Hey, so I've been seeing this BWT Water filter for home come up in several retailer locations both online and offline touting that it is THE SH*T for coffee and tea preparation. It claims that adding magnesium (minerals) to the water while filtering makes the water 'better' for coffee and tea.

Link - BWT Water Filter

I currently use Clear2o Water Filters and I've been happy with it. However, I'm mostly happy because I feel that I'm treating my espresso machine more adequately by using filtered water that is probably the best I can get from a home water filter jug - not necessarily because it's blown my mind to use filtered water over the tap water. As long as I feel that I'm creating the BEST CUP I can, I'm happy.

So, enter the BWT filter that touts greatness for coffee. Before I open the package and give it a whirl, has anyone used this and actually noticed a NOTICEABLE difference in their cup? I'm speaking for preparing espresso as I'm not really concerned with spending additional dollars to improve a cup of tea or hand drip coffee at this point.

Also, as a secondary question. Would an in-tank water softener remove what has been added by the BWT filter rendering their usage useless?

I believe the inhouse water softener would remove the Mg and other "hard" water cations. If your coffee tastes good, I'd not add more. We have hard water and the whole house water softener is all I use.

Marvin

Spitz.me wrote:So, enter the BWT filter that touts greatness for coffee. Before I open the package and give it a whirl, has anyone used this and actually noticed a NOTICEABLE difference in their cup? I'm speaking for preparing espresso as I'm not really concerned with spending additional dollars to improve a cup of tea or hand drip coffee at this point.

Also, as a secondary question. Would an in-tank water softener remove what has been added by the BWT filter rendering their usage useless?

The BWT claims are meaningless, unless they help you calculate how much magnesium and calcium will be left from your original water source after they are treated by their system. And even then, you won't really know until you test your water. And, yes, cation softening systems are designed to reduce the main scale producers, magnesium and calcium. So, I don't see the point of adding magnesium and treating the water to remove it.

You're usually wasting your money if you don't know how hard your input water is. It may not need any treatment at all, or might just need carbon filtering to remove chlorine and other bad flavors.

Prior to reading any replies to this thread I've essentially decided the BWT is of no value-added use to me. If it was maybe my first purchase for a filtered tap water system to use with my espresso I'd keep it, but since I feel my current method works very well, I can't rationalize it.

Thanks dudes.