I checked "bottled water" as I use Crystal Geyser but I cut it with distilled to slightly lower the TDS.

Straight tap water here, but we have pretty soft, "good" water. Almost a year with my Europiccola and no sign of any scale.

No hassle straight ZeroWater. Works great for light roasts.
Not recommended for boiler/pump machines, but one of the perks of being a Robot owner is not having to worry about scaling and corrosion.

You like what you like (I know a guy who plumbed his machine with DI water and it actually wasn't that bad) but I'm surprised to hear you are going with straight zero water. Most people prefer some level of buffering to help keep acidity under control. You are correct though that with the robot you at least don't have to worry about corrosion or scale.

If you want no fuss and your tap water isn't terrible, I would consider a brita pitcher or equivalent rather than zerowater. The Brita pitcher will remove chlorine and compounds that can lead to bad taste but will leave mineral content largely intact. Since you are using a robot you don't have to worry if your water is too hard, just so long as the result tastes good.

I don't know why but I really don't taste out of control acidity. Not in my plain ZW water and not in my espresso. I get that ph buffer is needed to protect the machines in the long run, but I am not sold on the idea that you need the buffer also for coffee taste. Don't wanna kick off a debate here so I'll just leave it at that.

Water in my area changes seasonally. Most times very hard, occasionally not too bad. I wanted to remove a variable hence the ZW.

Hey if it works it works. Sounds like you are going into it with your eyes open. I also have a Robot, but am presently out of zerowater filters so have been temporarily using just brita filtered tap water. Once I have more filters I may try straight zerowater just for fun. If I feel like I learn anything interesting maybe I'll post a thread about it.

lukehk wrote:I use aquacode sachets for filter and 15/85% evian/distilled for espresso. So ticked other recipes

Hi, so far how is your experience with aquacode sachets, do you noted any issue with the hydraulic circuit of your machine?
I saw that sachets even in Thailand but i did not get any feedback from any local users.