Hi homeburrero,

Trying to keep up with the water but am still getting quite lost in all of this. Read up on your other post about Fairfax County water but it was more geared towards a filtration system. For sanity check before I pulled the trigger on the linea mini, i wanted to ask for your input.

I was thinking to temporarily use the ZeroWater solution as well but then perhaps mix 1:1 with the filter water back in to increase the hardness and akalinity.

https://www.fairfaxwater.org/sites/defa ... 0Water.pdf

I purchased the API KH and GH test kit. We have this Kangen system that I would like to get away from in the future (https://www.enagic.com/?c=product-sd501) where i measured 3 KH (53.7 ppm) and 7 GH (125.3 ppm) at the 7 ph configuration. The fridge filter came in at 4 KH (71.6 ppm) and 6 GH (107.4). I was going to use the fridge filtered water as it is almost within the la marzocco water standards for hardness and akalinity. I'm thinking the charcoal fridge filter will reduce the chlorine levels....
http://www.lamarzoccousa.com/wp-content ... ations.pdf

Thank you.

tamadrummer wrote:I was thinking to temporarily use the ZeroWater solution as well but then perhaps mix 1:1 with the filter water back in to increase the hardness and akalinity.

That's what I would do. With Fairax water out of your fridge filter that would put you in the neighborhood of 35- 70 mg/L total hardness and 35-50 mg/L total alkalinity (CaCO3 equiv) with chloride ion down in the 9-13 mg/L range. Non corrosive and probably non-scaling over the long run. (The fridge filter takes care of the chlorine nicely, but does nothing to reduce the chloride.)

You could experiment with a higher proportion of tap water if you think harder water tastes better, but pure tap water, even though it's close to the upper side of that La MarzoccoUSA recommendation would require that you periodically descale.

(La Marzocco's water recommendations are inconsistent, and generally harder and more scale-prone than most manufacturer's recommendations.)

Thank you!

I have just began mixing distilled water and Potassium Bicarbonate, but I already see where it is going. We live in a relatively crowded place, we have been drinking bottled water and adding a second type of water (distilled) will take more space. This ZeroWater pitcher seems to be very interesting because from what I have read it delivers better water than a Brita system, to make another example.

I measured my tap water with a TDS meter last week and it was at 43-44ppm. According to ZeroWater with this TDS level each filter should last 40 gallons or more, adding the advantage of the low cost (compared to the bottled distilled water) to the little room needed for the process.
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B001CUMLOK

Question:
And this may be a stupid question and unrelated to espresso, but how close is ZeroWater to distilled water for just for straight drinking purposes, not making espresso. I am asking because I was thought not to drink distilled water . Do you add anything to make is safer or taste better?

Moka 1 Cup wrote:This ZeroWater pitcher seems to be very interesting because from what I have read it delivers better water than a Brita system

It delivers purer (less mineral) water than a Brita system, which may be better or may be worse, depending on the water.

Moka 1 Cup wrote:how close is ZeroWater to distilled water for just for straight drinking purposes, not making espresso. I am asking because I was thought not to drink distilled water .

It is similar to distilled and RO water in being devoid of minerals. Note that you change the filter when it shows only around 6 ppm on the TDS meter.

If you want minerals in your water for taste and possibly health reasons I think Brita would be a better choice for drinking. It removes off-tastes and chlorine but leaves most of the minerals there.

homeburrero wrote:It delivers purer .....

If you want minerals in your water for taste and possibly health reasons I think Brita would be a better choice for drinking. It removes off-tastes and chlorine but leaves most of the minerals there.

Thank you for clarifying it. The primary goal is to make water for espresso so I went ahead and ordered one stainless pitcher. If we find that we like it to provide regular drinking waster as well we may buy the desktop tank later. The stainless pitcher costs more but it has the advantage (for us) that you can use it as a standard pitcher to pour water into a glass instead of having to use a dispenser at the bottom.

Thanks a lot.

By the way, I found this interesting video online:
https://www.naturalnews.com/2019-02-12- ... -news.html

I received the Zerowater pitcher and I put it to work right away.
It's faster than I expected. The quality of the pitcher itself is lower then expected.
I have yet to try it with coffee but since the taste was good I wanted to test the pH and see if it was ok to drink. Since I was there I tested three more water samples:

A) Solution of distilled water and KGCO3 taken from the water tank of my Breville BES920XL
TDS=78
pH=8

B) Same solution after filtration by the filter inside the tank of the BDB, sample taken from the hot water spout
TDS=47
pH= about 7

C) Zerowater, brand new filter after less than 1 gallon of use
TDS=0
PH=less than 5

D) Distilled water (sample taken from a bottle opened for the occasion)
TDS=0
pH=4

I was very surprised about the pH level of the distilled water.
Regarding the Zerowater, I was not surprised because I did not know what to expect, but the pH seems to be too low for regular drinking. I may be wrong.
I do not have a picture of it but tap water used to fill the Zerowater pitcher had a pH between 6.5 and 7.

Just an update. I have been using the pitcher for a month. I have not counted the number of gallons that I have made but since I make one gallon every three days, sometimes two, I have definitely made more than 10 gallons. The TDS meters still shows 0 ppm.
The workflow is easy. To make one gallon I have to fill the top of the pitcher four times but the process is quite fast, especially if I start from a full pitcher, which is almost always the case. After adding KHCO3 @ 0.1g/l I test the water in the gallon jug just to make sure it's between 50 and 60 ppm, and I do the same when I am not sure if I have already added the potassium bicarbonate.

As a side benefit I can use the Zero Water for the cigar humidifiers as well .

So, overall I'm quite happy.

Moka 1 Cup wrote:I received the Zerowater pitcher and I put it to work right away.
It's faster than I expected. The quality of the pitcher itself is lower then expected.
I have yet to try it with coffee but since the taste was good I wanted to test the pH and see if it was ok to drink. Since I was there I tested three more water samples:

A) Solution of distilled water and KGCO3 taken from the water tank of my Breville BES920XL
TDS=78
pH=8

B) Same solution after filtration by the filter inside the tank of the BDB, sample taken from the hot water spout
TDS=47
pH= about 7

C) Zerowater, brand new filter after less than 1 gallon of use
TDS=0
PH=less than 5

D) Distilled water (sample taken from a bottle opened for the occasion)
TDS=0
pH=4

I was very surprised about the pH level of the distilled water.
Regarding the Zerowater, I was not surprised because I did not know what to expect, but the pH seems to be too low for regular drinking. I may be wrong.
I do not have a picture of it but tap water used to fill the Zerowater pitcher had a pH between 6.5 and 7.


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You have to be very careful with distilled water as some of it is actually double pass deionized water that has been aerated to passivate it and it will have a way low Ph. Look for steam distilled water at Walmart etc.

I have been using the Zerowater pitcher to prepare my "Pavlis" water since the beginning of May. Since my initial post in this thread the TDS of my tap water raised to 52-56.
My estimate is that I have filtered between 40 and 50 gallons of water. After filtration and before adding the potassium bicarbonate my water still reads "000". I measure the TDS with two meters, the one that came with the pitcher and one I had already purchased, so I want to assume that the reading is reliable.
According to Zerowater's FAQ, with my tap water I should have been able to filter not more than 40 gallons and, still according to Zerowater, a filter should be replaced when the meters reads "006". So I am very surprised by the fact that the water still measures "000".
Either the filter performs better than I expected or there is something else that I should keep in account.

Having said that, I am very happy about the system, the easiness of use and the taste of my espresso. So far I would buy it again.