Thank you to everyone here for educating me on some water basics. It's nearly goodbye awesome CO water hello crappy AZ water. Packing up the espresso machine and roaster this weekend. Scottsdale water has a lot of chlorides. Since there is no convenient place in the new house for the espresso machine near the kitchen RO with remineralizer, I am going to a cart. For now a temp one, but eventually our son will build us one with a granite top and some cool LED lighting. That's his thing. The Flojet people often consider apparently recycles alot so decided on something more the long term. A few others I have chatted with have used a similar system as below. In terms of plumbing here is what I have purchased to give a go as a first shot. If anyone has other suggestions for set up or parts all input is welcome. I will be mixing water 5 gal at a time. I may add a second tank in the future if the cart allows for the space.
Sorry about some the image sizes.
The set up is: Holding tank>check valve>pump>accumulation tank>pressure regulator>espresso machine
To use the Holding Tank with JG 3/8 tube you will need a reducer bushing of some sort and JG adapter. I chose the following. You might want to base your decision for the reducer on whether you can buy a single (rather than a pack of 10) JG adapter.
-Reducer Bushing 3/4" NPT Male x 1/2" NPT Female
- John Guest ½ NPTF Straight Adapter 3/8 OD tubing
PP011224W 3/8" 1/2"
IHO I'd ante-up for the ShurFlo SS accumulator. I had one of the NSF painted steel (yes, I know there is bladder that contains the water...) and it was a problem. When I tore the system down I purged rusty-goo-water from the accumulator bladder. Since moving to the 2-gallon ShurFlo SS accumulator there has been no such issue.
If you refill the water tank before it sucks air...no need for the one-way valve; although its good insurance for cheap .
And incorporate T fittings with on/off valves for draining if/when necessary on both sides of accumulator, tank & pump. Again, for a little more $ it will make your life so much easier if/when maintenance, draining, etc., needs to be performed.
Dan thanks for the input. So is the Shuffle all SS on the inside? I have shut offs from my current filter system that I was going to migrate over so I'll have that part covered.
Need to confirm this with Pentair, but I believe their "patented dome" is the only component that is in contact with water in addition to the internal SS walls of the tank.
It is possible the internal bladder on the unit I had problems with was compromised, which would explain the rusty-goo that presumably came from the steel tank's internal walls. It was only ~$35 so I never bothered sending it in to verify and instead went with the Shurflo SS and haven't looked back.
Want to confirm that this is up and running and so far is a great system. The only thing with the parts list is that the JG bulkhead did not fit the tank so I had to get a 3/4 to 1/2 reducer and get a John Guest 1/2 in straight adapter to the 3/8 tubing. Unfortunately I had to buy 10 of them. If anyone wants one shoot me a PM.
So far the system is working great with very little pump action needed. No aftertaste detected either from the pump.
Before making massive purchases on water for a plumb system, try buying a $25 Honeforest quality water tester at Amazon. I was surprise of the different types of tests I did. However, a bwt water system under the circumstances of having a new espresso machine, currently it is not what I need. But the water tester I did need. Here is why. Every month I can test the water before it gets into the espresso machine and when it comes out. I can determine there and then whether there is scaling in the boilers. Here is a video I have made of my tests
Exb2019 wrote:Before making massive purchases on water for a plumb system, try buying a $25 Honeforest quality water tester at Amazon. I was surprise of the different types of tests I did. However, a bwt water system under the circumstances of having a new espresso machine, currently it is not what I need. But the water tester I did need. Here is why. Every month I can test the water before it gets into the espresso machine and when it comes out. I can determine there and then whether there is scaling in the boilers. Here is a video I have made of my tests
In my case no tests needed. Phoenix water is very high chlorides. Testing or city water reports or both are a must in order to decide. Thanks for sharing this.
Exb2019 wrote:Before making massive purchases on water for a plumb system, try buying a $25 Honeforest quality water tester at Amazon. I was surprise of the different types of tests I did. However, a bwt water system under the circumstances of having a new espresso machine, currently it is not what I need. But the water tester I did need. Here is why. Every month I can test the water before it gets into the espresso machine and when it comes out. I can determine there and then whether there is scaling in the boilers. Here is a video I have made of my tests
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Two points here. The TDS meter measures in parts per million as opposed to milliseconds. All water has to be tested at the same room or cool temperature since temp effects tds reader. If measuring water out of machine wait for it to cool to room temp. You can expedite the process by placing in refrigerator until temp is achieved.
Between order and chaos there is espresso.
Semper discens.
Here is what the set up looks like. Note the wide mouth on the tank makes filling easy. Note that the waste tank has a handle (not shown) which makes it easy to carry out to the garden and dump. Also not shown is the pressure gauge.
redbone wrote:Two points here. The TDS meter measures in parts per million as opposed to milliseconds. All water has to be tested at the same room or cool temperature since temp effects tds reader. If measuring water out of machine wait for it to cool to room temp. You can expedite the process by placing in refrigerator until temp is achieved.
I would add the following:
1. that honeforest TDS meter is for salinity, not freshwater. It will read 30% under the actual TDS of freshwater. Spend a few bucks more and get a 4-4-2 calibrated meter, but if you are interested in measuring hardness - get a hach 5b titration kit
2. A decent meter will have temperature correction - but still - don't test hot water
3. Measuring the TDS of the water coming out of the machine is meaningless - measure the water going into the machine instead - otherwise, you will be making a bunch of guesses and assumptions about the composition.
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