Softening Cartridge and Ashbeck?

Tobin Harris

Hi

The beautiful L1 arrived last week, and part of the setup involved fitting the supplied water softening cartridge. The instructions said this must be done, but is that only if using with tap water?

My situation is this:

- I'm in Oakwood, Leeds, and water is pretty soft I believe
- The kettle doesn't appear to have limescale in it
- I'm happy to use Ashbeck at £1.10 for 5L
- Filtering tap water in a Brita jug would be fine too, but don't fancy having to replace the filter each month

Can I just use Ashbeck and ditch the softening cartridge?

Frans Goddijn

Tobin Harris post=9300 wrote: - I'm in Oakwood, Leeds, and water is pretty soft I believe
- The kettle doesn't appear to have limescale in it

Sounds good but I'd test the water first, to rule out 'believe' and 'appear' ;-)

Tobin Harris post=9300 wrote:
- I'm happy to use Ashbeck at £1.10 for 5L

I heard that Volvic is excellent, I have no clue about Ashbeck. Did you read somewhere that it's good?

Some types of mineral water are *very* bad for the machine.

Tobin Harris post=9300 wrote:
- Filtering tap water in a Brita jug would be fine too, but don't fancy having to replace the filter each month

I use a Brita jug for my second machine on the other address, I have no problem with it. What about it makes you dislike the idea? The cartridge can last two months, depending on your water quality and volume of espresso intake.

Frans Goddijn

have you checked this page:

https://www.yorkshirewater.com/extra-services/in-your-area.aspx

Frans Goddijn

Ashbeck is fine, Reiss said:

as an alternative you way want to use Volvic or Ashbeck (Tesco) bottled water, or another water that sits in the right range for espresso making

http://londiniumespresso.com/~londes/forum/londinium-i-owners-forum/91-protecting-your-l1-manual-fill-from-limescale#877

Tobin Harris

Thanks Frans.

Yorkshire water report our water as being Slightly Hard (average 56.4mg/l calcium in the side bar on that page). But yeah testing it would be ideal.

So I don't need the softener cartridge if I'm using the bottled Ashbeck?

Tobin Harris

Frans Goddijn post=9301 wrote: I use a Brita jug for my second machine on the other address, I have no problem with it. What about it makes you dislike the idea? The cartridge can last two months, depending on your water quality and volume of espresso intake.

The Brita jug sounds good, how much do your filters cost?

I guess the benefit of the jug is you don't have to pay $$$$$ for replacement bestcup filters. And you don't have to buy heavy water all the time

Frans Goddijn

Tobin Harris post=9305 wrote: The Brita jug sounds good, how much do your filters cost?

I pay about 5 Euros per Brita Maxtra filter

So when they last 2 months, the cost is negligible.

Frans Goddijn

Tobin Harris post=9304 wrote: So I don't need the softener cartridge if I'm using the bottled Ashbeck?

That's what I concluded from Reiss' advice.

Tobin Harris

Thanks. Amazon sell a 12 pack of Brita Maxtra for £34.99, close to €5 each so that seems pretty good.

Reiss Gunson

hi tobin

if your kettle is scale free and no sign of limescale deposits on the shower head or hot taps in your bathroom then you don't need to soften the water from your tap - just put it straight into your L1 & enjoy!

if you want to clean it up a little then get a water jug and put a simple carbon filter in it - there is no need for a Brita Maxtra filter which has a carbon filter and softening resin, but is a lot more expensive

if you soften the water unnecessarily the water level sensor in your machine will become unreliable and it will over fill and flood

kind regards

reiss.

Tobin Harris

Thanks Reiss.

Kettle is good but have limescale on shower head. I'll test the water using the strip that came with the bestcup.

Frans Goddijn

It also depends on the use of the kettle. I rarely use my kettle so it's clean. Shower head is clean also. BUT. If I forget to close the tap of the shower completely and it keeps dripping a bit, a bed of scale forms very very slowly, over weeks, on the bottom of the bath. The gloss/shine of the bath is lost and I need to clean it with spray that clears out scale.

So it's still good to have the filtering system.

Matthew Hoffman

At present I use Volvic water in my reservoir. A Brita Maxtra filter would be cheaper and more convenient, but would it work on London's famously hard water?

Reiss Gunson

Tobin Harris post=9310 wrote: Thanks Reiss.

Kettle is good but have limescale on shower head. I'll test the water using the strip that came with the bestcup.

the test strip that comes with the BestCup is as good as useless in my view, defining the problem only in terms of small/medium large

its not really fit for purpose in my view.

Reiss Gunson

Matthew Hoffman post=9312 wrote: At present I use Volvic water in my reservoir. A Brita Maxtra filter would be cheaper and more convenient, but would it work on London's famously hard water?

you have to measure it; there is no point in guessing, especially with regard to the replacement intervals.

Unknown

Get that reagent solution from Reiss and then you will know what is happening with your water.

Matthew Hoffman

Thank you Reiss and Stephen. I guess it's time for me to do some measuring.

Unknown

Matthew, that reagent test is simple and gets you in the ballpark with the numbers you should be seeing to protect the boiler and Group internals. There are other ways to get the numbers checked in your water but by far the little bottle and the reagent kit are so simple to use.

Good luck!