Everything's great about my two-year old Domobar Super HX manual except the plastic water reservoir. The heat from the machine warms the plastic and I'd prefer not to have to think about that plastic getting into my filtered water, then my coffee. Is anyone making stainless steel or aluminum replacement tanks? Doesn't seem like it would be too tough for a skilled metalworker, and it would be a hot upgrade for plastic-paranoids like me (look at all the metal water bottles on the market now). The auto shut-off switch is adjustable to compensate for any weight difference, so should work.

Have you thought about plumbing it or supplying it from a remotely-located large glass reservoir (sparkletts bottle..) and using a flojet pump?

After 2 years, the food grade plastic has probably done all the outgassing it's ever going to do.

A stainless tank will take a while to clear the manufacturing lubricants unless special cleaners are used. It's not a trivial process to make the tank food grade.

A stainless tank will transmit heat more rapidly, possibly causing the water to slime faster.

I'd definitely use an external (glass if possible) tank. My memories of sampling water from the internal reservoir of an HX machine (my old Valentina) after a few days of being in there were that it was not tasty like filtered tap water. I don't know if it was leakage from the plastic or just absorbing stuff from the atmosphere, but it didn't taste right. That's a hard thing for me to identify beneath the flavor of actual brewed espresso, but it strikes me that off-tasting water could only make your espresso worse.

I never did any side by side back then when I had a machine with a tank, nor do I think I had anything like the taste experience to really observe the difference then. But these days, I *do* very much notice a loss of shot clarity and quality if I don't drain my GS3's brew boiler regularly. After I do that and the water's fresh, the shots taste... cleaner.

Thanks all for the quick advice. Sounds like I'm not too crazy for thinking a warm plastic jug isn't the best water reservoir for making good espresso. I'd like to keep the water contained in the machine and plumbing in/ adding a pump seem like a lot more work than searching for a metal or glass replacement. Maybe there's something I could modify/repurpose...hmm...

i replaced mine with a square glass vase, think its from ikea. My plastic container had a really strong gross plastic smell when i got my machine (second hand) that i didnt want to use it. The glass is smaller so i need to fill it more often but that just means the water is fresher. Only downside is that its heavier then the plastic so when it gets empty it doesnt trip the switch, but i just got use to checking the water level every morning when i turn it on.

If you're getting glass containers that aren't intended for food use, you may want to make sure they're lead free (among other things, that's just the most notable one I can think of). Most of the stuff in Michael's and Hobby Lobby is, er, not made in the US for starters. I don't know that they are required to disclose what's in the glass when it's not intended for food use. You might might not be stepping up from using plastic.