Hi folks, newbie here with a new Profitec 700 that I'm going to plumb in and hope not scale up. Seems a lot of people ask this so I apologize but hoping someone can have a look at my city's annual water report and help me determine what I need for water treatment from a limescale/corrosion prevention perspective. I've done a lot of reading but am a bit confused.
Hardness= 42
Alkalinity= 22
TDS= 91
pH= 7.3
Below I've attached a picture of the more detailed report.

It seems to me that my water is overall descent but am I wrong to be concerned about the lower alkalinity and causing corrosion?

I appreciate any input. Thanks.

Your water is soft, and has an alkalinity lower than the oft-recommended 40 mg/L. But I don't think you need worry - - many places (Vancouver, Portland, Seattle, Oslo, Melbourne) have similar water and do fine without corrosion problems, using simply particulates and activated charcoal or carbon block filters. I don't see a residual chlorine number in that report, but I'm pretty sure that Halifax uses chlorine. The GAC or carbon block would remove that along with other things that might cause off-tastes or odors in your water. Your water's calcium and alkalinity numbers are low enough that limescale deposits are very unlikely and no need to descale, provided you take a little care to prevent an overly concentrated steam boiler as a result of steam wand use without flushing or draining the steam boiler. (See Using hot water tap to manage steam boiler water concentration )

FWIW, Halifax (and Dartmouth) water always tasted 'off' to me when I used to go there for work. The Aeropress/V60's that I'd make in the office and hotels tasted consistently different (worse to me) as well. Eventually I wondered if it was just my pre-conceived notions so I brought some water with me once for blinded comparison.

If the water is still the same, then I'd consider having an undersink activated carbon filter. OTOH, if you like the taste of the water now, then no worries.

This is exactly the information I was looking for! Thank you so much for taking the time to help me out.

That's interesting that you've found HFX/Dartmouth water taste poor. I guess when it's all you drink for decades that it becomes "normal". Thanks for the input and recommendations.

The water isn't poor at all - mainly just different. We all have our preferences for water - and coffee .

I live in Halifax and the water is great both in taste and as a base to add minerals for coffee. Homeburrero already helped me figure out a lot of this here:

Help Assessing City Water Report/Choosing Treatment Options

My machine is scale free after almost 3 years.

Halifax?
UK? CA? MA? PA?

Like Portlands, there are many Halifaxes... and Dartmouths

Some of us can know better .

Now is not a good time to ask me about Halifax Water as my water supply is being replaced in the south end and I'm on a temp water system coming from a fire hydrant through my outside faucet and it smells like some awful chemical or something

Anyways. For brewing coffee, I used to use Halifax tap water in a peak water filter jug. More recently I switched to distilled water with Lotus drops for Light & Bright recipe for my fellow EKG kettle vs sticking with the peak water filter.

Since I got my Decent espresso machine last month I have been filling it with distilled water remineralized with TWW for espresso machines at 50% strength.


I find there is this reluctance to talk about safe water for espresso machines, never mind those that taste good.


I've been think about making my own espresso water with distilled plus potassium bicarbonate and magnesium sulfate, using food grade chemicals.