In the big water FAQ it starts out saying if you use Crystal Geyser Natural Alpine water that it won't scale. Does that mean if I only use that water it won't scale at all? I found a source locally that has it pretty cheap if I buy cases of gallons. It would be worth it to me at least for now to just use that if that is true.

The content of that water varies based on what plant it was bottled at. You can check TDS levels for your local plant on their website. None of these are RO/Distilled, so there will probably be a slow accumulation of scale in your machine, but if you use water from the plants with lower TDS values it will probably keep any formation to a very slow and manageable level.

This water thing confuses me lol. I have a TDS tester, for example my tap water is 275 and the bottled water I have currently is 50 TDS (not Crystal Geyser Natural Alpine water). I am not sure exactly how that translates to water hardness/scale buildup. Should I order something like http://www.amazon.com/API-GH-KH-Test-Kit/dp/B003SNCHMA/ to test for sure?

I live no where near one of their plants so I don't know which one it would be sourced from, it might say on the bottle after I buy some. I could not make heads or tails out of the info on the website.

Bossman wrote:Should I order something like http://www.amazon.com/API-GH-KH-Test-Kit/dp/B003SNCHMA/ to test for sure?

Yes. You need to measure GH and KH to determine the scale rate.

If his bottled water is 50 TDS, shouldn't that be unlikely to scale to a significant degree? That is about the TDS level that I try to get my water.

Ok I ordered the test kit. I have 30 gallons of the Crystal Geyser now so I hope it tests well lol.

Ok so I got my test and tested my tap water and 2 bottled waters, help me understand the results:

All 3 waters tested at 17.9ppm for the KH tests
Tap GH 13 drops was higher then then chart that stopped at 12 drops at 209ppm
Crystal Geyser and Ice Mountain both tested 107.4 GH (6 drops).

So what does that mean for scaling?

It means that the bottled water is substantially softer than your tap. Unless you use distilled or RO water (which you don't want to do since they don't taste very good) you will have some minerals in the water and some of those will contribute to the build up of scale. What changes depending on how you use your machine and the water that you are using is the rate and extent of scale build up.

If you use "soft" water and are sure to flush water through your boiler(s) you can slow the build up of scale to a very slow rate, but that rate will not be zero.

I have a plumbed in double boiler machine and have never had to descale the brew boiler; the brew boiler never boils the water and is constantly flushed with fresh water as you pull shots. The steam boiler, on the other hand, does boil the water and therefore tends to concentrate any minerals that are present and therefore generate the potential for scale. Every time I heat the steam boiler I am careful to flush some fresh water into it by using the hot water tap on the machine (fed from the steam boiler) to help heat my cups. In this way I am able to go for a year or so before I hear any indication of scale build up (noisy, thumping when the boiler heats up and starts to boil). When I hear this I just descale with white vinegar and I'm off and running for another long period.