Bottled Water and Descalling Espresso Machine
How do you decide when you need to descale?
Anyone know anything about these? Cheaper solution than the osmio zero!
JahLaza - that’s a distiller. A very different thing from the Osmio Zero.
It boils the water, the vapour is caught in a condenser. All the minerals are left behind, only water ends up on the other side.
The process is highly inefficient. It takes 5 hours to distil 3.5L of water.
You have to remineralise the water yourself as, it is, tastes of nothing (as distilled water should).
I only use a distiller because no one else in my household will drink from an Osmio Zero (they rather drink from the tap… go figure).
yeah very true, they’re both very different systems alright.5 hours a bit of a wait but I think if one was just using it for the espresso machine it would be an ok solution, add some bicarbonate back in
MediumRoastSteam no one else in my household will drink from an Osmio Zero (they rather drink from the tap… go figure).
Wow!
Did they drink the water from Osmio Zero before ? A couple of weeks, I would have thought any one to convert.
My daughter rolled her eyes when she heard I had spent £350+. She became a big fan on day 1. My wife was terribly disappointed and wasn’t happy I had spent a lot of money for a water filter. After a week, she said the best investment we ever made! 😂
LMSC I actually have one, bought it last may or something, apologies I may have been a bit misleading with the post! Yes I love it, has replaced the kettle, my girlfriend uses it all the time too. I started to notice the smell of chlorine from the tap water the day after I first started using it which I hadn’t noticed prior to that! I leave the remineralisation cartridge in place and don’t have to worry about the espresso machine water
LMSC No no, the osmio is here to stay! I was just inquisitive browsing there and thought that would be a reasonable option if just for feeding the espresso machine.If I was starting again, maybe I would consider something like that. there’s a fair price difference, but of course the osmio is a one stop for everything and the produce is there on demand as opposed to waiting 3 hours or whatever
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JahLaza Agree. It was an easy decision for us, despite the one-off outlay. What amazes me, hope folks don’t get me wrong, are the discussions / hesitations on the cost of filter replacements when we spend at least thousands on espresso kits. Even, IMO, a one-off investment for a unit like this is worth it compared to the hassles of scales; add the potential health benefits. 😊
I use a distiller. It’s the most consistent method as output isn’t affected by changes to the supply. It is inefficient though and you have to obviously distill a batch in advance.
LMSC Did they drink the water from Osmio Zero before ? A couple of weeks, I would have thought any one to convert.
No, they haven’t. I’d love to buy one, but I fear it would be only me drinking, and, knowing my wife, she won’t touch it either, and make a point that the tap water is just fine. 🤷
If I were to buy one, I’d maybe drink one or two litres a day from it. Problem is, as soon as I go back to the office, I’d drink even less from it. So yeah, it’s distiller for me, for the time being at least.
I decided to test my water , both tap and Ashbeck with 20mg of Bicarbonate of Soda added per 5l.
The first pic below shows my tap water giving a reading of 5 drops per 20ml equating to 2.5 German Total hardness (44.8mg/l) and 2 drops per 20ml giving a German Carbonate hardness of 1 (17.8mg/l).
The second pic is Ashbeck with 20mg of Bicarbonate of Soda per 5l giving a reading of 7 drops per 20ml equating to German total hardness of 3.5 ( 62mg/l ) and 4 drops per 20ml giving of German Carbonate hardness of 2 ( 36.6mg/l )
I’m thinking that taste aside, I’d be better using my tap water ?
Anyone ?
@DavecUK , lol, I’m thinking I could use the fridge supplied filtered tap water, just a boggo standard filter for taste and odour.
But , on the scaling side of things then would you reckon my tap water is good enough ?
Flippin ekk as like!! Where do you live?
Out in the sticks in Angus