Hi all,
I was wondering if anyone had any recommendations on treatment options based on my local water report. I hope to have my machine plumbed in sometime in the future, but until then, I will be manually filling it. Machine preservation is in the forefront on my mind, followed closely by tasty shots. I have read up a fair amount on the forum and the rpavlis recipe seems easy enough, but I was wondering if there was a simple alternative so I can just use water dispensed out of my fridge (I know the the stock Whirlpool EveryDrop filter doesn't do much).

http://webserv.stlwater.com:7594/upload ... r_2020.pdf

Thanks!
Ryan

Ryan,
I am far from expert on this topic, but that water report looks pretty darn good to me. Low total hardness, low chlorides, good alkalinity. The PH is just a bit high but not nasty. I'd say, if your espresso/coffee tastes good now, A good carbon filter to get rid of the chloramine/chlorine flavors might really be all you need. Possibly a sediment prefilter?

Maybe an under counter three stage filter with a sediment filter, resin cartridge and a carbon filter. Here's the resin cartridge I used for many years. https://www.filtersfast.com/Pentek-WS-1 ... dium=Email

I'm sure someone with a better pedigree than I will stop by soon!

That's a nice complete report. You have two sources (Missouri and Mississippi rivers) and what you get may vary seasonally or during periods when one or the other plant is undergoing maintenance work, or it may vary depending on your home address. Note that the conductivity of the water ranges between 309 - 673 μS/cm, which would read 150 - 340 ppm on an inexpensive (NaCl calibrated) TDS conductivity meter. You could use that as a rough guide about where your tap water falls within the reported ranges.

You have a nice alkalinity for taste and espresso machine health (average = 63 mg/L, range = 35 - 84 mg/L).

Your calcium numbers indicate a calcium hardness of average = 72 mg/L (range 50 - 132 mg/L). That average is close to what is sometimes considered ideal, but be aware that at this level of calcium hardness and alkalinity you do expect limescale deposits. You would need to plan on periodic descaling if you don't soften. See Jim Schulman's Insanely Long Water FAQ for more info on that.

Your chloride ion level at 20 - 31 mg/L is not good, but with that healthy alkalinity I think you can live with it. To get that lower you would need to resort to a reverse osmosis system. (Chloride can be a corrosion concern.)

If you decide to treat your water with a softening system I would advise some sort of conventional cation exchange softener (strong acid cation, SAC) that replaces hardness ions with sodium or potassium, and not a decarbonizing resin (aka WAC resin, aka hydrogen ion exchange resin) like the BWT bestmax, Mavea Purity C Quell, Everpure Claris, etc. You want to keep your alkalinity up because of that borderline chloride. The LeLit in-tank softener is a conventional softener.