From Prepping for a major upgrade: Profitec Pro 700 + Ceado E37s:

Water wise, I currently use filtered water for espresso, with an APEC WATER Top Tier Supreme Certified Alkaline Mineral pH+ High Flow 90 GPD 6-Stage Ultra Safe Reverse Osmosis Drinking Water Filter System to fill the reservoir by hand.

Given that the Profitec Pro 700 is plumbable, I am considering going that way, but that will require me to purchase a separate water filter system because the location (and water pressure requirements) of the coffee station won't allow me to share the Apec system. So, I would like to pick your brains on a few things:

1. Is my current filtration system adequate to fill the reservoir while I get to the plumbing? It is an RO system with Alkaline Mineral pH+
2. Is the pricey BWT Bestmax Premium Filter Package with Besthead FLEX sold by WLL and others the most adequate option or are there other options to consider?

Thank you in advance for sharing your thoughts and knowledge!

Boricua wrote:Is my current filtration system adequate to fill the reservoir while I get to the plumbing? It is an RO system with Alkaline Mineral pH+

Yes. It uses a simple 100% calcite remineralizer, which in my opinion is a fine choice. Unlike some 'alkaline' remineralizers it adds a small but consistent amount of mineral to the water - enough to make the sensors work and add enough alkalinity to protect the machine. The water will be soft, like the water in Melbourne, Oslo, Seattle, etc. where they are known to brew tasty coffee.

Boricua wrote:2. Is the pricey BWT Bestmax Premium Filter Package with Besthead FLEX sold by WLL and others the most adequate option or are there other options to consider?

You can't decide on that sort of filtration without knowing a lot more about the quality of your tap water. It depends on your water's hardness and alkalinity, and often also the chloride level (chloride is not the same thing as chlorine.) The nice thing about RO + remin systems like your APEC is it that it can be used with a wide variety of bad water to get the same reasonable result. The same can't be said for other systems like the Bestmax. Often the best choice is a simple particulates and charcoal filter.

Try some online searching, or asking your water utility for a report that includes the hardness, alkalinity, and chloride numbers for your tap water and let us know, then we can better help about filter systems that will do the job for you.

I have the same machine and would love to hear about your solution

Be aware - you are in Washington DC and Boricua is in Puerto Rico, and the appropriate solution is more about the water than the machine.

homeburrero wrote: You can't decide on that sort of filtration without knowing a lot more about the quality of your tap water. It depends on your water's hardness and alkalinity, and often also the chloride level (chloride is not the same thing as chlorine.) The nice thing about RO + remin systems like your APEC is it that it can be used with a wide variety of bad water to get the same reasonable result. The same can't be said for other systems like the Bestmax. Often the best choice is a simple particulates and charcoal filter.

Thank you homeburrero. Today I tested my tap and filtered water with a cheap H2OOK Kit from HomeDepot. Too bad they don't carry titration kits.
Here are the results as best I could interpret from those strips:

Tap water:
Total hardness 100ppm
Total Chlorine 0.5
Alkalinity 80
pH 8
Nitrite 0.5
Nitrate 0
Copper 0.6-1
Iron 0
Here is the pic:


The water filtered with the APEC RO90 yielded "0 ppm hardness" and low alkalinity, as best I could interpret. Here is the pic, you may interpret it differently.



Based on these results, I am concluding that it is safe to use my APEC filtered water to fill the reservoir for now and that I should order the WBT solution for permanent plumbing the Profitec Pro 700. Do you concur? Can you advise on a different filter for the system? I will also need to install a pressure regulated because I have steady 60psi at home and the Profitec Pro call for <30psi (0.5-2bar) for direct plumbing.

Where can I get a good water titration test kit?

Those hardness and alkalinity numbers look OK, but you can't trust the precision of these test strips much. The water will be a little scale prone at those levels requiring you to periodically descale if you don't soften the water.

Boricua wrote:Where can I get a good water titration test kit?

This kit - https://apifishcare.com/product/gh-kh-test-kit - should be available online and at pet stores where they sell aquarium supplies.

Boricua wrote:I am concluding that it is safe to use my APEC filtered water to fill the reservoir for now and that I should order the WBT solution for permanent plumbing the Profitec Pro 700. Do you concur?

Your Apec system should be fine. Whether or not the BWT solution is a good choice here depends a lot on whether or not you have a lot of chloride ion in that water. Chloride is different than chlorine and your test kit did not measure that. Do you get your water from a water utility? If so, you should try contacting them for water quality numbers.

For example, folks in San Juan have very nice water quality reports available online -- https://www.sjwd.org/files/7a32dd1ac/2021+CCR.pdf -- that has numbers for chloride, hardness, and alkalinity for the neighborhoods that they serve. oops - this is San Juan California, not Puerto Rico.