So I bought a tds meter in anticipation of the arrival of my profitec pro 600 since I see how the water here gums up my kettle.

I did a test and it comes out at 283 ppm.

I then did a test on the bottled water my wife bought and it was 668 ppm. I was shocked at this. Then I looked and see she purchased mineral water.

So how do I protect my investment? Is 283 ppm. Coupled with the bwt water softener filter I bought adequate?

I don't want to mess up my machine.

One easy way is to dilute with distilled or RO water to get the number you are aiming for.

I make my water by adding potassium bicarbonate 400 mg per gallon of distilled water.

There's a difference between TDS and hardness. To illustrate, if you have really hard water (which we do) and run it through an ion exchange water softener (which we also do), both the source and the product water will continue to read more or less the same on a TDS meter. This is because the hardness elements are not eliminated, they are merely exchanged for sodium (or potassium if that's the salt being used for regen) ions. Sodium does not form a hard deposit like calcium and other hardness minerals do.

You need to find out what is making your water so high in TDS. If you dilute with RO or distilled water, you could still be putting hardness minerals through your boiler, just much less quickly. As suggested by <sweaner>, the safest bet is to start with distilled or RO water and add measured amounts of appropriate chemicals. His bicarb recipe is the easiest one. There are many other espresso water formulae, most of which have been posted here and there in the pages of H-B.

I do something similar. My tap water is tasty but very hard. I blend it with purified drinking water at a ratio that meets SCA guidelines for TDS & hardness. I find that I have to add a little baking soda to get the right alkalinity. PH is neutral, so ok there. I use spa or aquarium test strips to check these numbers as well as a TDS meter

sweaner wrote:One easy way is to dilute with distilled or RO water to get the number you are aiming for.

I make my water by adding potassium bicarbonate 400 mg per gallon of distilled water.

This seems the easiest option. Food grade bicarbonate. To be clear, 400 mg? So basically, very very little.

I see a ton on Amazon. Any differences or pretty much all the same as long as they are food grade?

NelisB wrote:image
These are LM recommended values, other manufacturers recommend about the same.

The Bwt filter will protect your machine, but it won't change TDS. High TDS will give you harsh espresso. Try Volvic.

The BWT Filter will keep the machine safe though?

I will buy some Spa Reine and try making a home mix in the reservoir. Should I basically concoct the mixture until the TDS meter reads around 50-100 range?

This is fascinating and I suspect it is why many cafes here in France produce horrible tasting coffee.