Water filtration for La Marzocco GS/3

#1: Post by **YseanY** » October 14th, 2014, 6:44 pm

I'm looking to plumb in my GS/3 but being in Los Angeles, CA, the water is pretty hard. The below is the published water report for my city and I was wondering whats a good under the sink water filter system to keep scale build up to a minimum? I'm hoping for something simple and easy to maintain, is the one that Chris Coffee sells sufficient? https://www.chriscoffee.com/Water-Softe ... ftsysg.htm

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B4geyU ... sp=sharing

#2: Post by **Marshall** » October 14th, 2014, 6:50 pm

This question is asked on H-B every week in one form or another. I suggest you search previous posts on water filtration.

#3: Post by **lain2097** » October 14th, 2014, 7:40 pm

That's a big topic, however for what it's worth I use a Everpure BH2 with my gs/3. And no it's no hocus pocus stuff, you really do TASTE the difference immediately. Loved it so much I bought another for tap water, even the friggin ice freezes nearly clear.

Also worth nothing that I don't think published results can be taken literally. At my last place the water was somewhat hard, telltale scale buildup on shower, taps after one year. Now I moved maybe 8km and the water is not only less chlorine smelling (high tech I know) the scale is far less. Though I still use a filter.

In the past I've also done to traditional salt thing, it was a pain but cheap.

My parent's place in the suburbs (~25km) water is awful still by comparison. Very hard and chlorine, it cakes on the kettle elements and taps. Eastern Canada is not known to have particularly hard water like SW coasters. I don't think in your case you can get away with one filter/softener, probably going to need at least one dedicated softener and filter.

#4: Post by **frank828** » October 15th, 2014, 4:02 pm

I'm in los angeles and have been using a single water filter holder with a matrix pb1 filter for my drinking water. I wouldnt use it for espresso, though. Ive used this water for hot water in a zojirushi hot water dispenser and it eventually scales like crazy.

I've been using bottles of crystal geyser with a flojet for espresso.

I doubt there's a single filter solution for LA's water.

#5: Post by **FotonDrv** » October 16th, 2014, 10:15 am

Marshall wrote:This question is asked on H-B every week in one form or another. I suggest you search previous posts on water filtration.

Soooo correct! The water Threads are deep enough to need waders, and yes, you can taste the difference in water filtration before the machine and what comes out of the machine.

I have an Everpure ESO7 with a drinking water tap before the machine and then the results coming out of the machine and the taste is noticeable. I have tried several filtration systems and it all depends on your water what you will need and what you will like.

Read the water threads.

http://users.rcn.com/erics/ · #6: Post by **erics** » October 16th, 2014, 10:29 am

I've been using bottles of crystal geyser with a flojet for espresso.

And you would be even more pleased if you added a 2 or 3 gallon accumulator tank between the Flojet and the espresso machine.

And, to top that, a small higher pressure pump to charge the accumulator to ~ 80 psi and a pressure regulator between the accumulator and the espresso machine. Depending upon your usage, the small pump might run every other day for a minute or so.

http://users.rcn.com/erics/ · #7: Post by **erics** » October 16th, 2014, 10:55 am

I'm looking to plumb in my GS/3 but being in Los Angeles, CA, the water is pretty hard.

Then, I would start here: http://www.lamarzocco.com/water_calculator/

#8: Post by **homeburrero** » October 16th, 2014, 1:09 pm

Sean,
Even before using that calculator I think you need a better report - one specific to your area of LA. See if you can't find something better here: http://dpw.lacounty.gov/wwd/web/YourWat ... ports.aspx

The one you posted indicates a total hardness of 26 - 260 (mg/l as CaCO3) - useless because of imprecision. It also has no indication of alkalinity. You can also test your tap water yourself using an aquarium test kit.

#9: Post by **lain2097** » October 16th, 2014, 3:28 pm

That link to La Marzocco calculator is cool. Ran some numbers in this calculator based off my city's published figures which are quite detailed and extensive: http://ville.montreal.qc.ca/pls/portal/ ... T_2012.PDF

In particular Total hardness of 117 mg/L mean and TDS of 143 mg/L. Not sure why LaMarzocco recommends according to that calculator thing a RO+Softener+Particulate. My BH2 seems to have 5m filtration+some softening needs covered... at least I think?

Don't understand the reasoning for a RO?

#10: Post by **homeburrero** » October 16th, 2014, 6:50 pm

lain2097 wrote:Not sure why LaMarzocco recommends according to that calculator thing a RO+Softener+Particulate.

That online tool's recommendation needs to be interpreted cautiously. Note that it will sometimes recommend RO + bypass, RO + remineralization, and softening - clearly you would never do all three. When it recommends carbon I think it generally means in addition to one of the the other methods (it recommends carbon whenever chlorine is high.) Same with the particulate filter, which is always recommended.

It seems to use a very simplistic calculation. Appears to recommend softening whenever the total hardness is greater than 79 irrespective of the LSI. Chlorides in excess of 30 ppm seems to trigger addition of RO as a recommendation. RO + bypass recommendation seems to kick in when TDS is 150 or greater. It will indicate "yes" for softening if you give it numbers where where softening is inadequate and RO is clearly needed.