Cylinders with drain and thermometer
Every cylinder with a thermometer that reads the water inside and a drain valve at the lowest point, to empty it and take samples. From 750 litres upwards, a 400 mm access hatch to clean it inside.
Legionella · Mallorca
Legionella in Mallorca:
hot water that meets the rules.
If you run a hotel, an agroturismo, holiday apartments or another establishment, even one inside a residential building with shared hot water, Spain's RD 487/2022 requires you to control Legionella. Much of that control depends on how the installation is built: temperatures, the return loop, drain valves and cylinders you can actually get to. That is our job: we design and install the hot water so that it complies, and hand it over ready for your prevention plan. We are Joaquín and Juan, installing in Mallorca since 1998.
Send us photos and details · Reply within 24-48 hours on working days · We speak English, Spanish and German
- 60 °C in the cylinder
- Over 50 °C at every tap
- RD 487/2022
- EN · ES · DE
Who it applies to
Does your installation fall under the Legionella rules?
Royal Decree RD 487/2022, in force since 2 January 2023 and amended by RD 614/2024, applies to installations that can spread Legionella in tiny water droplets, the aerosols. Its annex I gives a list that is not exhaustive; the ones we see most in Mallorca are:
- Domestic water, hot and cold: in a hotel, an agroturismo, a hostel or a gym, for example.
- Hot tubs and spas: water at 24 °C or more with jets or bubbles.
- Ornamental fountains that spray water.
- Sprinkler irrigation in urban areas, golf courses or sports grounds.
- Fire-fighting water systems.
Article 3.2 leaves out installations in buildings used solely as homes, as long as they do not affect the outside environment; even then, the health authority may require measures if it suspects a risk. And the Spanish Ministry of Health has clarified in writing that businesses located inside a residential building, such as guesthouses, hostels or holiday apartments, are covered.
A holiday villa? The regulation does not name it. If your case is unclear, the decision in the Balearics lies with the health authority, the Government's Servei de Salut Ambiental. And even if it does not bind you, what the rules ask comes down to two common-sense principles for a house that stands closed for weeks: water must not stagnate, and hot water must be properly hot (article 7.2).
Sources: RD 487/2022 (BOE-A-2022-10297), articles 3 and 7 and annex I, consolidated text with RD 614/2024 (BOE-A-2024-13422); Ministry of Health, «Respuestas a las cuestiones más frecuentes del RD 487/2022», version of 7 August 2024. Checked on 30 September 2026.
The figures
The temperatures the regulation sets for hot water
Annex III of RD 487/2022 puts numbers on a domestic hot water (DHW) installation. They are what we work to when we design or refurbish one:
- At least 60 °C, evenly, throughout the water in the final cylinder, the one just before use. In tank-in-tank cylinders, 70 °C.
- Over 50 °C at every tap and shower and in the return pipe, with the circuit balanced by temperature.
- The installation must be able to take the water to 70 °C for thermal disinfection when needed.
- If the heat comes from a source that does not guarantee 60 °C all the time (the sun, geothermal…), the water goes through a final cylinder at 60 °C before it is used.
- Without storage, with instantaneous heaters, the water leaves the appliance at 60 °C or more.
- Where water does not circulate above 50 °C, the pipe run may not exceed 5 metres or 3 litres; with a mixing valve, 50 °C before the valve and a thermometer.
- When a tap is opened, the temperature stabilises within one minute.
- And cold water as cold as possible: below 20 °C where the climate allows, with its pipes kept away from the hot ones or insulated.
That last point matters in Mallorca: the regulation requires outdoor cold-water tanks to be thermally insulated and protected, and in summer a tank in the sun needs it.
Source: RD 487/2022, annex III, section I, part A (as worded by RD 614/2024).
How it is built
An installation that can be controlled
What annex III asks of the installation itself, and what we leave in place.
A balanced return loop
The return keeps hot water moving to the last tap. The building code (CTE HS 4) requires it when the furthest tap is 15 metres or more away, and the Legionella rules want over 50 °C across the whole network.
No standing water
Enough drain points to empty the whole installation and flush out sediment, non-return valves to UNE-EN 1717 where needed, and materials suitable for drinking water.
Sampling points
Accessible sampling taps on the tank, the cylinder and the return, which is where your plan will take samples. And low-aerosol shower heads, which the regulation recommends.
Keeping limescale down
RD 487/2022 itself lists scale deposits among the factors that favour Legionella, and asks for an assessment of a softener or an inhibitor on the incoming water.
Water softeners in Mallorca →The declaration of compliance
A new or refurbished installation needs a declaration that it meets annex III, and the Ministry has clarified that the installer issues it. When we finish, we hand it to you signed.
With a heat pump
Legionella and heat pumps: how to reach 60 °C
It is the question we get most. A heat pump works more efficiently the less it has to raise the temperature, and the regulation asks for 60 °C in the cylinder. The answer is design: a unit and a cylinder sized for real consumption, and a disinfection function (the anti-Legionella cycle) that heats the tank to a high temperature at whatever interval is programmed.
