i make a 400ml concentrate, then i make up 8l of ro water at a time, this is stored under the sink in the dark, usually about 2 weeks is for use

Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

dutchy101 FWIW, I make 400 ml of concentrate, kept in the fridge in a screw-top jar (ex ice-cream jar). It lasts me ~1 month.

      Thanks. In terms of an immediate change, I think I’m going to move down to making just one 5l batch using the Zero water at a time until the RO unit arrives. I might move to a concentrate at that stage.

      I probably also need to find some better bottles for storing water than re-using old Ashbeck bottles.

        CoyoteOldMan still thinking how I should approach this best.

        Mind sharing how much mg of potassium bicarbonate did you put in the 400ml concentrate? And how much (X)ml of concentrate do you put in (Y)ml of purified water? Appreciate that.

            Honestly - Keep it simple like this @Knluk :

            • In 500g (or 500ml) of distilled or RO water, add 5g of sodium bicarbonate, or 5g of potassium bicarbonate. Put that in a bottle, store it. This is bottle “C” - C is for Concentrate.
            • Put 1 litre of distilled or RO water into a bottle. This is bottle “B” - “B” is for Boiler safe water;
            • Using a syringe draw 10ml from bottle “C”; (You can also try 8ml, see what works for you)
            • Empty the contents of the syringe into bottle “B”.
            • Empty the contents of bottle “B” into your coffee machine tank.
            • Chop chop, bob’s your uncle, all set.

              Knluk - It’s like riding a bike: You’ll do it with your eyes close and you’ll never forget! 🤣

                Knluk I think following the instructions that MediumRoastSteam provided above you can’t go wrong. For completeness, my concentrate uses 1.60 grams of KHCO3, and I use 20 ml/grams of concentrate per litre/kg of water (theoretically 20/980, but I’m often not that precise!).

                      dutchy101 We have two ‘posh’ bottles of Voss water used to store drinking water in the fridge, bought pretty much purely because of the bottle! 😁

                          Knluk are you related to baffo🤣

                          Sorry that’s an inside joke 🤪

                          Best thing with any thing

                          K.I.S.S

                          keep it simple stupid

                          Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

                            CoyoteOldMan provided above you can’t go wrong. For completeness, my concentrate uses 1.60 grams of KHCO3, and I use 20 ml/grams of concentrate per litre/kg of water

                            Knluk - In simple terms, if CoyoteOldMan uses 1.6g of Potassium Bicarbonate to make 400ml concentrate and then add 20ml of that concentrate to a litre of water, it is equivalent of adding 8ml of MediumRoastSteam’s concentrate to 1L of water.

                                5 days later

                                Knluk

                                I use Magnesium bicarbonate and Sodium bicarbonate. You won’t find the former anywhere because you need to make it. I carbonate water and add Magnesium Hydroxide which reacts with the CO2 to form Magnesium Bicarbonate…..my water is about 30 GH and 45 KH.

                                I rate the coffee higher than with just Sodium/Potassium bicarb but I’d never advise anybody to do as I do. I remove the anti-vac valve of the service boiler every 5 weeks, syphon everything out and refill with distilled water (boilers are surgical steel). Yes, you could empty via the hot water tap but then the boiler and valve would be hot and it’s faster to just syphon it out than wait for the machine to heat up. And more cost-effective. It’s very easy for me to do it on my machine and I’m very comfortable doing that type of thing. It’s maybe a 15-minute process, if that, and the only maintenance I need to perform as my group isn’t lever actuated.

                                It’s worth the minor routine in my case but if somebody told me they prefered shots with just sodium or potassium bicarb compared to mine I wouldn’t be surprised. I hated shots made with the same hardness from Magnesium sulphate so ymmv.

                                  a month later

                                  soooo

                                  ive had a month on the sodium bicarb, and im not sure i like it, last week or so across two different beans ive had an unpleasant acidity, almost an astringency that i couldnt chase out, i checked my water container and the tds is 100,

                                  the machine has had 10l through it now, so im wondering if its the sodium bicarb i dont like,

                                  plan is to run a few litres of plain ro to flush and then go back to potassium bicarb and see if anything changes

                                  Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

                                  but it could be my nose haha as im feeling sinusy

                                  Decent De1pro v1.45 - Niche Duo - Niche Zero - Decent is the best machine ever made -

                                  It is amazing that the dust-like amount of minerals can make a difference in cup. I started making my water for a couple of weeks. Even the amount I need to add into the concentrate is minimal. I am happy with the result but can see any significant difference.

                                  a month later

                                  Just started to see some reading in the TDS on water from Zerowater. It is 1, 2, 3. When should I replace the filter? Thanks.