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Does anyone know what I need? In London so hard water. I've got filtered water in the kitchen but I really need some form of softening to stop the coffee machine scaling up.
There seem to be lots of products at all sorts of prices.
Is this what i need? Only £50 and claims it's good for 10,000 litres (that's some years of use on a drinking water tap)
https://www.waterfiltershop.co.uk/ft-line-90-coffee-machine-water-filter-starter-kit.html
Otherwise came across these -
https://www.osmiowater.co.uk/commercial-water-filter-systems/coffee-machine-water-filters.html
https://www.uk-water-filters.co.uk/Your_Scale_Centurion_Undersink_Cartridge.html
Brita jug for my Jura. It needs topping up once every other day or so. The Jura has a replaceable cartridge filter, but the Brita is more convenient.
Just buy Ashbeck water from Tesco, it's about as soft as it gets, and cheap, 5l of water makes a lot of espresso!
There are umpteen types of filters though;
Carbon filters take out organic components, which help precipitate out the limescale when heated, but you'll still get scale if you use steam.
Ion exchange filters just swap the calcium carbonate for sodium chloride, which makes it less 'hard' but will still leave deposits.
Reverse Osmosis filters strip out everything.
I'm not getting into buying water in plastic bottles.
Ion exchange filters just swap the calcium carbonate for sodium chloride, which makes it less 'hard' but will still leave deposits.Reverse Osmosis filters strip out everything.
So the links I put up are all for ion exchange? This one claims to be salt free?
https://www.uk-water-filters.co.uk/treatments/saltless_water_softeners.html
My understanding is that coffee needs some hardness in the water for taste. One of the barristas in Curators Coffee in London told me that London has awful water for making coffee, and they had to use a high end reverse osmosis system with, I think, a bit of kit after the RO system to add back in the required level of hardness (total dissolved solids?).
For home use, I expect that you would instead be looking at one of the cheaper (non-RO) filter systems which reduces the hardness rather than completely removes it. This should greatly reduce the amount of scaling up in the coffee machine, but I would expect that it might still be necessary after several years to descale the boiler with citric acid or similar.
I use the Everpure Claris filter system. You can buy either [url= http://www.wholesalecateringequipment.co.uk/water-softeners-and-water-filter/claris/systems/claris-system-s-1700-evclsys ]a small cartridge and the head[/url], or get [url= http://www.wholesalecateringequipment.co.uk/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=97_152_695&products_id=4970 ]a bundle with pipes/connections and a meter[/url] if you will connect it to an inline fed espresso machine.
If you just want to use it to filter water into a jug, you'll need some plastic john guest pipe and connectors (plus a valve to allow you to isolate it if you do not already have one upstream). The head itself has a valve, although I'm not sure about the wisdom of using it frequently as an on/off tap (it's left permanently open when connected to an espresso machine).
As I said, you want some hardness, so the Everpure Claris system has a dial on the head to control the amount of filtration, and you use a kit [url= https://www.coffeehit.co.uk/bwt-water-test-kit.html ]like this one[/url] to determine how hard your water is and what setting on the dial to use (I'm sure I paid much less for the kit than that though: fish tank equipment suppliers probably sell the same thing for less).
Use Ashbeck spring unless you can get an R/O system.
It may be called 'spring' but it's been though an industrial R/O process and is perfect for making coffee as it has the right amount of minerals and hardness.
£1.15 for 5 litres.
Use Ashbeck spring unless you can get an R/O system.
It may be called 'spring' but it's been though an industrial R/O process and is perfect for making coffee as it has the right amount of minerals and hardness.
Aamoi how do you know that? I'm not doubting you, just saying it's an odd thing to know 🙂
It's well known in the coffee world, somebody knew the best amount of dissolved solids (120ppm) and PH for coffee brewing and Ashbeck spring was the the closest and most readily available.
R/O systems do strip everything out, they also add back in.
Looked at these a while ago as I heard good reports, was also considering a shower filter. Have been using Brita jugs for decades due to hard water.
https://berkey-waterfilters.co.uk/
Move to Scotland.
Sorted*.
*haven't had to descale the gaggia in 10 years of ownership, but I'm sure the pump etc must be minging inside. No wonder my coffee always sends a mole to the counter.... 
Cannae get a decent cuppa in Scotland!
Yer erse CG. 😆
Don't know many Italian's who use a water filter. They have taps. Simplissimo.
Yer erse CG
😀
On advice from a cofee forum I'm going to try a Brita Purity C commercial undersink filter. Designed for coffee machine use and can pick up both heads and cartridges at a good price on eBAy.
Co-op Celtic Spring water is your answer.
25p per 2 - 2.5 litre something like.
This is what I would use for my coffee machine too.