An example of what a manufacturer says, Daikin, in the user reference guide for its Altherma 3 R F: that function relies on the tank's booster heater, and if the heater's hours are restricted during disinfection, the cycle does not run and the unit shows code AH. So Daikin recommends leaving the heater available for at least 4 hours from the scheduled start and running disinfection a few hours after the main hot water use. The same manual keeps the anti-Legionella cycle active in holiday mode.
And the savings side: the same manufacturer warns that when the heater takes over the load, electricity use is significantly higher. The numbers work when the heat pump does most of the work and the heater only tops up. Each manufacturer states in its data sheet how hot its heat pump can get the water on its own; we check it unit by unit against your consumption. Everything about the unit itself is on heat pumps.
Source: Daikin, «Guía de referencia del usuario Daikin Altherma 3 R F» (4P629094-1, 2020.08), section 4.5 and holiday mode. Every unit, with its own manual: we work with all brands.
Where the savings are
Keeping 60 °C without wasting energy
Keeping the water at 60 °C and the return above 50 °C all day costs energy. The temperature is not negotiable; what is lost along the way is. Three things that show on the bill:
- Insulation. Spain's RITE requires pipe heat losses to stay below 4 % of the power they carry, and hot water networks that run continuously, like the return, need 5 mm more insulation than the rest (IT 1.2.4.2.1).
- The right number of litres. A cylinder bigger than what you use is more water to keep at 60 °C every day. It is sized to real occupancy, which in a Mallorca agroturismo is not the same in August as in February.
- No limescale. Scale on the coil or the heater is insulation right where the heat has to pass. The data are on water softeners.
And let the heat pump do the heating: with it, every kWh of electricity gives several of heat (the figures are on heat pumps); with the heater, one for one.
Who does what
The owner, the plan and who does each job
The regulation places responsibility on the owner of the installation (the titular): the property owner or, if someone else runs it, the operator (article 5). The owner chooses between a Legionella Prevention and Control Plan (PPCL) and a risk-based Legionella Health Plan (PSL). Plans had to be brought up to date with the regulation before 1 July 2025.
At minimum (article 8), the PPCL includes a diagnosis and a drawing of the installation with its sampling points; the maintenance, water treatment, cleaning and disinfection, sampling and training programmes; and records of everything, kept on site for at least five years. A technical manager, in-house or contracted, draws it up and reviews it. Each job is done by whoever the regulation says:
- Biocide disinfection for third parties: a company registered in the Official Register of Biocide Establishments and Services (ROESB), with staff holding the SEA492_2 qualification.
- Sampling for Legionella culture: a body accredited to UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025 (there is until 1 January 2030 to get accredited); the analysis: an accredited laboratory.
- Design and installation: the installer, who must make sure materials, access and location suit the intended use (article 5.9). That is where we come in.
We are not a biocide treatment company or a laboratory: a registered company and an accredited lab do that. Our part is the installation. We help it meet what your plan requires and leave it ready so that your maintenance company can measure, drain, disinfect and take samples without fighting it.
Sources: RD 487/2022, articles 5, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 16 and 18 and the fifth and sixth transitional provisions.
The schedule
What is checked in domestic water, and how often
Annex IV sets the minimums; your plan may ask for more, never less:
- Daily: the temperature of the final cylinder (60 °C or more) and of the return (over 50 °C).
- Weekly: draining the bottom of the cylinders, and running for a few minutes the taps and showers of rooms that are not in use.
- Monthly: flushing sediment through the pipe drain valves and measuring the temperature at a sample of taps and showers, nearest to furthest (50 °C or more). Over the year, all of them.
- Every three months: checking the condition of the cylinders and, under annex V, testing for Legionella.
- Once a year, never more than 12 months apart: inspection, cleaning and disinfection of the whole installation. Also at first start-up, after a shutdown of more than a month (unless the health authority sets another period) and after a repair or alteration.
The shutdown of more than a month is what matters most in Mallorca: a hotel or agroturismo that closes for the winter must clean and disinfect before reopening, and a Legionella test is due 15 to 30 days after each cleaning and disinfection.
The thermal disinfection described in the regulation takes the cylinder to 70 °C for 2 hours and brings the taps, sector by sector, to 60 °C for at least 5 minutes; if the installation cannot manage that, biocides are used. The RITE requires equipment that has to withstand that thermal shock to be designed for it, and that is how we fit it.
Sources: RD 487/2022, annex IV (parts A and B) and annex V (part C and table 3); RITE, IT 1.1.4.3.1.
In the Balearics
Legionella in Mallorca: who inspects and where to look
In the Balearic Islands the health authority is the Direcció General de Salut Pública, through its Servei de Salut Ambiental, which inspects risk installations. We have not found a regional regulation of its own on Legionella: on its website, the Government refers to RD 487/2022 and its amendment, RD 614/2024.
What it does publish is a guide to drawing up the PPCL (Conselleria de Salut i Consum, 2023) and, before the 2024 inspection campaign, a note with criteria. Two worth knowing: in accommodation, the taps and showers of each room or unit count as a single sampling point, and the inspector asks for the plan's technical manager to be present.
