Easiest way to make rpavlis water? - Page 12

#111: Post by **plyske** » May 27th, 2023, 8:04 am

Carl K wrote:I do the same as Boren, except I make 1 liter of concentrate because a 1 liter bottle is easier for me to get:

I also wrote the recipe on the jugs so it's one less thing to remember.

This is my 1 liter concentrate bottle:
image

This is my gallon of espresso water:
Also 38 ml is essentially the same as 40 ml
And a hint, 1 ml weighs 1 gram. So you can use the same scale you used to weigh out the potassium bicarbonate to weigh out 38 or 40 grams of concentrate to put in your gallon jug.
image

So I ended up following this one, however I mixed the concentration with 5L of distilled water, so 50ml into 5L distilled.

My TDS is 56. Is that OK? The water was 21 degrees Celsius at the time.

#112: Post by **homeburrero** » May 27th, 2023, 2:27 pm

plyske wrote:My TDS is 56. Is that OK? The water was 21 degrees Celsius at the time.

Yes.

The conductivity of 100 mg/L KHCO3 at 25C is about 116 µS/cm, which would read 58 ppm on a typical inexpensive meter which uses a calibration factor of 0.5.

May 31st, 2023, 4:03 pm

Thanks again, Pat!

I've now used the water for a couple of days in my Rancilio Silvia V6. I've experienced that the steam wand has started to heat quite slowly - and actually lose heat fast. Is that something I should expect when using this water?

#114: Post by **homeburrero** » May 31st, 2023, 6:42 pm

plyske wrote:I've experienced that the steam wand has started to heat quite slowly - and actually lose heat fast. Is that something I should expect when using this water?

Mineral content only affects the thermal conductivity and capacity of water slightly, so I don't think your mineral content has anything to do with this. If a blob of scale worked loose and clogged the steam wand that might affect the steam (and heat) flow from the wand.

#115: Post by **plyske** » June 1st, 2023, 4:50 am

I just tried descaling the machine, that didn't help. So I'll try to go back to the harder (filtered) water and see if that makes the difference. If it does, I'll try to make the r palvis water a bit harder by adding natrium(?).

I just had a thought: Could it be the Steam thermostat that needs to be replaced?

#116: Post by **homeburrero** » June 1st, 2023, 10:19 am

plyske wrote:... I'll try to make the r palvis water a bit harder by adding natrium(?).

Adding natrium (sodium) would not increase hardness. You can use sodium bicarb (baking soda) instead of potassium bicarb in your rpavlis recipe but it will still have zero hardness.

plyske wrote:Could it be the Steam thermostat that needs to be replaced?

That might be a good question to ask over in the Repairs forum where hopefully you can get attention from Silvia troubleshooting experts. Be sure you are clear about exactly what you see that has gone wrong.