme records: yearly at least, after any outage, and as often as your scheme asks.
4For a boiler, test the feed water and the boiler water (hardness, alkalinity, TDS) and log the blowdown. For a pack-house, log free chlorine and pH in the recirculating water every shift.

What fixes it

In the order the water goes through them. Every fix links to a plain-language guide and, where it helps, a calculator.

Point-of-entry barrier train
Any plant on a municipal supply that must prove SANS 241 at the point of use; every plant with a storage tank.
Break tank, media filter, activated carbon, then UV. The plant becomes its own water supplier: it stops mattering what arrives after an outage, and the file shows a barrier for turbidity, chlorine and microbiology.
When the tap cannot be trusted Food and beverage process water Listen to the episode Calculator
Sediment and media filtration
Brown water after outages, sand from a borehole, protection ahead of carbon, softener, RO and UV; filtering a recirculating loop.
Backwashing sand or glass for volume, cartridges for polishing, sized on flow rather than tank size; 5 micron ahead of every UV.
How a media filter actually works Spun-bonded, string-wound and pleated cartridges compared Listen to the episode Calculator
Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine
Taste and odour; chlorine ahead of a membrane or a resin; chloramine on Rand Water supply; brewing, coffee and ice.
A GAC contactor for volume or a carbon block at the machine. Chlorine goes fast; chloramine does not, and needs catalytic carbon at about three minutes of contact.
Activated carbon GAC versus carbon block for chlorine, taste and odour Listen to the episode
Water softener
Boiler feed, always; CIP heating, dishwashers, steam ovens and plate heat exchangers.
Ion exchange swaps the hardness for sodium, sized on hardness and daily use with metered regeneration. It removes hardness only: not alkalinity, not TDS, not chloride.
How a water softener works Softener sizing basics Listen to the episode Calculator
Reverse osmosis and remineralisation
Product water to a specification, brewing liquor, high-chloride water for a combi steamer, and boiler make-up where condensate return is poor or the raw water is heavy.
Strips the water to a consistent low-mineral baseline; blend or rebuild with calcium salts to the recipe. Pretreat with sediment, carbon and antiscalant or the membranes pay for it.
How reverse osmosis works Why RO pretreatment is non-negotiable Listen to the episode Calculator
UV disinfection
The final rinse, ingredient water, the filler, ice, and any line fed from a tank.
A validated 40 mJ/cm² dose on clear, 5 micron filtered water. It adds nothing and leaves no residual, so it sits last and close to the point of use, with the ports up so no air pocket forms.
UV dose explained What UV does Listen to the episode

Beverage, brewing and bottling plants

In one line: reverse osmosis for water that is the same every batch, carbon ahead of it for the chlorine, and a specification you can show.

In a beverage plant the water largely is the product, so the question shifts from whether it is safe to whether it is the same every batch. Brewers fight alkalinity and trace chlorine; bottlers work to a published specification; anyone selling bottled water works under R718. The usual answer is reverse osmosis to a consistent baseline, then rebuild what the recipe wants.

What is usually wrong

Match what you see on the floor to what is happening in the water.

What you seeWhat is happeningThe fix

A medicinal, plaster-like taint in the beer: Chlorophenols: chlorine or chloramine reacting with malt phenolics, tasted at parts per billion and removed by nothing downstream. Chlorine must be zero at the brewhouse.; Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine
Mash pH lands high; pale beers taste harsh: Alkalinity too high for the style. Residual alkalinity is the tug-of-war between alkalinity and calcium; the mash wants pH 5.2 to 5.6.; Reverse osmosis and remineralisation
Post-mix or bottled product tastes different week to week: The municipal water varies. The published post-mix specification asks for turbidity at or below 0.5 NTU, total chlorine at or below 0.5 mg/L, alkalinity at or below 150, hardness at or below 100, TDS at or below 500 and no coliforms.; Reverse osmosis and remineralisation
The filler and the rinser scale up: Hardness and silica dropping out where the water is heated or evaporates.; Water softener
Coliforms in the filler sample: Biofilm in the lines or a tank that lost its residual. UV close to the filler and a sanitation programme, not one or the other.; UV disinfection
You want to sell bottled water: R718 of 2006 splits the market into natural waters, waters defined by origin and prepared waters; prepared water is the category treated municipal or borehole water falls into, with its own labelling rules.; Reverse osmosis and remineralisation

What to test, and what the numbers mean

One laboratory analysis and the regulation you audit against answer most questions. These are the lines to read first for this plant, with the numbers in plain words.

Read these first for this plant
The line on the certificate	What it tells you	Product and ingredient water	Boilers, steam and hot water	Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Free and total chlorine, chloramine	The municipal disinfectant. Good in the pipe, bad in the product, and it attacks membranes and resins.	SANS 241 allows up to 5 mg/L. Post-mix asks for total chlorine at or below 0.5; brewing wants effectively zero (chlorophenols are tasted at parts per billion); coffee and ice want none.	Take it out with carbon before any RO membrane or resin bed.	Pack-house process water: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV, checked by DPD kit and logged each shift (CRI). Storage tanks should keep a small residual.
Alkalinity	Bicarbonate, mostly. It buffers pH in the product and turns into acid in the boiler.	Post-mix at or below 150 mg/L. Brewing: the style sets it, pale beers want low residual alkalinity. Coffee around 40.	Breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and grooves the condensate lines as carbonic acid. With condensate return below about 40%, or heavy raw water, remove the alkalinity (a dealkaliser) or use RO make-up.	Buffers the dump tank, so more acid is needed to hold pH 6.5 to 7.5.
Hardness (the scale)	Calcium and magnesium, as mg/L CaCO₃. It comes out of solution wherever water is heated or evaporates.	SANS 241 sets no limit. Post-mix at or below 100 mg/L; coffee around 68 (roughly 50 to 175); combi steamers roughly 70 to 360 per the manufacturer, but chloride governs.	Feed water under 0.3 mg/L at any pressure, on the ASME consensus figures for water-tube and shell boilers. Your boiler maker's own specification governs, so read it first. A softener is always the first step.	Scales CIP heating and spray balls. In a cooling tower, calcium hardness of about 350 to 400 mg/L in the tower water caps how far the water may be concentrated before it is bled off.
TDS or EC (the dissolved salts)	Everything dissolved. It stays behind when water boils or evaporates, so it drives blowdown and cycles.	Under 1 200 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix at or below 500; coffee around 150.	Boiler water is held at roughly 2 000 to 3 500 ppm (BS 2486 guidance), so the make-up TDS sets the blowdown and the fuel it wastes. RO make-up cuts both.	Cooling tower cycles of concentration are the tower limit divided by the make-up value; lower make-up TDS means more cycles and less water.
Turbidity (the cloudiness)	Sediment that shields germs from chlorine and UV and fouls everything downstream.	At or below 1 NTU (SANS 241 operational). The post-mix (fountain soft-drink) specification asks for 0.5.	Solids foul the softener and the boiler; filter the make-up.	In a recirculating pack-house loop, clarity is what the chlorine can reach. Filter the loop.
E. coli and coliforms	Faecal contamination or a biofilm; the pass or fail line of every food audit.	None in 100 mL (SANS 241, which R638 makes the law inside a food premises; SANS 10049 applies it to ingredient water, ice and steam regardless of the source). The post-mix specification asks for zero coliforms as well.	Not a boiler number, but culinary steam that touches food starts from potable water.	Final-rinse water potable, total count at or below 100 cfu/mL, coliforms absent (dairy engineering guidance). Cooling towers run their own Legionella programme.