For the technical side, the industry reference is the UNE 100030:2023 standard, which replaced the 2017 edition. It is guidance: RD 487/2022 neither cites it nor makes it mandatory, although the Government's guide suggests it as an aid for preparing staff training.
Sources: Govern de les Illes Balears, Servei de Salut Ambiental: «Guia per a l'elaboració d'un pla de prevenció i control de la legionel·losi en instal·lacions» (2023, DL PM 01038-2023) and «Nota informativa: Pla de Vigilància a les instal·lacions de risc… Campanya 2024» (22-12-2023); UNE 100030:2023 (October 2023).
How we work
Your hot water in four steps
1
Photos and details
Photos of the plant room or heat pump, the cylinders and the return; how many rooms or beds you have and which months you open. If you already have a Legionella plan, send it to us.
2
We review it
From your photos and, if it needs to be seen, on site: temperatures, return, drains, access and pipe runs where water sits still.
3
Design and installation
Cylinders, balanced return, drains, thermometers and sampling points, with whichever heat pump or heat source fits: we work with all brands.
4
Ready for your plan
We hand over the annex III declaration and an installation ready for your maintenance company to do its job.
Common questions
Frequently asked questions about Legionella in Mallorca
Does my hotel or agroturismo in Mallorca have to comply with the Legionella rules?
Yes. RD 487/2022 only excludes installations in buildings used solely as homes, and a hotel or an agroturismo is not one. As the owner or operator, you must have a Legionella Prevention and Control Plan (PPCL) or a Health Plan (PSL), updated to the regulation since 1 July 2025. In Mallorca it is inspected by the Government's Servei de Salut Ambiental. If you also have a hot tub or spa with water at 24 °C or more, that is covered too.
What if I let a villa or holiday apartments?
Holiday apartments, hostels and guesthouses located inside a residential building are covered: the Spanish Ministry of Health says so in its answers on RD 487/2022 (August 2024 version). A holiday villa is not named; if your case is unclear, ask the Balearic Government's Servei de Salut Ambiental, which decides in Mallorca. Even if it does not bind you, hot water reaching 60 °C and not stagnating while the house is closed are the very principles the regulation sets out.
What temperature must the hot water be?
Under annex III of RD 487/2022: at least 60 °C in the final cylinder (70 °C in a tank-in-tank cylinder), over 50 °C at every tap, shower and in the return, and the temperature stable within one minute. The installation must be able to reach 70 °C for thermal disinfection. Cold water below 20 °C where the climate allows: in a Mallorca summer, watch out for tanks and pipes in the sun.
I have a heat pump: can it reach the 60 °C the rules require?
It can, by design: a heat pump and cylinder sized for your consumption and a properly programmed disinfection (anti-Legionella) function. For example, Daikin explains in the guide for its Altherma 3 R F that this function relies on the booster heater, which must be able to run for at least 4 hours from the start, and that when the heater takes the load electricity use is significantly higher. The key to saving in a Mallorca hotel or agroturismo is for the heat pump to do most of the work and the heater only to top up.
We close in winter: what has to be done before reopening?
After a shutdown of more than a month, annex IV of RD 487/2022 requires the installation to be cleaned and disinfected before it is used again, unless the health authority sets another period, and a Legionella test 15 to 30 days later. That applies to many Mallorca hotels and agroturismos that close in the low season. Plan it with your maintenance company; we leave the installation with drains and access so that it can be done properly and quickly.
Who does the plan, the tests and the disinfection?
A technical manager, in-house or contracted, draws up the plan. Biocide disinfection for third parties is done by a company registered in the ROESB with qualified staff (SEA492_2); samples for Legionella culture are taken by a body accredited to UNE-EN ISO/IEC 17025 (there is until 1 January 2030 to get accredited; until then, sampling follows annex VI of RD 487/2022) and analysed by an accredited laboratory. We are none of those three: we are the installers. In Mallorca we design and install your hot water to meet annex III and help the installation meet what your plan requires.
How often does Legionella have to be tested?
In domestic water, at least every three months, under table 3 of annex V of RD 487/2022, plus 15 to 30 days after each cleaning and disinfection. The cylinder and return temperatures are checked daily, and the taps monthly, in rotation, until all have been covered in the year. In a Mallorca establishment with rooms, the Government accepts counting each room's taps as a single sampling point.
What does limescale have to do with Legionella?
Quite a lot. RD 487/2022 itself lists scale deposits among the factors that favour Legionella, and annex III asks for an assessment of a softener or a scale inhibitor on the incoming water. According to SINAC bulletins, 17 of the 22 Mallorca networks in our hardness table are above 30 °fH. And scale in the cylinder is insulation: it makes keeping 60 °C more expensive.
Do you cover all of Mallorca, and in which languages?
Yes, we work across the whole island and speak English, Spanish and German. We reply within 24-48 hours on working days. We are Joaquín and Juan, the two partners. No subcontractors. You can read client reviews on the JSL Google Maps listing.
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Shall we look at your hot water?
Send us photos of the cylinders and the return and we'll tell you what your installation needs. Itemised quote.