Help understanding a water report
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hercdeisel
- Posts: 160
- Joined: 5 years ago
Hello Water forum!
I've never read or used a water report and I'm no chemist so I'm just looking for any feedback on how I'm understanding a water report in relation to SCAA standards. I've just switched water supply and wanted to double check that the new one is good in relation to the SCAA standards. The SCAA standards I'm trying to compare my water report with are from the SCAA.
The water report I'm working from here.
Here's how I've compared and my judgments for chemical measures. Let's start with the three easiest for me to check.
TDS: Okay, close to the minimum
my water: 80 (page 2 of report)
standard: 75-250
ph: Good
my water: 6.74 (page 2 of report)
standard: 6.5-7.5
Chlorine: Good
my water: ND (page 2 of report, 'Chlorine, Total Residual')
standard: 0
Sodium: Good
my water: 12 (page 3 of report)
standard: near 10 (I'm guessing that 12 is 'near' 10 but I don't have a sense of the scale for 'near')
Here is where I get less confident: the SCAA categories of 'Calcium Hardness' and 'Total Alkalinity'.
For Calcium hardness, the standard is 17-85 mg/L.
My report has a category called 'Hardness, Total' (page 2) which is mg/L of CaCO3. My guess is that this is the same as the SCAA's 'Calcium Hardness' but I'm not sure. The result is 34, which is close to the low end but acceptable.
For 'Total Alkalinity', the standard is 'at or near 40 mg/L'. I have no idea what the unit measured here is.
My report has a category called 'Alkalinity as CaCO3' which comes in at 29 mg/L (page 2). This seems low? Or is it 'near' the 40mg/L standard? Or is Total Alkalinity something different? Can it be calculated from other information in the report?
Thanks in advance for any help and if anyone spots any thing I should look out for with respect to this water and an espresso machine, I'd greatly appreciate it!
I've never read or used a water report and I'm no chemist so I'm just looking for any feedback on how I'm understanding a water report in relation to SCAA standards. I've just switched water supply and wanted to double check that the new one is good in relation to the SCAA standards. The SCAA standards I'm trying to compare my water report with are from the SCAA.
The water report I'm working from here.
Here's how I've compared and my judgments for chemical measures. Let's start with the three easiest for me to check.
TDS: Okay, close to the minimum
my water: 80 (page 2 of report)
standard: 75-250
ph: Good
my water: 6.74 (page 2 of report)
standard: 6.5-7.5
Chlorine: Good
my water: ND (page 2 of report, 'Chlorine, Total Residual')
standard: 0
Sodium: Good
my water: 12 (page 3 of report)
standard: near 10 (I'm guessing that 12 is 'near' 10 but I don't have a sense of the scale for 'near')
Here is where I get less confident: the SCAA categories of 'Calcium Hardness' and 'Total Alkalinity'.
For Calcium hardness, the standard is 17-85 mg/L.
My report has a category called 'Hardness, Total' (page 2) which is mg/L of CaCO3. My guess is that this is the same as the SCAA's 'Calcium Hardness' but I'm not sure. The result is 34, which is close to the low end but acceptable.
For 'Total Alkalinity', the standard is 'at or near 40 mg/L'. I have no idea what the unit measured here is.
My report has a category called 'Alkalinity as CaCO3' which comes in at 29 mg/L (page 2). This seems low? Or is it 'near' the 40mg/L standard? Or is Total Alkalinity something different? Can it be calculated from other information in the report?
Thanks in advance for any help and if anyone spots any thing I should look out for with respect to this water and an espresso machine, I'd greatly appreciate it!
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another_jim
- Team HB
- Posts: 13961
- Joined: 19 years ago
The hardness and alkalinity units are measured as in terms of how many mg/L of CaCO3 are equivalent to your water's hardness. What the SCAA calls total hardness is old fashioned for calcium hardness, the Ca part of the equation, and the alkalinity is the CO3 part.
Your water is on the soft side, but OK for espresso. The upside of softer water is you won't have to descale your machine more than once a decade in home use.
As a side note. The SCA recommendations give a wide range of acceptable water levels (except oddly for alkalinity). The perfect water is completely neutral in actual and equilibrium pH, so 7 pH and roughly 90 calcium and 50 alkalinity, but there are wide ranges of hardness around this where the shots will be virtually indistinguishable. But when the water gets very soft, the extractions are poor; and when it gets very hard, the machine fouls quickly.
Your water is on the soft side, but OK for espresso. The upside of softer water is you won't have to descale your machine more than once a decade in home use.
As a side note. The SCA recommendations give a wide range of acceptable water levels (except oddly for alkalinity). The perfect water is completely neutral in actual and equilibrium pH, so 7 pH and roughly 90 calcium and 50 alkalinity, but there are wide ranges of hardness around this where the shots will be virtually indistinguishable. But when the water gets very soft, the extractions are poor; and when it gets very hard, the machine fouls quickly.
Jim Schulman