Read these first for this plant

Free and total chlorine, chloramine
The municipal disinfectant. Good in the pipe, bad in the product, and it attacks membranes and resins.
Product and ingredient water
SANS 241 allows up to 5 mg/L. Post-mix asks for total chlorine at or below 0.5; brewing wants effectively zero (chlorophenols are tasted at parts per billion); coffee and ice want none.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Take it out with carbon before any RO membrane or resin bed.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Pack-house process water: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV, checked by DPD kit and logged each shift (CRI). Storage tanks should keep a small residual.
Alkalinity
Bicarbonate, mostly. It buffers pH in the product and turns into acid in the boiler.
Product and ingredient water
Post-mix at or below 150 mg/L. Brewing: the style sets it, pale beers want low residual alkalinity. Coffee around 40.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and grooves the condensate lines as carbonic acid. With condensate return below about 40%, or heavy raw water, remove the alkalinity (a dealkaliser) or use RO make-up.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Buffers the dump tank, so more acid is needed to hold pH 6.5 to 7.5.
Hardness (the scale)
Calcium and magnesium, as mg/L CaCO₃. It comes out of solution wherever water is heated or evaporates.
Product and ingredient water
SANS 241 sets no limit. Post-mix at or below 100 mg/L; coffee around 68 (roughly 50 to 175); combi steamers roughly 70 to 360 per the manufacturer, but chloride governs.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Feed water under 0.3 mg/L at any pressure, on the ASME consensus figures for water-tube and shell boilers. Your boiler maker's own specification governs, so read it first. A softener is always the first step.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Scales CIP heating and spray balls. In a cooling tower, calcium hardness of about 350 to 400 mg/L in the tower water caps how far the water may be concentrated before it is bled off.
TDS or EC (the dissolved salts)
Everything dissolved. It stays behind when water boils or evaporates, so it drives blowdown and cycles.
Product and ingredient water
Under 1 200 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix at or below 500; coffee around 150.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Boiler water is held at roughly 2 000 to 3 500 ppm (BS 2486 guidance), so the make-up TDS sets the blowdown and the fuel it wastes. RO make-up cuts both.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Cooling tower cycles of concentration are the tower limit divided by the make-up value; lower make-up TDS means more cycles and less water.
Turbidity (the cloudiness)
Sediment that shields germs from chlorine and UV and fouls everything downstream.
Product and ingredient water
At or below 1 NTU (SANS 241 operational). The post-mix (fountain soft-drink) specification asks for 0.5.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Solids foul the softener and the boiler; filter the make-up.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
In a recirculating pack-house loop, clarity is what the chlorine can reach. Filter the loop.
E. coli and coliforms
Faecal contamination or a biofilm; the pass or fail line of every food audit.
Product and ingredient water
None in 100 mL (SANS 241, which R638 makes the law inside a food premises; SANS 10049 applies it to ingredient water, ice and steam regardless of the source). The post-mix specification asks for zero coliforms as well.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Not a boiler number, but culinary steam that touches food starts from potable water.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Final-rinse water potable, total count at or below 100 cfu/mL, coliforms absent (dairy engineering guidance). Cooling towers run their own Legionella programme.

Show every line on the certificate

The rest of the certificate
The line on the certificate	What it tells you	Product and ingredient water	Boilers, steam and hot water	Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Chloride	Half of table salt. Softeners do not remove it, and it is what pits stainless steel.	Under 250 mg/L (SANS 241 and the post-mix specification). Combi steamers: 60 to 80 mg/L at most, depending on the manufacturer.	Concentrates with every cycle in the boiler; a driver of blowdown.	With chlorine at low pH it pits flumes and hydrocoolers. In a cooling tower, about 300 mg/L in the tower water is the usual cap.
Silica	Dissolved sand. Harmless to drink, hard glassy scale in boilers and towers.	No potable limit.	The limit tightens as boiler pressure rises and silica carries over into the steam; RO make-up is the normal answer where it matters.	About 150 mg/L in the cooling tower water is the usual cap on cycles.
pH	Below 7 the water is acidic and corrodes; above 8 it drops scale. In a dump tank it decides whether the chlorine works.	5 to 9.7 (SANS 241); post-mix 6.5 to 8.5; brewing lands the mash at 5.2 to 5.6 through alkalinity and calcium, not by dosing the water.	Boiler water is kept alkaline by the treatment programme; condensate needs its own protection.	Pack-house process water at 6.5 to 7.5 so the chlorine is effective and the stainless survives.
Iron and manganese	Borehole water's signature. Stains, taste, and it eats sanitiser before the sanitiser reaches a microbe.	Iron at or below 0.3 and manganese at or below 0.1 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix and brewing want iron near 0.1.	Fouls resin and membranes; remove it first.	Roughly 0.6 mg/L of chlorine is lost per mg/L of iron; it also stains produce and equipment.

The rest of the certificate

Chloride
Half of table salt. Softeners do not remove it, and it is what pits stainless steel.
Product and ingredient water
Under 250 mg/L (SANS 241 and the post-mix specification). Combi steamers: 60 to 80 mg/L at most, depending on the manufacturer.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Concentrates with every cycle in the boiler; a driver of blowdown.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
With chlorine at low pH it pits flumes and hydrocoolers. In a cooling tower, about 300 mg/L in the tower water is the usual cap.
Silica
Dissolved sand. Harmless to drink, hard glassy scale in boilers and towers.
Product and ingredient water
No potable limit.
Boilers, steam and hot water
The limit tightens as boiler pressure rises and silica carries over into the steam; RO make-up is the normal answer where it matters.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
About 150 mg/L in the cooling tower water is the usual cap on cycles.
pH
Below 7 the water is acidic and corrodes; above 8 it drops scale. In a dump tank it decides whether the chlorine works.
Product and ingredient water
5 to 9.7 (SANS 241); post-mix 6.5 to 8.5; brewing lands the mash at 5.2 to 5.6 through alkalinity and calcium, not by dosing the water.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Boiler water is kept alkaline by the treatment programme; condensate needs its own protection.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Pack-house process water at 6.5 to 7.5 so the chlorine is effective and the stainless survives.
Iron and manganese
Borehole water's signature. Stains, taste, and it eats sanitiser before the sanitiser reaches a microbe.
Product and ingredient water
Iron at or below 0.3 and manganese at or below 0.1 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix and brewing want iron near 0.1.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Fouls resin and membranes; remove it first.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Roughly 0.6 mg/L of chlorine is lost per mg/L of iron; it also stains produce and equipment.

No results in your file yet? Here is how to get them.

1Ask a SANAS-accredited laboratory for a SANS 241 analysis of the water at the point of use, a tap inside the plant, plus hardness, alkalinity, chloride, silica and free and total chlorine where boilers, steam ovens or product water are involved. On Rand Water supply, ask for monochloramine as well.
2Sample after the storage tank with the laboratory's sterile bottles: run the tap for a minute, do not touch the rim or the cap, fill to the top, keep cool, deliver within a day.
3Test the raw supply and the treated water separately, so the file shows the barrier working, and keep the results with the HACCP or scheme records: yearly at least, after any outage, and as often as your scheme asks.
4For a boiler, test the feed water and the boiler water (hardness, alkalinity, TDS) and log the blowdown. For a pack-house, log free chlorine and pH in the recirculating water every shift.

What fixes it

In the order the water goes through them. Every fix links to a plain-language guide and, where it helps, a calculator.

