Hi Homeburrero

Many thanks for you detailed response.

I knew water was important for both taste and the reduction/elimination of limescale but never knew how complicated it was.

My utility provider has given me the following information for the water that I receive. Is it possible to use this information alone to determine what route I need to go down?

Calcium 66mg/l Ca
Magnesium 9.6mg/l Mg
Fluoride 0.10 mg/l
Hardness 203 mg/l CAC03
Alkalinity 181 mg/l CaCO3
Chloride 49 mg/l Cl
Nitrate 23 mg/l N03
Sodium 41 mg/l

The machine won't be line fed so anything I use will need to be poured directly into the reservoir

Hope you can help

Kind Regards

Daz

Your tap water would be scale prone, and that chloride level is a little concerning. Since you're not plumbing it in I see three options:

1. Use purified water with added minerals. One simple and machine healthy option would be to use the popular 'rpavlis' recipe -- 80-100 mg of sodium bicarbonate or potassium bicarbonate per liter of pure (distilled, de-ionized, RO) water. See Easiest way to make rpavlis water?

or

2. Mix some of your Brita filtered tap water with purified to get a water with good alkalinity and reasonably low chloride. If you use 1 part filtered tap with 3 parts purified water you'll come out with reasonable numbers:

• total hardness: 60 mg/L as CaCO3
• calcium hardness: 40 mg/L as CaCO3
• alkalinity: 45 mg/L as CaCO3
• chloride ion: 12 mg/L

That chloride level is not ideal, but probably acceptable and within manufacturers recommended levels. It would be non-scaling in a 120℃ boiler, and slightly scaling in a hot 130℃ boiler.

or

3. Use a good bottled water (e.g., Crystal Geyser Alpine Spring water if from Mt. Shasta CA, or Olancha Peak CA, or Salem NC.)

Hi Pat,

That's fantastic, thank you!

Would there be any benefit either from a taste or limescale reduction perspective by passing bottled water through a brita filter?

Daz

Dazgough wrote:Would there be any benefit either from a taste or limescale reduction perspective by passing bottled water through a brita filter?

I don't think there's much to be gained there. Brita's main job for coffee brewing water is removal of chlorine, off tastes and odors, and you shouldn't have that in a good bottled water. The standard US Brita pitcher filter has some ion exchange resin that will tend to reduce hardness and alkalinity, especially when new, but can't be relied on for that. That resin also tends to acidify the water slightly. The newer Longlast and Elite Brita filters don't have that ion exchange resin.

Thank you Pat,

Really appreciate the help.

Kind Regards

Daz

Also, don't do what I did and read this very important thread:

Using hot water tap to manage steam boiler water concentration

I kind of thought this through for myself but only after a year of doing nothing but steaming from my steam boiler. It almost doesn't matter what water you're putting through if you don't do this - it will end up full of scale.