Direct plumbing without an extravagant setup

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
monkeyboy
Posts: 47
Joined: 15 years ago

#1: Post by monkeyboy »

In my old home I did a direct plumb to my machine
ECM Technika Profi IV (switchable)

I was fortunate to have been able to tap a cold water line in the basement and install a softener / filter / pressure regulator on a wall in the basement then run a line behind my fridge and to the machine. Worked great.

I moved to a new house and I will not have such a setup.
Was thinking that I could take over a cabinet under the espresso machine location and place a 3 or maybe 5 gallon jug of water under there with a line to the machine.

Question being....would I need a FloJo type pump to get water to the machine? If so - then it gets more complex to run power to the lower cabinet...or could the espresso pump draw the water without the need for an electric pump assist?

Bonus question - If I buy 3 or 5 gallon jugs of water, are those generally good quality (filtered and softened?) or is extra treatment recommended.

thanks

Nunas
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Posts: 3660
Joined: 9 years ago

#2: Post by Nunas »

monkeyboy wrote:<snip>could the espresso pump draw the water without the need for an electric pump assist?
Until someone who has done this with an espresso machine, I'll give you my take on it. Your machine uses a rotary pump. I use similar pumps in my wine filters. Once they're primed, they can certainly lift water at least a couple of feet. That said, I don't know about any effect on pump longevity or warranty. It would be easy enough to jury-rig something up to your machine and give it a try. If the espresso machine pumps are like my wine pumps, you may need a foot valve to keep prime between uses.
Bonus question - If I buy 3 or 5 gallon jugs of water, are those generally good quality (filtered and softened?) or is extra treatment recommended.
That would depend on the water. If it's mineral/spring water you have in mind, there are huge differences, many being too hard. If it's RO water, you may have the opposite situation, too few minerals, in which case you could simply add some bicarb to your water. There are many threads on water, here on H-B. Search "water" and you'll be reading for days :lol:

Pressino
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Posts: 1372
Joined: 3 years ago

#3: Post by Pressino »

Do you have a kitchen sink close to the counter where you plan to place your machine? If go you could probably replace the under sink cold water supply valve with a dual outlet valve...one that goes up to your sink and the other to supply your machine.

Grant
Posts: 441
Joined: 19 years ago

#4: Post by Grant »

My Elektra A3 (rotary pump) has been drawing water from a bottle on the floor (a lift of about 3.5 feet) for over 3 years and still seems to be going strong. It is slightly noisier (to my ear) then when it had line pressure, but still works well. Concerned me at first, but I got over it. Machine specs calls for 4 bar line pressure, but in my current house, this was just not possible to do without spending a ton of $$. Being a 2005 model, warranty not a concern. I just decided to just risk it at first, and have never looked back.

I have about a 3" stub of tube (a "sharp" point of water entry), connected to a one-way check valve (to keep the tube primed so it cannot drain back into the bottle) and then about 3' of hose until it hits the A3 factory braided steel hose. Maybe 4' in total, 3' vertical lift.

I was careful the first time I activated the pump to lift the water bottle ABOVE machine level to help prime the pump/line. I am also EXTREMELY cautious about never letting the bottle run low. I always replace it when it gets down to about 1/8th full as not to risk running dry, then dump bottle 1 into bottle 2 when it gets low enough to refill. I refill my bottles locally for about $2 a bottle (19l) at a commercial RO water place.

Even if I had to replace the pump every few years, it would still be so much cheaper than running a line (in my case), not even to mention the cost of avoiding the costs with in-line filters,softeners, RO, adding/removing minerals, etc. A lot of $$ savings on the water side to be gained. I just add about 2g (works out to about 1/2 a teaspoon) of potassium bicarbonate (dissolved first in boiler water) to a 19l bottle of RO or distilled water - a quick mix and good to go. If you are not familiar, look up "rpavlis" water here on the site. So, so easy.....

I looked at pumps and accumulators before doing this and just thought I would go simple to start from there.

Edit...I use a one-way valve just like this one...it sits in the bottle at the end of the hose with another 3" of pigtail hose on the end.

https://www.amazon.ca/John-Guest-Single ... B00BK7HHMQ
Grant