Thread: No plumbed filtered water

Having read various views I am inclined to go for distilled water as it is cheap and has no minerals. I am curious as to why it is not more widely used for coffee machines or drinking. The main concern seems to be missing the health benefits of the minerals in water (filtered or unfiltered) is the mineral content which can cause problems and, as far as I am aware, most filters dont remove minerals anyway. I would assume spring water has mineral content - being from the earth and all!

Hey Doublee, i tend to use a Brita water jug and filter and it seem to work well, good luck with your search ;)

This question has been covered many times here. A search over the last year or more returns a multitude of threads http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?action=search ;)

You have a number of options, but distilled isnt one of them. Coffee machines need dissolved ions in the water as they use conductivity to sense the presence of water. What they dont need is scale causing calcium and magnesium.

You have a number of options:

• Replace the fridge filter with a coffee filter
• Just tap a coffee filter into the cold tap of your kitchen sink. You get beautiful drinking water and the filter will be good for 12 months or 12k litres. With braided hose leading to most flick mix taps, this is a 5 minute task
• Buy a Bombora flush kit to hang off your laundry tap and run a length of teflon from it to fill your tank
• Add an on bench filter to your kitchen
• Buy a cheap softening cartridge for the tank of your machine. (FWIW, I dont think these really do very much)

Speak with site sponsor Bombora supplies. They are the specialists ;)

Hope that helps.

2mcm

Thanks for the response red cap and thanks a lot for the detailed advice 2mcm. This place really is a great resource.

Ill second Bombora.

What you want, especially with Perths usual water non-quality ;D, is a softener/filter, neither alone will give a machine non-scaling, good tasting water.

Greg

Another vote for Bombora. Bernard is extremely helpful. Make sure you mention you were referred from CoffeeSnobs.

At the risk of asking a dumb question, I am right in assuming rain water is as good an option (if not better) than a filter/softner set up?

We live in North West Tasmania & use dam water for several months each year (I try to filter out the eels/ducks/platypus).

Pure water is not considered safe for coffee machines or drinking. Pure water will strip minerals from the coffee machine (which means it will pit the metal) and will also strip minerals from you.

Originally Posted by 163A292F323A3704163435303E225B0 link=1272214309/9#9 date=1272273106

Pure water is not considered safe for coffee machines or drinking. Pure water will strip minerals from the coffee machine (which means it will pit the metal) and will also strip minerals from you.

http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1256465536

Will strip minerals from you but perhaps not from the metal

Without getting off topic.

Demilitarised water is Corrosive to a lot of metals and will strip minerals from alloys and steels, and is not recommended to drink straight. Without remineralising it which might seem a little wierd dont use it in yourself or your coffee gear.

Reverse Osmosis water is not generally totally demilitarised but it does reduce greatly the levels of minerals and it can be a problem if the water going in is fairly good to start with. If the mineral content gets to low some machines can have problems in particular with autofills as they rely on conductivity. R/O water can be fine for drinking especcially if post treated to bring the pH back up a bit and add a remineraliser if needed. Only real reason to use R/O treatment is if your water is trash to start with Adelaide, Perth, Port Fairy and anywhere else that is on bore water is a good reason.

In most larger water supplies where all you are correcting is hardness, chlorine and some lesser taste issues a good 3 or 4 stage filtration plant will be more than plenty to fix all your drinking water worries.

Lots of valuable information located here..... http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1245022813

Mal.

Up until a few months ago I never put that much thought into water. I thought I was doing the right thing by using Brita Filters and changing them on a regular basis.

Since then I have noticed a lot of good intentioned but often poor advice given here on the subject. The quality of mains water varies a heck of a lot throughout Australia. Youre best off getting professional advice from someone like Bernard at Bombora. There is no one single solution that will suit everyone.