I am no metallurgist, but I know brass is an alloy made of copper and zinc. While it will not tarnish as fast and is harder than raw copper, it is still copper. I would imagine it is not immune to the effect.

Hi Grant,

I've got an "insta-hot" faucet plumbed in which allows me to hand off to my wife, her shot, which she prefers to dilute to whatever level suits her at that moment. The only real benefit to this set-up is it allows me to get back to preparing "my" shot.

JohnB. wrote:If that is truly the case then you will be tasting it in your macaroni & that "fresh cold water" you are injecting with the steam derived from your "stale" copper flavored boiler water. Meanwhile I'm going to draw some more water from the hot water tap of my S1 & make another Americano.

John raises an interesting point: I think he's suggesting that if excessive minerals/metals are dissolved in the boiler water then you'd taste them in a cup of cold water that was heated using the steam.

I don't agree. I say that the steam coming from any boiler will be relatively pure H2O, and will not carry the dissolved metals or minerals. It is essentially going to be distilled water coming from the wand.

If this is the case, then you'd expect that boiler water to contain higher and higher concentrations of minerals/metals. Not being an owner of an HX machine, I'm not familiar with recommendations for flushing and refilling the steam boiler. But it seems like it'd be a great idea to completely replace the liquid frequently instead of continuing to just add make up water.

Jim

JimG wrote: I say that the steam coming from any boiler will be relatively pure H2O, and will not carry the dissolved metals or minerals. It is essentially going to be distilled water coming from the wand.

If this is the case, then you'd expect that boiler water to contain higher and higher concentrations of minerals/metals. Not being an owner of an HX machine, I'm not familiar with recommendations for flushing and refilling the steam boiler. But it seems like it'd be a great idea to completely replace the liquid frequently instead of continuing to just add make up water.

Jim

I agree with both points here. Though my water is only 32 ppm I am going to use the water tap to replace most of my boiler water when I get home this evening. I almost never use it and only steam milk occasionally with a decafe cappa or two in the evening.