Very interesting thread...... keep up the investigation guys so I know what to purchase.

Mark

George, thanks for chiming in! Indeed, the XL is uncomfortably large.


Quick snap of how things are looking under the sink... better. Pump setup is a little rigged; TMFR to come soon.

In the picture above, in case anyone is curious, you can just ignore that blue housing with the carbon filter in it on the left; It's fed by a tee off the water inlet (the line going across just above the U-trap) and is just for filtering my drinking water. The Claris is fed straight tap water, and is configured as the sole filter between the tap and the espresso machine pump.

I'm using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals GH and KH test kit. For a filter system of this type, a TDS meter is all but useless (except as a matter of interest, as in this thread). It's more tedious, but knowing mineral hardness (GH) and alkaline/carbonate hardness (KH) is the key to making sure an ion exchange type filter system is functioning.

shadowfax wrote:I'm using an Aquarium Pharmaceuticals GH and KH test kit. For a filter system of this type, a TDS meter is all but useless (except as a matter of interest, as in this thread). It's more tedious, but knowing mineral hardness (GH) and alkaline/carbonate hardness (KH) is the key to making sure an ion exchange type filter system is functioning.

Thanks Nicholas.

I'll grab a kit tomorrow.

From the manual:

5.1.5 Determining the filter capacity
Based on the carbonate hardness level of the water supply and your application, use the tables in chapter 6 to identify the recommended bypass setting and the resultant filter cartridge capacity.

The tables indicate with your KH of 6, bypass level 4 should be used (after adding the recommended 2 to the KH). Correlates nicely to your findings.

BTW, I can put in a plug for the Everpure service. With the head and filter units I only received a small printout with basic system info - no tables. But within 15 minutes of an e-mail to Everpure, I had the full, multi-language Claris Manual PDF file in hand.

George

Any updates? Anyone?

Mark

Mine still isn't leaking. And I haven't noticed any realistic difference between it and my regular DVA softening setup in terms of cup quality, using the informal touchy-feely evaluation of remembering how the shots were last week. This seems good enough to suggest that it's not much of an upgrade from the cation softening setup, but of course when I get a chance we'll get some harder data on that.

In the mean time, I've got my chemistry set--a pipette and 10mL tubes--for doing higher accuracy water tests (and many of them). I'm still waiting on my new test kits that are supposed to be more accurate before I re-do and expand the testing I've done so far.

shadowfax wrote:II'm still waiting on my new test kits that are supposed to be more accurate before I re-do and expand the testing I've done so far.

What brand are the new test kits? Where did you get the 10ml test tubes and pipettes (and are they manual or digital?)

Er, I am struggling to imagine what a digital pipette would look like. Are you talking about electronic dosing equipment? If so, you have far overestimated the money I'm ready to put up for the task of testing water.

As for the tests... I've bought KH, pH, and Calcium test kits from Salifert. They seem a little bit more tedious than the standard Aquarium Pharmaceuticals tests, but from what I've read from aquarium fanatics, probably the people to listen to on water testing equipment, Salifert is about the most accurate you can get, and they're one of the only test makers that puts expiration dates on their kits. All of this is definitely over the top if you're just casually interested in testing your water for espresso usage. I really think that even a TDS meter (especially one that isn't calibrated regularly) is generally useless, even with an RO setup--an accurate KH/GH test is all you should need. I'm reasoning for my kit accumulation that I'd like to test these water arrangements as thoroughly and accurately as possible, since the data may well end up being 'published' down the road.

As for where I got the lab stuff, I just ordered them from Indigo Instruments; I imagine that if you take the time you can probably find stuff like that locally at a high-end aquarium place or a teaching supply store... HB chemists may have even better ideas.

shadowfax wrote:Er, I am struggling to imagine what a digital pipette would look like. Are you talking about electronic dosing equipment? If so, you have far overestimated the money I'm ready to put up for the task of testing water.

Actually, it's called a "digital titrator". I saw a picture of one in the link posted on the accuracy of testing kits and I didn't know what it was called. Heck, they're only $130, Nicholas

shadowfax wrote:As for the tests... I've bought KH, pH, and Calcium test kits from Salifert.

I'm curious how they compare in process and accuracy with test kits I got from Hach. The hardness kit uses a dye powder that's added to the sample prior to titration. The alkalinity test uses two dyes, Bromcresol Green-Methyl Red for total alkalinity and Phenolpthaleine for Phenolpthaleine alkalinity (not present in my water, so not needed.) I'm not sure, but I think the separate dye eliminates the ambiguity of the first drop with titration-only systems like API. The alkalinity test also has separate high-range and low-range tests, but the low range test just consists of increasing the amount of water and using a different multiplier on the number of drops.

If you want to send me a water sample, I'll test it with the Hach kits.

Wow, the Hach test you're using also sounds a lot more serious than the Aquarium Pharmaceuticals test kit... Can you tell me which specific test you're using, as I'm seeing several different ones when I search. I reexamined that article I suggested to you when you were getting discrepant test results and realized that the author was using Hach test reagent when doing the baseline standard procedure for benchmarking the accuracy of all the other tests. Seems like if I were you I'd dump the API test and just go with the Hach results, provided you're sure you conducted them right (it does seem a bit more involved!).

I may take you up on your offer of testing a sample of water I'd send, just for my own curiosity. I guess it depends on whether I find a discrepancy with my test kits that makes me scratch my head.

Yeah, the Hach site could be more informative.

The hardness kit is:

145300 Hardness (Total) Test Kit, Model 5-B, Drop Count Titration, 1-30 gpg, 100 tests

The alkalinity kit is:

2444301 Alkalinity Test Kit, Model AL-AP, Drop Count Titration, 100 tests

Just search on the product numbers.

The tests aren't terribly complicated or difficult. They use small test tubes for measuring the water, but you dump it in a larger bottle. Instead of using a stopper so you can shake/invert a test tube to mix the titrate, you just swirl the solution in the bottle. That way, there's less risk of contamination or losing part of the sample. But you do have to make sure you swirl vigorously enough. For the hardness test, you use a tiny plastic scoop to get a level spoonful of the dye powder and drop it in the water sample, then swirl to mix. As I recall, that turns the water pink. Then you titrate into that solution until it turns blue. Generally, it's a very sudden change -- not much ambiguity. The alkalinity test is more involved. They supply little foil packets with the dye powder ("pillows".) The packets are easy to open and empty out completely. You open the Phenolpthalien powder, and dump it in the sample. If there's no color change, there's no Phenolpthalien alkalinity, and you skip the titration and move on to the Methyl-Green dye powder. You dump that into the same water sample as the Phenolphthalien. I've been thinking about trying the Methyl-Green test by itself to see if it's dependent on the Phenolphthalien powder being in the sample. It seems odd that you can do both tests with a single sample, but that's what the instructions say to do.

The hardness test is pretty reasonable at $15-$16. But the alkalinity test is expensive. I tried to find something less expensive on the site, but couldn't -- only much more expensive kits. I guess had I known my water doesn't have Phenolpythalien alkalinity, I could have just bought Methyl-Green pillows and the sulphuric acid titrate solution.