Sediment and media filtration
Brown water after outages, sand from a borehole, protection ahead of carbon, softener, RO and UV; filtering a recirculating loop.
Backwashing sand or glass for volume, cartridges for polishing, sized on flow rather than tank size; 5 micron ahead of every UV.
How a media filter actually works Spun-bonded, string-wound and pleated cartridges compared Listen to the episode Calculator
Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine
Taste and odour; chlorine ahead of a membrane or a resin; chloramine on Rand Water supply; brewing, coffee and ice.
A GAC contactor for volume or a carbon block at the machine. Chlorine goes fast; chloramine does not, and needs catalytic carbon at about three minutes of contact.
Activated carbon GAC versus carbon block for chlorine, taste and odour Listen to the episode
Water softener
Boiler feed, always; CIP heating, dishwashers, steam ovens and plate heat exchangers.
Ion exchange swaps the hardness for sodium, sized on hardness and daily use with metered regeneration. It removes hardness only: not alkalinity, not TDS, not chloride.
How a water softener works Softener sizing basics Listen to the episode Calculator
Reverse osmosis and remineralisation
Product water to a specification, brewing liquor, high-chloride water for a combi steamer, and boiler make-up where condensate return is poor or the raw water is heavy.
Strips the water to a consistent low-mineral baseline; blend or rebuild with calcium salts to the recipe. Pretreat with sediment, carbon and antiscalant or the membranes pay for it.
How reverse osmosis works Why RO pretreatment is non-negotiable Listen to the episode Calculator
UV disinfection
The final rinse, ingredient water, the filler, ice, and any line fed from a tank.
A validated 40 mJ/cm² dose on clear, 5 micron filtered water. It adds nothing and leaves no residual, so it sits last and close to the point of use, with the ports up so no air pocket forms.
UV dose explained What UV does Listen to the episode

Bakeries, kitchens and food service

In one line: treat the combi steamer, the espresso machine and the ice machine as three different problems: scale and chloride, scale and taste, taste and sediment.

A kitchen's water problems concentrate in three machines that fail for three different reasons: the combi steamer (scale and chloride corrosion), the espresso machine (scale and taste) and the ice machine (taste, odour and sediment). Treat them as one problem and you will solve none of them well. Bakeries add dough water and steam-injection ovens to the list, and R638 still applies to every tap.

What is usually wrong

Match what you see on the floor to what is happening in the water.

What you seeWhat is happeningThe fix

The combi steamer keeps scaling and its steam generator pits: Hardness scales it; chloride pits the stainless, and a softener does not remove chloride. The manufacturers publish the limits per model range (Convotherm's C4 range at chloride 60 mg/L or below, Rational at 80, free chlorine at or below 0.2, and a minimum conductivity because demineralised water corrodes too — check the figures against your own model and its current manual). Rational does not recommend a sodium-cycle softener: read the manual, then test for chloride.; Scale control for kitchen machines
Coffee tastes flat, or the espresso machine scales: The Specialty Coffee Association targets are not zero: hardness around 68 mg/L (roughly 50 to 175), alkalinity around 40, TDS around 150, and no chlorine. Demineralised water extracts badly.; Scale control for kitchen machines
Ice tastes of chlorine, looks cloudy, and the machine slimes: Ice is served unboiled. Manufacturer guidance centres on NSF/ANSI 42 certified filtration: 0.5 micron sediment capture and chlorine taste-and-odour reduction ahead of the machine, with scale control for the evaporator.; Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine
Spots on glasses, scaled dishwashers and steam ovens: Hardness dropping out as the water heats and dries.; Water softener
Brown water after an outage; the health inspector asks for results: R638 of 2018 (food premises) defines water as SANS 241 potable water, ice and hand-wash included. A storage tank with a barrier train makes the kitchen its own supplier.; Point-of-entry barrier train
Dough and proofing behave differently between sites: Hardness and chlorine differ from town to town; chlorine hurts yeast and carbon takes it out, and moderate, consistent hardness is what the dough wants.; Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine

What to test, and what the numbers mean

One laboratory analysis and the regulation you audit against answer most questions. These are the lines to read first for this plant, with the numbers in plain words.

Read these first for this plant
The line on the certificate	What it tells you	Product and ingredient water	Boilers, steam and hot water	Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Hardness (the scale)	Calcium and magnesium, as mg/L CaCO₃. It comes out of solution wherever water is heated or evaporates.	SANS 241 sets no limit. Post-mix at or below 100 mg/L; coffee around 68 (roughly 50 to 175); combi steamers roughly 70 to 360 per the manufacturer, but chloride governs.	Feed water under 0.3 mg/L at any pressure, on the ASME consensus figures for water-tube and shell boilers. Your boiler maker's own specification governs, so read it first. A softener is always the first step.	Scales CIP heating and spray balls. In a cooling tower, calcium hardness of about 350 to 400 mg/L in the tower water caps how far the water may be concentrated before it is bled off.
Chloride	Half of table salt. Softeners do not remove it, and it is what pits stainless steel.	Under 250 mg/L (SANS 241 and the post-mix specification). Combi steamers: 60 to 80 mg/L at most, depending on the manufacturer.	Concentrates with every cycle in the boiler; a driver of blowdown.	With chlorine at low pH it pits flumes and hydrocoolers. In a cooling tower, about 300 mg/L in the tower water is the usual cap.
Free and total chlorine, chloramine	The municipal disinfectant. Good in the pipe, bad in the product, and it attacks membranes and resins.	SANS 241 allows up to 5 mg/L. Post-mix asks for total chlorine at or below 0.5; brewing wants effectively zero (chlorophenols are tasted at parts per billion); coffee and ice want none.	Take it out with carbon before any RO membrane or resin bed.	Pack-house process water: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV, checked by DPD kit and logged each shift (CRI). Storage tanks should keep a small residual.
Alkalinity	Bicarbonate, mostly. It buffers pH in the product and turns into acid in the boiler.	Post-mix at or below 150 mg/L. Brewing: the style sets it, pale beers want low residual alkalinity. Coffee around 40.	Breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and grooves the condensate lines as carbonic acid. With condensate return below about 40%, or heavy raw water, remove the alkalinity (a dealkaliser) or use RO make-up.	Buffers the dump tank, so more acid is needed to hold pH 6.5 to 7.5.
TDS or EC (the dissolved salts)	Everything dissolved. It stays behind when water boils or evaporates, so it drives blowdown and cycles.	Under 1 200 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix at or below 500; coffee around 150.	Boiler water is held at roughly 2 000 to 3 500 ppm (BS 2486 guidance), so the make-up TDS sets the blowdown and the fuel it wastes. RO make-up cuts both.	Cooling tower cycles of concentration are the tower limit divided by the make-up value; lower make-up TDS means more cycles and less water.
E. coli and coliforms	Faecal contamination or a biofilm; the pass or fail line of every food audit.	None in 100 mL (SANS 241, which R638 makes the law inside a food premises; SANS 10049 applies it to ingredient water, ice and steam regardless of the source). The post-mix specification asks for zero coliforms as well.	Not a boiler number, but culinary steam that touches food starts from potable water.	Final-rinse water potable, total count at or below 100 cfu/mL, coliforms absent (dairy engineering guidance). Cooling towers run their own Legionella programme.

