Hello, Steve

The water from a cold water storage tank isn't potable, and you shouldn't be using it for drinking or cooking (or cleaning your teeth for that matter !), although it will be OK for the washing machine. I know the espresso machine is going to get it up to nearly boiling point, but it still sounds fairly unhealthy. (Have you ever looked inside that tank ? )

Even in very old properties, you should have at least one cold water pipe running directly from the mains - to your sink in the kitchen. I'd have a hunt around for that and tap into it. If you can't find that, hunt for the supply going *into* that tank, which must come from the mains.

Do you really still have lead pipework ? I know some building regulations in Scotland are different from England, but I'd have thought it would have been removed years ago, especially with very soft water.

A UK dealer for La Spaziale contacted head office here in the UK, and they said "minimum supply pressure is 1.5bar/21.8psi".

Then I would say, without doing a lot of research on the why's and wherefore's of that requirement, that your proposed installation does not meet that requirement.

There are pics of the Vivaldi internals here: http://www.rimpo.org/s1/

Edit - And it might be a good idea to pose your installation question on the Vivaldi forum linked above as it is possible that someone else has been successful with the low inlet pressure. I would be prepared to provide the specs on the filter you plan on using.

keepitsimple wrote:The water from a cold water storage tank isn't potable, and you shouldn't be using it for drinking or cooking (or cleaning your teeth for that matter !), although it will be OK for the washing machine.

We had a problem with the water supply recently and the plumbers that came fitted a filter to allow the water supplied to meet certain regulations - but I know what you mean. I have a Brita filter jug for all the drinking water. We had the option to have all the flats connected to the rising mains (not just having it feed the tank) but that was going to cost a lot of money and mean hacking into walls - so a no go from most of the other residents. I don't think there is a mains inlet except from where the tank is fed - it's a long way up to the attic!

erics wrote:And it might be a good idea to pose your installation question on the Vivaldi forum linked above as it is possible that someone else has been successful with the low inlet pressure.

I registered with the S1 forum yesterday and have only just received my access to the forum - will post my query there too.

ira wrote:I think you have only 2 choices, an inline pump to give you pressure or gravity feed through a big pipe from a second tank as high above the machine as you can get it. There is no way 8PSI will get through a 1/4" line and a filter and not completely starve the machine.

Thanks Ira - I think my choices are limited with this machine. Maybe I should wait for Izzo's Double Boiler hand-filled machine

steem21 wrote:Thanks Ira - I think my choices are limited with this machine. Maybe I should wait for Izzo's Double Boiler hand-filled machine

Or go for the pour-over S1...

http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/hom ... inivivaldi

It's a vibe pump... but it's the quietest I've heard yet (when I was in ChrisCoffee's showroom).

The loud vibe pump in the Silvia for one of the reasons I was keen on a rotary pump. Hmm....

While it's not quite rotary quiet, the mini Vivaldi is much quieter than Silvia.

Hi!
I feed my machine with RO mineralised water, and because Ro systems use a pressurized water tank, my inlet pressure is about 1.5 bar and everything is ok, but from your description it looks it won't work. My vendour said Vivaldi needs positive inlet pressure of at least 1 bar.
As for the mini-Vivaldi loudness, it was discussed in the s1 forums and someone even made a video for the other curios guys, and there was a comparison as far as I remember correctly. Anyway, the conclusion was that the mini-Vivaldi is very quiet, much quieter then other vibe pumps.
If you prefer plumbed-in then maybe you should consider installing an RO-system and a pump? Then you'd have top-quality drinking water too.

Thanks for all your suggestions! I've decided to go ahead and purchase the S1 VII.
I'm going to see how I get on with a sub 1bar of pressure but with this in mind, and your suggestion of a pump, coffeeowl, does anyone have any experience or suggestions of a water pump and accumulator?

I'm wondering whether I can use a Flojet, without the water bottle attachment, to increase the pressure of incoming water from my 3/8" supply? Has anyone tried that? I would use an accumulator of course. But if I had to install a water pump, what's the smallest and quietest I could get away with?
Has anyone any experience of a pump like this:

http://www.espressoparts.com/product/20 ... ystem.html

I did say no pump in the original posting but that was because I may have been required to relocate due to work, but I've just found out I'm staying put, so I can make "slight" alterations to the plumbing.

Steve

unfortunately I have no experience with using a pump. In the manual for the RO filter I am using it is written that if the incoming pressure is under 2.2bar, one should use a pump. Unfortunately there is nothing more on the topic, but maybe you could find some information if you do a search on RO water filters.