Water quality

Mark Bolton

Having just pressed go on an order for an L1, my mind now turns to getting the water quality right to plumb in.

We're on a spring-fed supply and I suspect acidity will be the main problem, so interested in any thoughts on espresso / L1 compatible de-acidification techniques. We have soft water, so I suspect a little additional hardness wouldn't go amiss based on what I have read to date.

Water quality details (when last tested):

pH	6.2
Copper	0.615 mg/l Cu
Calcium	11.0 mg/l Ca
Magnesium	4.07 mg/l Mg
Hardness total	18 mg/l Ca

Reiss Gunson

Stephen Jenner went to Pozzani water filters and asked them to make a 50/50 mix of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate and it works a treat

Just be just to get one made up in a large capacity as it is a contact process

ie id say 5 litre minimum capacity for the filter housing

If you go for a small volume once you draw out that volume of water there is no time for the untreated water to be remineralised before you draw it out of the filter, hence the need to go for a large volume filter

It will remineralise in the space of a few minutes, but just not instantly

Stephen Jenner

Reiss Gunson post=4865 wrote: Stephen Jenner went to Pozzani water filters and asked them to make a 50/50 mix of calcium carbonate and magnesium carbonate and it works a treat

Just be just to get one made up in a large capacity as it is a contact process

ie id say 5 litre minimum capacity for the filter housing

If you go for a small volume once you draw out that volume of water there is no time for the untreated water to be remineralised before you draw it out of the filter, hence the need to go for a large volume filter

It will remineralise in the space of a few minutes, but just not instantly

Yes, I have the ten inch filter housing and the cartridge to fit. If I were doing this again, I would get one of the "big blue" housings, to give a bit more stability... The TDS of my RO water goes into the filter at around 5ppm, and the output varies from the high 30s, to sometimes (briefly) 90ishppm. Neither of those are particularly mad, but it would be better if it was less variable.