Read these first for this plant

Hardness (the scale)
Calcium and magnesium, as mg/L CaCO₃. It comes out of solution wherever water is heated or evaporates.
Product and ingredient water
SANS 241 sets no limit. Post-mix at or below 100 mg/L; coffee around 68 (roughly 50 to 175); combi steamers roughly 70 to 360 per the manufacturer, but chloride governs.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Feed water under 0.3 mg/L at any pressure, on the ASME consensus figures for water-tube and shell boilers. Your boiler maker's own specification governs, so read it first. A softener is always the first step.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Scales CIP heating and spray balls. In a cooling tower, calcium hardness of about 350 to 400 mg/L in the tower water caps how far the water may be concentrated before it is bled off.
Chloride
Half of table salt. Softeners do not remove it, and it is what pits stainless steel.
Product and ingredient water
Under 250 mg/L (SANS 241 and the post-mix specification). Combi steamers: 60 to 80 mg/L at most, depending on the manufacturer.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Concentrates with every cycle in the boiler; a driver of blowdown.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
With chlorine at low pH it pits flumes and hydrocoolers. In a cooling tower, about 300 mg/L in the tower water is the usual cap.
Free and total chlorine, chloramine
The municipal disinfectant. Good in the pipe, bad in the product, and it attacks membranes and resins.
Product and ingredient water
SANS 241 allows up to 5 mg/L. Post-mix asks for total chlorine at or below 0.5; brewing wants effectively zero (chlorophenols are tasted at parts per billion); coffee and ice want none.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Take it out with carbon before any RO membrane or resin bed.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Pack-house process water: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV, checked by DPD kit and logged each shift (CRI). Storage tanks should keep a small residual.
Alkalinity
Bicarbonate, mostly. It buffers pH in the product and turns into acid in the boiler.
Product and ingredient water
Post-mix at or below 150 mg/L. Brewing: the style sets it, pale beers want low residual alkalinity. Coffee around 40.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and grooves the condensate lines as carbonic acid. With condensate return below about 40%, or heavy raw water, remove the alkalinity (a dealkaliser) or use RO make-up.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Buffers the dump tank, so more acid is needed to hold pH 6.5 to 7.5.
TDS or EC (the dissolved salts)
Everything dissolved. It stays behind when water boils or evaporates, so it drives blowdown and cycles.
Product and ingredient water
Under 1 200 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix at or below 500; coffee around 150.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Boiler water is held at roughly 2 000 to 3 500 ppm (BS 2486 guidance), so the make-up TDS sets the blowdown and the fuel it wastes. RO make-up cuts both.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Cooling tower cycles of concentration are the tower limit divided by the make-up value; lower make-up TDS means more cycles and less water.
E. coli and coliforms
Faecal contamination or a biofilm; the pass or fail line of every food audit.
Product and ingredient water
None in 100 mL (SANS 241, which R638 makes the law inside a food premises; SANS 10049 applies it to ingredient water, ice and steam regardless of the source). The post-mix specification asks for zero coliforms as well.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Not a boiler number, but culinary steam that touches food starts from potable water.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Final-rinse water potable, total count at or below 100 cfu/mL, coliforms absent (dairy engineering guidance). Cooling towers run their own Legionella programme.

Show every line on the certificate

The rest of the certificate
The line on the certificate	What it tells you	Product and ingredient water	Boilers, steam and hot water	Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Turbidity (the cloudiness)	Sediment that shields germs from chlorine and UV and fouls everything downstream.	At or below 1 NTU (SANS 241 operational). The post-mix (fountain soft-drink) specification asks for 0.5.	Solids foul the softener and the boiler; filter the make-up.	In a recirculating pack-house loop, clarity is what the chlorine can reach. Filter the loop.
Silica	Dissolved sand. Harmless to drink, hard glassy scale in boilers and towers.	No potable limit.	The limit tightens as boiler pressure rises and silica carries over into the steam; RO make-up is the normal answer where it matters.	About 150 mg/L in the cooling tower water is the usual cap on cycles.
pH	Below 7 the water is acidic and corrodes; above 8 it drops scale. In a dump tank it decides whether the chlorine works.	5 to 9.7 (SANS 241); post-mix 6.5 to 8.5; brewing lands the mash at 5.2 to 5.6 through alkalinity and calcium, not by dosing the water.	Boiler water is kept alkaline by the treatment programme; condensate needs its own protection.	Pack-house process water at 6.5 to 7.5 so the chlorine is effective and the stainless survives.
Iron and manganese	Borehole water's signature. Stains, taste, and it eats sanitiser before the sanitiser reaches a microbe.	Iron at or below 0.3 and manganese at or below 0.1 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix and brewing want iron near 0.1.	Fouls resin and membranes; remove it first.	Roughly 0.6 mg/L of chlorine is lost per mg/L of iron; it also stains produce and equipment.

The rest of the certificate

Turbidity (the cloudiness)
Sediment that shields germs from chlorine and UV and fouls everything downstream.
Product and ingredient water
At or below 1 NTU (SANS 241 operational). The post-mix (fountain soft-drink) specification asks for 0.5.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Solids foul the softener and the boiler; filter the make-up.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
In a recirculating pack-house loop, clarity is what the chlorine can reach. Filter the loop.
Silica
Dissolved sand. Harmless to drink, hard glassy scale in boilers and towers.
Product and ingredient water
No potable limit.
Boilers, steam and hot water
The limit tightens as boiler pressure rises and silica carries over into the steam; RO make-up is the normal answer where it matters.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
About 150 mg/L in the cooling tower water is the usual cap on cycles.
pH
Below 7 the water is acidic and corrodes; above 8 it drops scale. In a dump tank it decides whether the chlorine works.
Product and ingredient water
5 to 9.7 (SANS 241); post-mix 6.5 to 8.5; brewing lands the mash at 5.2 to 5.6 through alkalinity and calcium, not by dosing the water.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Boiler water is kept alkaline by the treatment programme; condensate needs its own protection.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Pack-house process water at 6.5 to 7.5 so the chlorine is effective and the stainless survives.
Iron and manganese
Borehole water's signature. Stains, taste, and it eats sanitiser before the sanitiser reaches a microbe.
Product and ingredient water
Iron at or below 0.3 and manganese at or below 0.1 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix and brewing want iron near 0.1.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Fouls resin and membranes; remove it first.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Roughly 0.6 mg/L of chlorine is lost per mg/L of iron; it also stains produce and equipment.

No results in your file yet? Here is how to get them.

1Ask a SANAS-accredited laboratory for a SANS 241 analysis of the water at the point of use, a tap inside the plant, plus hardness, alkalinity, chloride, silica and free and total chlorine where boilers, steam ovens or product water are involved. On Rand Water supply, ask for monochloramine as well.
2Sample after the storage tank with the laboratory's sterile bottles: run the tap for a minute, do not touch the rim or the cap, fill to the top, keep cool, deliver within a day.
3Test the raw supply and the treated water separately, so the file shows the barrier working, and keep the results with the HACCP or scheme records: yearly at least, after any outage, and as often as your scheme asks.
4For a boiler, test the feed water and the boiler water (hardness, alkalinity, TDS) and log the blowdown. For a pack-house, log free chlorine and pH in the recirculating water every shift.

What fixes it

In the order the water goes through them. Every fix links to a plain-language guide and, where it helps, a calculator.

