Any ideas on how to filter/soften/etc. my god-awful water for my Bianca?

Water analysis, treatment, and mineral recipes for optimum taste and equipment health.
coxjc

#1: Post by coxjc »

I have images attached. Tons of TDSs, chloride, alkalinity, etc..

Thank you in advance.



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homeburrero
Team HB

#2: Post by homeburrero »

That Orange County water is pretty awful, and because of the high chloride I think there are only two good options if you're plumbing that machine in. The first would be a reverse osmosis system with a remineralization cartridge. That would reduce chloride along with everything else and a simple calcite remin would give you the alkalinity you need along with a little calcium hardness, but not enough to give you scale problems. Your tap water's hardness is high enough that you'd probably want a system with a softener in the first stage of that RO system if you don't already have a whole house softener.

The other option would be to avoid the tap water altogether and use bottled water or a recipe water based on purified water with minerals added. Of course the obvious choice if you use the machine's reservoir but you can also do that with a plumbed-in machine: Espresso Cart - Goodbye Plumbed In

P.S.
Your water at the tap is probably a little better than the numbers you see in the "Average MWD Surface Water" column of that report because it should be 70% - 80% ground water. But that's moot because the groundwater there is also pretty awful, with 65 ppm chloride ion. (Many espresso machine manufacturers advise that you keep chloride below 15 - 30 ppm for corrosion risk reasons.)

P.P.S
Your location says you are in the Bay Area, but that report is for Huntington Beach in So Cal. Are you sure you found the right report?
Pat
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Pressino
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#3: Post by Pressino »

Not sure, but people in Los Angeles refer to the location bordering the south shore of Santa Monica Bay as the South Bay...I'm not sure if there is a similar name for the area bordering the northern shore of San Pedro Bay...and perhaps some Los Angelenos refer to those regions as their Bay Area? Up where I live, when we say South Bay we mean Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties.