I think testing for chloride rather than chloramine would be more important. Most water filters easily remove chloramine, but to get ride of chloride ions you need reverse osmosis.

This is a brass/copper machine with zero stainless steel so chlorides are not as much of an issue compared to stainless steel boiler machines or machines with stainless steel water level probes or temperature probe sheaths.

Chloramine is not easy to remove. It takes much, much longer to remove compared to Chlorine - that's why it is used for disinfection. As such, much of it isn't removed by typical activated carbon filter systems. Much of it isn't removed by typical home distillation equipment. Much of it isn't removed by typical under-counter home reverse osmosis systems, although the activated carbon pre-filter can work better. Catalytic carbon/granular activated carbon work best among home solutions for espresso machines. There are more complicated and chemical methods, but they are more for medical use (dialysis) or brewing (Campden tablets).

If chloramine isn't removed, then it will put a plastic taste into your espresso. I find the taste really gross in milk drinks.

Note there isn't one level of chloramine. For example, the harder your tap water, the more chloramine goes into your water supply.

I agree with Pressino, and I'm pretty sure that chlorides are an even bigger corrosion risk for copper and brass than they are for stainless beceuse of catalytic corrosion of copper- - something the late professor Pavlis often discussed on this site. (One example: La Pavoni Europiccola Boiler Leak.) When you have a valuable vintage machine with hard to replace copper and brass parts I think you want to be especially cautious about chloride.

I'm unable to find chloride numbers for Pisa Italy tap water, but it might be high due to seawater incursion, so is worth looking into. If it's high then your best bet is an RO system with remin. I think the OP's best bet for now is to contact his water provider to see if they have numbers for chloride in the tap water. If necessary you can have the water tested or test it yourself with a chloride drop titration kit.

Chloramine is harder to remove than chlorine and there are differing opinions about whether it's better or worse for taste. Your water utility can tell you whether or not it uses chloramine. You can get filters that are optimized for chloramine removal, and most RO systems that I'm aware of use activated or catalytic carbon prefilters that are adequate for chloramine removal before it hits the RO, then the membrane removes the ammonia.

I'm not saying chlorides are harmless - far from it - just that at lower concentrations it is stainless steel - well, some stainless steels - that are susceptible. Of course, lower is better and zero is best. If I was on well water then yes, I would test. If I was on municipal water, then I'd be content with the utility's reporting and not test for chloride myself. I'd be willing to accept that risk.

Regardless, protection of brass against bronze disease starts with forming the oxide layer before exposure to chloride: Corrosion prevention in espresso machines

In that case, I suggest you test your water for calcium, chlorides, chloramines, eye of newt, human blood, radium and vibranium...
(The more I can keep Pat, Craig and Nick talking about it, the more I learn).

A water utility report for chloride ion at your local tap is always best. Chloride numbers can fluctuate seasonally in many places and also as the utility switches between different sources. Most online reports don't include chloride so that's why you may need to contact them. Make sure they know you want chloride numbers here and not chlorine. If you can't get that I think testing yourself with a simple chloride titration kit may be better than sending the sample out for analysis. That way you can test over a year or so. If your average chloride ion runs higher than about 15 ppm then I think you should be looking into RO. (Synesso for example recommends RO when chloride gets up in the 5-15 ppm range.) For plumbed-in, if in doubt and you just want to be cautious, your safe solution is either RO with remin, or a carboy system with recipe water like rpavlis.

JRising wrote:I suggest you test your water for calcium, chlorides, chloramines, eye of newt, human blood, radium and vibranium...

If you have numbers for total hardness, calcium hardness, alkalinity, chloride, and silica, and know whether or not your utility uses chloramine I think you have everything you might need for making decisions about using or treating your tap water for espresso machine use. Sometimes you can rule out silica or chloride based on knowing about the water source, and if your water happens to be very soft you can just do a simple conductivity pen TDS measurement to rule out hardness being a concern. An inexpensive GH & KH drop titration kit accompanied by the Insane FAQ is often used to decide about limescale risk.

I use bottled water as my tap water is very hard and the machine is not plumbed.
My Faema has a rare steel boiler.

I know it's not the best option as espresso tastes somewhat light and thin (forgive my newbie vocabulary) but it's the easiest way to get "softened" water and i can try different brands