Newfie wrote:I've been using rpavlis water since getting this machine because I was worried about creating scale but if I'm being honest, I never actually tasted the water after I made it until yesterday. It was really flat and had no flavor at all (for water).

I'm thinking of just switching to my water that comes through the brita filter but I want to be sure I won't cause any damage in the long term.

I measured the general hardness of the water coming straight from the tap and it's about 120ppm. Going through the Brita filter brings it down to ~87ppm.

Is this OK if I just descale once every few months or would it still be advised to check out different water recipes?

Here's the water report from my City that I have no idea how to read, if it helps.
https://portail-m4s.s3.montreal.ca/pdf/ ... _water.pdf

Stick with the rpavlis water, descaling always leaves some stubborn bits that require manual scraping.

Newfie,

There's a good chart about water from homeburro, see Good references on water treatment for coffee/espresso

If I want to drink good tasting water, I buy Dasani. It is custom water for a good taste.
Pavlis water is not supposed to taste good until it's mixed with coffee.

If you want to have reasonable water to make coffee with in the CT2, follow the manufacturers instructions. Each espresso machine manufacturer has slightly different ideas as to what water is in their machine. They are stated to protect their expensive machine.
The variations of custom water would only be detected by very few espresso drinkers. I would no even try taste testing them all.

Your water test results will mean you going through Strietman's specific water guide and comparing it to what you have in your tap. If I recall, pH and chorides were of most concern to him.

Dave

Thanks for the info! I had no idea that Pavlis water wasn't supposed to taste good on it's own and that's reassuring.

I'm looking to do a full cleaning on my CT2 soon. Can anyone recommend a good copper polish product that's easily available in Canada? Any other cleaning tips that may not be on Strietman's site would be helpful too, since I never used something like copper polish before.

http://www.nevrdull.com/index.html

I use this for copper and brass cleaning as a recommendation from this thread. It's available in the US and from the site looks like it might be in Canada too.

I've looked up reviews on that when I seen it mentioned and read that the wadding they use can cause micro scratches and that has left me paranoid. Have you already used this on your machine? I'd be curious to see someones before and after pictures with this product.

I'm considering buying a Strietman CT2 that will be used one or two days each week. What is involved in draining the water to avoid having it sit in the boiler when not in use? An open boiler lever machine appears to be ideal for this type of use, but I'm not familiar with the CT2. I owned a Flair at one time but it was not streamlined enough for my needs.

Just lift the lever until all the water is drained.

Thanks for info. That is what I thought, but was not sure. The CT2 seems to be one of the few lever machines that has an open boiler. That would make it easy to dry out between uses.

Hi all

My pucks after pulling a 15g shot look like this, which I am not sure why. Curious any input. I do WDT in the basket and tamp with a levelling tamper before pulling.