Sediment and media filtration
Brown water after outages, sand from a borehole, protection ahead of carbon, softener, RO and UV; filtering a recirculating loop.
Backwashing sand or glass for volume, cartridges for polishing, sized on flow rather than tank size; 5 micron ahead of every UV.
How a media filter actually works Spun-bonded, string-wound and pleated cartridges compared Listen to the episode Calculator
Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine
Taste and odour; chlorine ahead of a membrane or a resin; chloramine on Rand Water supply; brewing, coffee and ice.
A GAC contactor for volume or a carbon block at the machine. Chlorine goes fast; chloramine does not, and needs catalytic carbon at about three minutes of contact.
Activated carbon GAC versus carbon block for chlorine, taste and odour Listen to the episode
Scale control for kitchen machines
Espresso machines, combi steamers and ice machines on moderate hardness.
Scale-control cartridges (ion exchange or polyphosphate) sized for the machine, plus carbon for taste. Keep some hardness for coffee, and test chloride before choosing anything for a combi steamer.
Food service water: coffee, combi ovens and ice Softening versus anti-scale cartridges versus antiscalant dosing Listen to the episode Calculator
Water softener
Boiler feed, always; CIP heating, dishwashers, steam ovens and plate heat exchangers.
Ion exchange swaps the hardness for sodium, sized on hardness and daily use with metered regeneration. It removes hardness only: not alkalinity, not TDS, not chloride.
How a water softener works Softener sizing basics Listen to the episode Calculator
Reverse osmosis and remineralisation
Product water to a specification, brewing liquor, high-chloride water for a combi steamer, and boiler make-up where condensate return is poor or the raw water is heavy.
Strips the water to a consistent low-mineral baseline; blend or rebuild with calcium salts to the recipe. Pretreat with sediment, carbon and antiscalant or the membranes pay for it.
How reverse osmosis works Why RO pretreatment is non-negotiable Listen to the episode Calculator
Point-of-entry barrier train
Any plant on a municipal supply that must prove SANS 241 at the point of use; every plant with a storage tank.
Break tank, media filter, activated carbon, then UV. The plant becomes its own water supplier: it stops mattering what arrives after an outage, and the file shows a barrier for turbidity, chlorine and microbiology.
When the tap cannot be trusted Food and beverage process water Listen to the episode Calculator

Pack-houses and post-harvest lines

In one line: drinking-standard water at the point of use, a chlorine residual with the pH held in the wash water, and a log that proves both.

From the bin to the carton, produce meets water constantly, and GLOBALG.A.P. and South African law treat all of it as food contact. Two systems, both provable: drinking-standard supply water at the point of use, and recirculated process water held at a chlorine residual with the pH under control, on logged dosing loops.

What is usually wrong

Match what you see on the floor to what is happening in the water.

What you seeWhat is happeningThe fix

The auditor asks for a water risk assessment and results: GLOBALG.A.P. version 6 requires an annual risk assessment of harvest and post-harvest water with a sampling plan, a SANAS laboratory and E. coli as the indicator; the supply water must be drinking standard at the point of use.; Point-of-entry barrier train
The dump tank goes cloudy and the chlorine disappears mid-shift: Soil, leaves and fruit juice consume chlorine continuously. Citrus Research International's regime is 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5 with ORP at or above 800 mV and two minutes of contact; the pome guidance sits at 75 to 100 at pH 6.5 to 7.0. Paired dosing, a filtered loop and water refreshed on demand.; Chlorine dosing with pH control
Listeria on fruit or in the drains: Immersion pushes water into fruit through stems and stem scars, especially warm fruit in cold water. A dump tank or hydrocooler without a maintained residual becomes an injection system.; Chlorine dosing with pH control
The borehole supply stains the fruit or fails on E. coli or coliforms: Iron and manganese stain and eat sanitiser; a borehole is untreated groundwater and must be tested each season and treated at the source if it cannot pass.; Iron and manganese removal
Flume and hydrocooler stainless pits: Chloride plus chlorine at low pH attacks stainless. Hold the pH, do not overdose, and rinse.; Chlorine dosing with pH control
The recirculating loop is filthy and the water bill is not: Solids build up and shield organisms from the chlorine. Filter the loop and change on schedule, judged on demand, not on the calendar.; Sediment and media filtration

What to test, and what the numbers mean

One laboratory analysis and the regulation you audit against answer most questions. These are the lines to read first for this plant, with the numbers in plain words.

Read these first for this plant
The line on the certificate	What it tells you	Product and ingredient water	Boilers, steam and hot water	Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
E. coli and coliforms	Faecal contamination or a biofilm; the pass or fail line of every food audit.	None in 100 mL (SANS 241, which R638 makes the law inside a food premises; SANS 10049 applies it to ingredient water, ice and steam regardless of the source). The post-mix specification asks for zero coliforms as well.	Not a boiler number, but culinary steam that touches food starts from potable water.	Final-rinse water potable, total count at or below 100 cfu/mL, coliforms absent (dairy engineering guidance). Cooling towers run their own Legionella programme.
Free and total chlorine, chloramine	The municipal disinfectant. Good in the pipe, bad in the product, and it attacks membranes and resins.	SANS 241 allows up to 5 mg/L. Post-mix asks for total chlorine at or below 0.5; brewing wants effectively zero (chlorophenols are tasted at parts per billion); coffee and ice want none.	Take it out with carbon before any RO membrane or resin bed.	Pack-house process water: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV, checked by DPD kit and logged each shift (CRI). Storage tanks should keep a small residual.
pH	Below 7 the water is acidic and corrodes; above 8 it drops scale. In a dump tank it decides whether the chlorine works.	5 to 9.7 (SANS 241); post-mix 6.5 to 8.5; brewing lands the mash at 5.2 to 5.6 through alkalinity and calcium, not by dosing the water.	Boiler water is kept alkaline by the treatment programme; condensate needs its own protection.	Pack-house process water at 6.5 to 7.5 so the chlorine is effective and the stainless survives.
Turbidity (the cloudiness)	Sediment that shields germs from chlorine and UV and fouls everything downstream.	At or below 1 NTU (SANS 241 operational). The post-mix (fountain soft-drink) specification asks for 0.5.	Solids foul the softener and the boiler; filter the make-up.	In a recirculating pack-house loop, clarity is what the chlorine can reach. Filter the loop.
Iron and manganese	Borehole water's signature. Stains, taste, and it eats sanitiser before the sanitiser reaches a microbe.	Iron at or below 0.3 and manganese at or below 0.1 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix and brewing want iron near 0.1.	Fouls resin and membranes; remove it first.	Roughly 0.6 mg/L of chlorine is lost per mg/L of iron; it also stains produce and equipment.
Chloride	Half of table salt. Softeners do not remove it, and it is what pits stainless steel.	Under 250 mg/L (SANS 241 and the post-mix specification). Combi steamers: 60 to 80 mg/L at most, depending on the manufacturer.	Concentrates with every cycle in the boiler; a driver of blowdown.	With chlorine at low pH it pits flumes and hydrocoolers. In a cooling tower, about 300 mg/L in the tower water is the usual cap.

