Hello,

I installed today new BWT protect filter to my new Rocket Mozzifiato machine. Tap water test with BWT hardness kit were 22 dTH ( GH ) and 12 dKH ( hard water ) so the recommendation was to go with the protect and not the premium . The results from filtered water were 1-2 dTH ( not even turn to Red as expected , stayed yellow - light green ) and 12 dKH. Are these results make sense and will protect my machine ? Should I consider anything else or just use this water on daily basis. The taste of the filtered water is good and not salty , I hardly feel the difference between tap water and the filtered.
Thanks in advance for any comment

Ricki

burkkof wrote:Are these results make sense and will protect my machine ? Should I consider anything else or just use this water on daily basis.

Your results are just what you expect from this type of filter (a conventional sodium exchange softener). Your hardness drops down to very low levels and the alkalinity stays the same. The pH also stays the same. Your limescale risk as well as your calcium sulfate (gypsum) risk is now low because of the very low hardness. By keeping the high alkalinity and pH you avoid an increased corrosivity risk from this filter. (If you were to use a decarbonizing filter rather than conventional softener with this very high hardness water it could drop alkalinity and pH enough to be a corrosion concern.) Your softener does increase your sodium ion level, but that would be a taste issue if anything.

You do want to replace this filter at the recommended intervals based on volume and total hardness of the input water.

If you do still have a corrosion concern here it would be from high chloride ion in the water. If you have that the only practical filtration would be to use Reverse Osmosis with remineralization. There are drop titration kits for chloride but most people get those numbers from their water utility.

Thanks for the quick reply ! One more question , for now the filter's bypass is zero ( BWT recommendation ) should I keep it or change it to 1 ? According the filter supplier it should be replaced once in a year , anyway I installed bigger size than I need ( V instead of S ) just to be on a safe side.
Is there a point to test again the hardness in few months just to be sure there is no change with the filter efficiency?

Ricki

burkkof wrote:One more question , for now the filter's bypass is zero ( BWT recommendation ) should I keep it or change it to 1 ?

No. Keep it at zero, this one doesn't support bypass. I think even if you did set it at 1 or more it would work the same, with no softener bypass.

burkkof wrote:According the filter supplier it should be replaced once in a year , anyway I installed bigger size than I need ( V instead of S ) just to be on a safe side.
Is there a point to test again the hardness in few months just to be sure there is no change with the filter efficiency?

Don't keep it any longer than one year, but follow the filter manual's advice about capacity. The size V with a 23 °dTH hardness level will be exhausted when 600 liters of water has passed through it.
(See the capacities table in https://www.bwt.com/hu/-/media/bwt/glob ... ebdf207e6c ).
When exhausted it will no longer soften and your filtered hardness goes way up.

Many thanks for the info !
Besides the dHK and dGH test should I do more test for chloride and more ? Or it's okay just with these 2 values?
Any recommended test kit ? Sera / API / Brita ?

Ricki

burkkof wrote:Besides the dHK and dGH test should I do more test for chloride and more ? Or it's okay just with these 2 values?
Any recommended test kit ? Sera / API / Brita ?

If you can't get chloride numbers from your water utility you can test it yourself using drop titration kits from Hanna or from Hach. See The skinny on chloride testing?

According to my water supplier the chlorine value for tap water is 0.3 mg/L , is it reasonable value ?

That number is for chlorine. Chloride is different - it refers to the negatively charged chloride ion. Many water reports don't mention it because it's not of much concern to most people. It's a relatively harmless ion (for example it is the anion associated with sodium chloride, simple table salt.) But in high numbers it can cause corrosion in espresso equipment. It is not easily reduced by most filtration systems, and when it's high the usual treatment method is a reverse osmosis system which removes the chloride along with most everything.

Okay , I like to keep things simple , I will work with the BWT best protect filter , will replace it every year and between will test the dGH / dKH to verify consistency with the values. Cross my finger that my new rocket will last for few years without the need to clean the boiler.

After two days of using the new filter, I noticed that the flow is faster than before, what should be the effect of the softness of the water on the extraction behavior? Before installing the BWT filter 19 grams of roasted coffee gave me about 45 grams of espresso in about 25 seconds and now with the same weight of 19 grams and the same grind setting (Eureka Specialita) I get 65 grams of espresso and I can see the flow faster than before. Besides adjusting the grind setting finer, what else can I do? Is there any known evidence or correlation of extraction behavior according to water softness/hardness?