Hey all, I've been reading a lot about the various water treatment systems out there, and have to admit my head is spinning. I've also had probably 6 or 7 vendors out to my house to bid on a whole house water treatment system. I've decided that based on all of their suggestions that they are shysters and I am on my own to figure this out. None of them had any suggestions for me besides very expensive ($7000+) systems that frankly I think are unwarranted. I'm on city water in a relatively large city with well-documented water quality.

Anyhow, to my questions. I'd like to have a on-demand water supply under the sink to fill the reservoir on my new machine (Londinium R). I just bought the house so I'm retrofitting - there is already a cheap carbon filter under the sink, so I can likely use the spout that is already drilled into the counter top.

I was thinking an ESO filter + QC7i head would do me, but as I read here water at 7 grains of hardness is not recommended for the ESO because the output water will be too soft. According to testing (both by water vendors as well as the City's own water report) my water is 7-9 grains hard. Alkalinity is 108-145 ppm CaCo3. pH is 7.8-8.6. TDS is 116 to 255 (wow, is that a wide swing?!).

I have all the rest of the water quality tests but I'm not sure what other parameters are important. They are here: http://fortworthtexas.gov/water/pdf/201 ... nglish.pdf

From what I gather without going back to school is that a very light softening solution with a carbon filter would likely do me just fine. I'd like to use the existing plumbing as much as possible to make the install easy but maybe that's too much to ask for.

Anyone have any suggestions on what a good off-the-shelf system would be for my case? Maybe the Everpure Claris so that I can dial in more bypass and reduce the amount of softening? Obviously I'd rather not break the bank here but wanting to do it right the first time. My thanks in advance to my forum brethren and sisterhood - I've searched and read til my head is spinning and I'm still not much further along than when I started

Incidentally, here's what I have under the sink...

If I were to try to answer my own question...how would it work out to just buy distilled water (or RO) and add potassium bicarb to it? I can buy 1 gallon jugs of distilled water at Walmart or Target to get started and then find a place where I can buy these in larger quantities if needed (like 5 gallon) and just have a 5 gallon carboy with a tap on it. Seems simple enough and maybe less prone to my own screwups.

Your idea of RO plus potassium bicarb (the R. Pavlis recipe - typically 100mg potassium bicarb per liter of RO or distilled) should certainly work. It will not scale at all, is non-corrosive, and many people find that it produces tasty coffee.

Some would argue that water needs some hardness minerals to get the most tasty extraction. So far there is not much solid evidence to support that. You can do your own taste test, comparing RO + bicarb to a mix of RO + Ft Worth tapwater (70% RO, 30% charcoal filtered tap should be a good test mix - would have about the same alkalinity as the r pavlis water but would also have a reasonable amount of hardness minerals. )

Your water situation is fortunate in a couple respects - 1. Your water utility report is nice and complete - you have numbers for hardness, alkalinity, chloride, calcium, sulfate .... everything you need. 2. The water has high enough alkalinity and low enough chloride/sulfate that you could get away with a plumb-in WAC softener with a bypass head. (WAC is hydrogen ion, rather than sodium ion exchange, e.g., Mavea purity C, Everpure/Claris, 3M SGP, BWT, etc.). If you did that, you'd probably dial it down to around a 20% - 30% bypass so that it comes out with an alkalinity of 40 - 50 mg/L. This solution would still leave you with 11 - 36 mg/L of potentially corrosive chloride ion in the treated water. That is above some recommendations (Synesso recommends 15 mg/L or less) but as long as you keep your alkalinity around 40 mg/L or better the corrosion potential should be mitigated. If that corrosion issue scares you, then go with the R Pavlis option with good alkalinity, zero chloride, and zero sulfate.


P.S.
Summarizing below for easy reference are some key numbers for that Ft Worth water:
Total hardness: 113 to 157 mg/L CaCO3 equivalent
Total alkalinity: 108 to 145 mg/L CaCO3 equivalent
Calcium hardness: 93.5 - 127 mg/L CaCO3 equivalent
Chloride ion: 11.6 - 36.1 mg/L
Sulfate ion: 24.8 - 34.4 mg/L
Sodium ion: 9.57 to 25.9 mg/L
Conductivity: 299 to 456 micromho/cm (would read 150 - 230 on typical inexpensive TDS meters)
TDS (dry residue): 116 to 255 mg/L
pH: 7.8 to 8.6

If you want to try to find reputable equipment I would call Texas Coffee School in Arlington and tell them that you are looking for treating water for espresso and you wondered what company they bought their system from. During one of their classes they mentioned the company sells multiple levels of systems and I'm sure they could recommend a local installer.

As far as treating water the post above is clearly far more knowledge than I'll ever have. For those of us lazy and not scientifically inclined I purchase Third Wave Water packets and add them to a gallon of distilled.

Pat, thanks for the thoughts and input. Since the time I posted my original question I think I have decided to just do the potassium bicarb treatment and call it done. Seems to me the easiest way and likely, according to most feedback, likely the best.

Also thanks for the thoughts on the "Third Wave Packets" - I didn't know about those, but boy that's simple, isn't it? I'll probably pick some of those up just to test against the rpavlis water as I already bought some potassium bicarb - so that would give me at least 2 pretty optimal sources of water to test with and see if my cheesy palate is able to discern any difference.

Really appreciate the input guys, thank you!

I'll be in Roanoke next week if you want me to bring you a packet.

You're too kind. Thank you - but no need. I have a ton of potassium bicarb to go through here and don't have a stable palate yet (long story with health, new espresso gear, etc.). I might say that in the near future, if you're in the Haslet area, stop by and enjoy a shot or 3... - that is, once I get more acclimated.