Read these first for this plant

E. coli and coliforms
Faecal contamination or a biofilm; the pass or fail line of every food audit.
Product and ingredient water
None in 100 mL (SANS 241, which R638 makes the law inside a food premises; SANS 10049 applies it to ingredient water, ice and steam regardless of the source). The post-mix specification asks for zero coliforms as well.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Not a boiler number, but culinary steam that touches food starts from potable water.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Final-rinse water potable, total count at or below 100 cfu/mL, coliforms absent (dairy engineering guidance). Cooling towers run their own Legionella programme.
Free and total chlorine, chloramine
The municipal disinfectant. Good in the pipe, bad in the product, and it attacks membranes and resins.
Product and ingredient water
SANS 241 allows up to 5 mg/L. Post-mix asks for total chlorine at or below 0.5; brewing wants effectively zero (chlorophenols are tasted at parts per billion); coffee and ice want none.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Take it out with carbon before any RO membrane or resin bed.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Pack-house process water: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV, checked by DPD kit and logged each shift (CRI). Storage tanks should keep a small residual.
pH
Below 7 the water is acidic and corrodes; above 8 it drops scale. In a dump tank it decides whether the chlorine works.
Product and ingredient water
5 to 9.7 (SANS 241); post-mix 6.5 to 8.5; brewing lands the mash at 5.2 to 5.6 through alkalinity and calcium, not by dosing the water.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Boiler water is kept alkaline by the treatment programme; condensate needs its own protection.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Pack-house process water at 6.5 to 7.5 so the chlorine is effective and the stainless survives.
Turbidity (the cloudiness)
Sediment that shields germs from chlorine and UV and fouls everything downstream.
Product and ingredient water
At or below 1 NTU (SANS 241 operational). The post-mix (fountain soft-drink) specification asks for 0.5.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Solids foul the softener and the boiler; filter the make-up.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
In a recirculating pack-house loop, clarity is what the chlorine can reach. Filter the loop.
Iron and manganese
Borehole water's signature. Stains, taste, and it eats sanitiser before the sanitiser reaches a microbe.
Product and ingredient water
Iron at or below 0.3 and manganese at or below 0.1 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix and brewing want iron near 0.1.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Fouls resin and membranes; remove it first.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Roughly 0.6 mg/L of chlorine is lost per mg/L of iron; it also stains produce and equipment.
Chloride
Half of table salt. Softeners do not remove it, and it is what pits stainless steel.
Product and ingredient water
Under 250 mg/L (SANS 241 and the post-mix specification). Combi steamers: 60 to 80 mg/L at most, depending on the manufacturer.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Concentrates with every cycle in the boiler; a driver of blowdown.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
With chlorine at low pH it pits flumes and hydrocoolers. In a cooling tower, about 300 mg/L in the tower water is the usual cap.

Show every line on the certificate

The rest of the certificate
The line on the certificate	What it tells you	Product and ingredient water	Boilers, steam and hot water	Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Hardness (the scale)	Calcium and magnesium, as mg/L CaCO₃. It comes out of solution wherever water is heated or evaporates.	SANS 241 sets no limit. Post-mix at or below 100 mg/L; coffee around 68 (roughly 50 to 175); combi steamers roughly 70 to 360 per the manufacturer, but chloride governs.	Feed water under 0.3 mg/L at any pressure, on the ASME consensus figures for water-tube and shell boilers. Your boiler maker's own specification governs, so read it first. A softener is always the first step.	Scales CIP heating and spray balls. In a cooling tower, calcium hardness of about 350 to 400 mg/L in the tower water caps how far the water may be concentrated before it is bled off.
Alkalinity	Bicarbonate, mostly. It buffers pH in the product and turns into acid in the boiler.	Post-mix at or below 150 mg/L. Brewing: the style sets it, pale beers want low residual alkalinity. Coffee around 40.	Breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and grooves the condensate lines as carbonic acid. With condensate return below about 40%, or heavy raw water, remove the alkalinity (a dealkaliser) or use RO make-up.	Buffers the dump tank, so more acid is needed to hold pH 6.5 to 7.5.
TDS or EC (the dissolved salts)	Everything dissolved. It stays behind when water boils or evaporates, so it drives blowdown and cycles.	Under 1 200 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix at or below 500; coffee around 150.	Boiler water is held at roughly 2 000 to 3 500 ppm (BS 2486 guidance), so the make-up TDS sets the blowdown and the fuel it wastes. RO make-up cuts both.	Cooling tower cycles of concentration are the tower limit divided by the make-up value; lower make-up TDS means more cycles and less water.
Silica	Dissolved sand. Harmless to drink, hard glassy scale in boilers and towers.	No potable limit.	The limit tightens as boiler pressure rises and silica carries over into the steam; RO make-up is the normal answer where it matters.	About 150 mg/L in the cooling tower water is the usual cap on cycles.

The rest of the certificate

Hardness (the scale)
Calcium and magnesium, as mg/L CaCO₃. It comes out of solution wherever water is heated or evaporates.
Product and ingredient water
SANS 241 sets no limit. Post-mix at or below 100 mg/L; coffee around 68 (roughly 50 to 175); combi steamers roughly 70 to 360 per the manufacturer, but chloride governs.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Feed water under 0.3 mg/L at any pressure, on the ASME consensus figures for water-tube and shell boilers. Your boiler maker's own specification governs, so read it first. A softener is always the first step.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Scales CIP heating and spray balls. In a cooling tower, calcium hardness of about 350 to 400 mg/L in the tower water caps how far the water may be concentrated before it is bled off.
Alkalinity
Bicarbonate, mostly. It buffers pH in the product and turns into acid in the boiler.
Product and ingredient water
Post-mix at or below 150 mg/L. Brewing: the style sets it, pale beers want low residual alkalinity. Coffee around 40.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Breaks down to carbon dioxide in the boiler and grooves the condensate lines as carbonic acid. With condensate return below about 40%, or heavy raw water, remove the alkalinity (a dealkaliser) or use RO make-up.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Buffers the dump tank, so more acid is needed to hold pH 6.5 to 7.5.
TDS or EC (the dissolved salts)
Everything dissolved. It stays behind when water boils or evaporates, so it drives blowdown and cycles.
Product and ingredient water
Under 1 200 mg/L (SANS 241). Post-mix at or below 500; coffee around 150.
Boilers, steam and hot water
Boiler water is held at roughly 2 000 to 3 500 ppm (BS 2486 guidance), so the make-up TDS sets the blowdown and the fuel it wastes. RO make-up cuts both.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
Cooling tower cycles of concentration are the tower limit divided by the make-up value; lower make-up TDS means more cycles and less water.
Silica
Dissolved sand. Harmless to drink, hard glassy scale in boilers and towers.
Product and ingredient water
No potable limit.
Boilers, steam and hot water
The limit tightens as boiler pressure rises and silica carries over into the steam; RO make-up is the normal answer where it matters.
Wash-down, CIP (clean-in-place) and cooling
About 150 mg/L in the cooling tower water is the usual cap on cycles.

No results in your file yet? Here is how to get them.

1Ask a SANAS-accredited laboratory for a SANS 241 analysis of the water at the point of use, a tap inside the plant, plus hardness, alkalinity, chloride, silica and free and total chlorine where boilers, steam ovens or product water are involved. On Rand Water supply, ask for monochloramine as well.
2Sample after the storage tank with the laboratory's sterile bottles: run the tap for a minute, do not touch the rim or the cap, fill to the top, keep cool, deliver within a day.
3Test the raw supply and the treated water separately, so the file shows the barrier working, and keep the results with the HACCP or scheme records: yearly at least, after any outage, and as often as your scheme asks.
4For a boiler, test the feed water and the boiler water (hardness, alkalinity, TDS) and log the blowdown. For a pack-house, log free chlorine and pH in the recirculating water every shift.

What fixes it

In the order the water goes through them. Every fix links to a plain-language guide and, where it helps, a calculator.

Iron and manganese removal
A borehole supply that stains, tastes, or eats the sanitiser.
Oxidise with air or a little chlorine, then trap it on a catalytic media bed ahead of everything else. Iron consumes about 0.6 mg/L of chlorine per mg/L before any of it reaches a microbe.
Catalytic media for iron and manganese removal Backup water: tanks, boreholes and rain Listen to the episode Calculator
Sediment and media filtration
Brown water after outages, sand from a borehole, protection ahead of carbon, softener, RO and UV; filtering a recirculating loop.
Backwashing sand or glass for volume, cartridges for polishing, sized on flow rather than tank size; 5 micron ahead of every UV.
How a media filter actually works Spun-bonded, string-wound and pleated cartridges compared Listen to the episode Calculator
Point-of-entry barrier train
Any plant on a municipal supply that must prove SANS 241 at the point of use; every plant with a storage tank.
Break tank, media filter, activated carbon, then UV. The plant becomes its own water supplier: it stops mattering what arrives after an outage, and the file shows a barrier for turbidity, chlorine and microbiology.
When the tap cannot be trusted Food and beverage process water Listen to the episode Calculator
Chlorine dosing with pH control
Pack-house dump tanks, flumes and hydrocoolers; storage tanks that lose their residual; rinse and drinker lines.
Paired metering pumps hold available chlorine and pH together and the readings are logged each shift: 75 to 100 mg/L at pH 6.5 to 7.5 in recirculating pack-house water (calcium hypochlorite, not pool product or bleach), a small residual in storage.
Pack-house wash water Sizing a dosing pump Listen to the episode Calculator
UV disinfection
The final rinse, ingredient water, the filler, ice, and any line fed from a tank.
A validated 40 mJ/cm² dose on clear, 5 micron filtered water. It adds nothing and leaves no residual, so it sits last and close to the point of use, with the ports up so no air pocket forms.
UV dose explained What UV does Listen to the episode

Keeping it running, and keeping the records

In a food or beverage plant the maintenance and the evidence are the same activity: the log that tells you a cartridge is due is the log the auditor asks to see. Build it once and it serves both.

Have this to hand

A drawing or photograph of the treatment train in order, with each stage and its purpose named.
Model, serial and media for every vessel, membrane, cartridge housing and UV unit.
The daily or shift readings your process already requires: residual, pressure differential, conductivity where relevant.
Change-out records with dates, part references and who did the work.

What a change usually means

Pressure differential across a stage climbing shift on shift: The stage is loading up. On a membrane it is fouling or scaling and the trend tells you which; on cartridges it is simply due. Either way the trend is the instrument, not a single reading.
Product water quality drifting while flow holds up: On an RO that pattern points at the membrane rather than the pretreatment. Normalise the readings before diagnosing, because temperature alone moves the raw numbers.
A residual that will not hold at the far point of use: Demand somewhere in the loop is consuming it: biofilm, a dead leg, or a tank that is not turning over. It is a distribution question, not a dosing-rate question.
A stage nobody has recorded touching for a year: That is the finding the audit will write up, whatever the water is actually doing. Media, membranes, lamps and sleeves all have finite lives set by their manufacturers.

What to send us

Which line and which stage, and what the product specification requires at that point.
The trend, not one reading: the last few weeks of differential, residual or conductivity.
The most recent water analysis and the point it was taken from.
The change-out record for the stage in question.

Service intervals, cleaning methods and replacement parts come from the manufacturer's instructions for your actual equipment. What is here helps you notice a change and describe it accurately; it does not replace that documentation, and it is not a substitute for the installer where the work needs one.

Things people hear that are not true

The ones we correct most often.

The municipality delivers SANS 241 water, so we are compliant.
Compliance is measured at your tap with your results. The 2023 Blue Drop report found 46% of assessed supply systems with poor or bad microbiological compliance.
Softened water will sort out the combi steamer.
Chloride, not hardness, writes off combi steamers, and a softener does not remove chloride. Test chloride first; high chloride means RO.
The boiler passed its inspection, so the water must be fine.
The inspection authority examines the vessel; scale and corrosion are what it finds. The feed water treatment is yours, and the softener is the entry ticket.
The carbon filter takes the chlorine out, so chloramine is gone too.
Chloramine needs several times the contact time of free chlorine and usually catalytic carbon. On Rand Water supply, size the carbon for chloramine.
RO water is the best water for everything.
It is aggressive to metals and wrong for coffee and combi steamers, which want some minerals. RO gives a baseline; you rebuild or blend from there.
More chlorine in the dump tank is safer.
pH decides whether the chlorine works, and overdosing at low pH pits the stainless and taints the fruit. Hold both and log both.
A UV light replaces the chlorine residual.
UV kills what passes through it and protects nothing downstream. Tanks and long lines regrow; they need a residual or a sanitation programme.
We have a SANS 241 certificate for the factory.
No such certificate exists. A laboratory issues a certificate of analysis for one sample on one day; compliance is a sampling programme with records over time.
Pool chlorine is the same as pack-house chlorine.
Pool products carry stabilisers, salts and colourants, and liquid bleach degrades to chlorate. Citrus Research International specifies calcium hypochlorite above 65% available chlorine, and the EU chlorate residue limit is why the pH and the product matter.
One test a year covers the audit.
Test the raw supply and the treated water at the point of use, again after every outage, and as often as your scheme asks; log the routine checks in between.

The questions we get asked

Short answers. Every one ends in a next step.

What does R638 actually require of our water?

R638 of 2018, the general hygiene regulation for food premises, defines water as potable water that complies with SANS 241, and every mention of water in it inherits that definition: wash-up, hand-wash, ice, ingredient water. HACCP and FSSC 22000 then expect the results and the barrier in the file.

Food and beverage process water

How often must we test, and where do we sample?

R638 sets no frequency; SANS 10049 requires the water installation to be monitored with records, and FSSC expects utility quality monitored. Sample at the point of use inside the plant, after the storage tank, and at the raw supply so the file shows the barrier working. A plant on its own borehole follows SANS 241:2025's small-system regime: E. coli, pH, turbidity and disinfectant residual monthly, the risk parameters twice a year, a full analysis every two years. Everyone tests again after an outage.

We are on Rand Water. Why does our carbon filter not fix the taste?

Rand Water applies chloramination as secondary disinfection at its booster stations, and chloramine needs several times the contact time of free chlorine on standard carbon. Catalytic carbon at about three minutes of contact is the usual answer.

Free versus total chlorine

Is a softener enough for the boiler?

It is the entry ticket, not the whole answer. With at least half the condensate returning, softened make-up is generally adequate for a shell boiler. Below roughly 40% return, or with high-TDS or high-alkalinity raw water, remove the alkalinity with a dealkaliser or move to RO make-up, and let automatic TDS control mind the blowdown.

Boiler feed water

Why does our combi steamer keep failing even with a softener?

Chloride. The manufacturers set it at or below about 60 mg/L, and a softener does not touch it. If the certificate shows high chloride, the answer is RO with the conductivity kept above the manufacturer's minimum, because fully demineralised water is also out of spec.

Food service water

What water does a coffee machine want?

Not pure water. The Specialty Coffee Association targets, as commonly quoted, are hardness around 68 mg/L (roughly 50 to 175), alkalinity around 40, TDS around 150 and no chlorine; the standard has been revised, so work from the current published version. A scale-control cartridge plus carbon gets most municipal supplies there; full RO needs blending back.

Food service water

What filter goes on the ice machine?

Ice is served unboiled, so treat its water like drinking water: NSF/ANSI 42 certified carbon-block filtration, 0.5 micron sediment capture with chlorine taste-and-odour reduction, and scale control for the evaporator where the water is hard.

How much chlorine goes in the dump tank, and at what pH?

Citrus Research International's regime: 75 to 100 mg/L available chlorine at pH 6.5 to 7.5, ORP at or above 800 mV and at least two minutes of contact, from calcium hypochlorite above 65% available chlorine, never pool product (it carries stabilisers) or liquid bleach (it degrades to chlorate and salt). Paired dosing loops, readings logged each shift, the loop filtered and the water refreshed on demand.

Pack-house wash water

Why did Listeria change the rules for hydrocoolers?

Immersion pushes water into fruit through stems and stem scars, especially warm fruit meeting cold water, so a hydrocooler without a maintained residual becomes an injection system. Current practice keeps the residual, watches the temperature difference and sanitises the loop.

Pack-house wash water

How much water should we store against outages?

Municipal by-laws for premises that require continuous supply put it at not less than 24 hours of demand in a tank; more where interruptions run longer. Stored water then needs its own barrier at the outlet, because chlorine fades in a warm tank.

Backup water systems

Can we put the factory on a borehole?

Often, with two conditions. A borehole is untreated groundwater, so it needs a full analysis and usually iron and manganese removal, hardness treatment and disinfection before it meets R638. And the use must be registered or licensed: above about 10 m³ a day you register with the Department of Water and Sanitation, and industrial use beyond the general authorisation needs a water use licence. Johannesburg's water by-law adds its own step: Council permission before borehole water enters a potable system, and a meter if any of it reaches the sewer.

Backup water systems

We want to sell bottled water. What applies?

Regulation R718 of 2006 splits bottled water into natural waters, waters defined by origin, and prepared waters. Treated municipal or borehole water is prepared water, with its own labelling rules. Read R718 before naming the product; the treatment train is the easy part.

Brewing and beverage water

Where does the RO reject and the boiler blowdown go?

To the sewer under your municipality's industrial effluent by-law, with a permit and a sampling chamber on the line. Cape Town's limits include pH 5.5 to 12, 40 °C, conductivity 500 mS/m, COD 5 000 mg/L and fats, oils and grease 400 mg/L; Johannesburg caps conductivity at 500 mS/m and chloride at 1 000 mg/L and charges by COD above 1 000. Blowdown is hot, so it is cooled first; RO reject and softener brine are salty, so check conductivity and chloride against the by-law before the plant is sized.

Can the steam touch the food, and which boiler chemicals are allowed?

SANS 10049 puts steam that touches food or food-contact surfaces under SANS 241, and reused condensate must be treated so it cannot contaminate. South Africa has no positive list of boiler additives, so auditors accept the FDA's 21 CFR 173.310 list (sodium sulphite, for example) and reject hydrazine and non-food amines. Keep the dosing records and the supplier's food-grade declarations, and filter culinary steam rather than injecting raw boiler steam.

Boiler feed water

Can we pump straight off the mains, or must the water go through a tank?

Through a tank with an air gap, then a booster pump: that is the arrangement the municipal water by-laws accept, and it is what stops a pressure event pulling your plant's water back into the mains. Premises that must run continuously are expected to hold at least 24 hours of demand, and recent outages in Johannesburg ran for days, so size the tank for production rather than for ablutions.

When the tap cannot be trusted

The water came back brown after the outage. Can we use it?

Usually it is iron and manganese sediment and air stirred up by the pressure change, not sewage. Flush until it runs clear, keep it out of product and out of the RO, and test if it persists. The City of Cape Town's own precaution after discoloured water is to boil for a minute or dose a teaspoon of unscented bleach per 20 to 25 litres and let it stand two hours; a plant with a barrier train does not have to think about it.

How long can water sit in our tanks?

The chlorine residual decays within days in a warm tank and bacteria regrow. Turn the stored water over every couple of weeks, keep the tank dark and sealed, clean it every six to twelve months and keep the record: SANS 10049 expects water storage to be monitored and cleaned as often as necessary, with records. A warm, stagnant tank is also a Legionella risk.

Backup water systems

Is Legionella our problem if we run a cooling tower?

Yes. Under the OHS Act's Hazardous Biological Agents Regulations Legionella is a Group 2 agent, and SANS 893-2 covers its control in cooling towers, evaporative condensers and hot and cold water systems: a risk assessment, a treatment programme and test records. Softened make-up raises the cycles a tower can run, but corrosion control then matters more.

Does an abattoir have extra water rules?

The Red Meat Regulations (R1072 of 2004) require potable water under pressure, hot water at 40 °C for hands and cleaning and sterilisers at 82 °C, ice made from potable water, and a hygiene management programme that accounts for the source, keeps a schematic of the distribution and samples every outlet, hoses included. Recycled water is not permitted in process areas. Scale on the calorifier is usually why the steriliser is not reaching 82 °C.

Is our water hard? It depends where you are.

Cape Town's municipal supply is soft, roughly 17 to 60 mg/L as CaCO₃ by the City's own figure; Gauteng's is moderately hard to hard and varies by season and reservoir; boreholes anywhere can be very hard. A scaled 3 kW element uses about 12% more power with 1.5 mm of scale on it, so the only useful answer is a hardness test of your own supply.

Water hardness explained

What does it cost?

It depends on the water and on how much of it the plant needs each day, so we do not publish prices. Send the branch your certificate and your daily volume and you get a quote with lead times.

Talk to a person

Phone or WhatsApp the branch nearest you. Send a photo of your water certificate and we will tell you what we see. We quote from your analysis and your flow, and we do not publish prices.

Cape Town

5 Firgrove Way, Firgrove Industrial Estate, Macassar, 7134

+27 21 851 0133

Mon to Thu 08:30 to 16:30, Fri 08:30 to 16:00

sales@definitivewater.co.za

Johannesburg

Unit 067, Inospace Allandale Exchange, 917 Morkels Close, Halfway House, Midrand, 1685

+27 75 084 5743 WhatsApp Johannesburg

Mon to Thu 08:30 to 16:30, Fri 08:30 to 16:00

salesjhb@definitivewater.co.za

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Guides, episodes and calculators

Plain-language guides on plant water, each with a podcast episode, in English and Afrikaans.

All the episodes All the guides

Hardness converter Dosing pump sizing RO recovery Media filter sizing Scaling indices EC to TDS

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Type in your certificate and get a suggested treatment train. Opening soon, as a calculator, not a guarantee.

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Written by the Definitive Water Technologies team and technically reviewed by Chandré Naudé, BEng (Civil), 15 years in the water treatment industry.

General guidance for South African food and beverage plants. Regulations and audit schemes change; a laboratory analysis, your scheme's own checklist and a branch conversation come before any purchase.

These guides are general information, compiled from published standards, manufacturer data and our own experience, and we keep them as accurate as we can. They are not a design, a specification or advice for a particular site. Whoever specifies, installs or operates a system, whether an engineer, an installer, a farmer or a plant manager, remains responsible for checking that what is written here applies to their water and their installation, and for the work itself. Definitive Water Technologies accepts no liability for errors in these pages or for work done on the strength of them. When in doubt, send us the analysis and talk to the branch.

Plant water, under control.

Start here: what does your plant make?

Food processing plants

What is usually wrong

What to test, and what the numbers mean

Read these first for this plant

The rest of the certificate

What fixes it

Point-of-entry barrier train

Sediment and media filtration

Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine

Water softener

Reverse osmosis and remineralisation

UV disinfection

Beverage, brewing and bottling plants

What is usually wrong

What to test, and what the numbers mean

Read these first for this plant

The rest of the certificate

What fixes it

Sediment and media filtration

Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine

Water softener

Reverse osmosis and remineralisation

UV disinfection

Bakeries, kitchens and food service

What is usually wrong

What to test, and what the numbers mean

Read these first for this plant

The rest of the certificate

What fixes it

Sediment and media filtration

Activated carbon for chlorine and chloramine

Scale control for kitchen machines

Water softener

Reverse osmosis and remineralisation

Point-of-entry barrier train

Pack-houses and post-harvest lines

What is usually wrong

What to test, and what the numbers mean

Read these first for this plant

The rest of the certificate

What fixes it

Iron and manganese removal

Sediment and media filtration

Point-of-entry barrier train

Chlorine dosing with pH control

UV disinfection

Keeping it running, and keeping the records

Have this to hand

What a change usually means

What to send us

Things people hear that are not true

The questions we get asked

Talk to a person

Cape Town

Johannesburg

Guides, episodes and calculators