We have the Osmio Zero and is great. The softner is installed at the point of entry which helps. My daughter lives in a rented property in London and is unlikely to stay there for long. She isn’t DIY friendly and is a doctor at NHS. She wants to get the OZ - the counter-top version. I spoke to OZ. They were as usual very friendly and isn’t pushing me to buy this for her flat, given the hardness level, which is between 225 and 300. They acknowledged some customers in London are reporting frequent blockage resulting in swapping filters every month to 3 or 6 months. I believe this may be even with their hard-water filter. They also said the density of population does impact. Their recommendation is either fusion or be prepared to descale every month with a hope that it would prevent very frequent filter change. The fusion isn’t going to cut with her as it is a pain messing with a rented property that she can’t. I am wondering what the members’ experience has been in using the OZ counter-top version in London (with hard-water filter, which is a standard on all their new systems) or any other RO water filter? This is mostly for drinking, coffee, tea perhaps some cooking. Thanks for help.

> @"LMSC"#p51689 This is mostly for drinking, coffee, tea perhaps some cooking. If I were your daughter, for tea and coffee (I'm assuming she doesn't have an expensive espresso machine) - I'd just use bottled water.

London water - Osmio Zero

Ernie1

Is this for an espresso/filter machine?

I always just used tap when I lived in London and had a V60. It’s hard as hell but it tasted good to me and nothing other than the kettle at risk of scale. Surely nobody is using RO water for cooking?!

If it’s for a machine, I’d second the above, just bottled. Waitrose Lockhills or Volvic.

Lockhills is £1.80 for 8 litres. 45p a bottle.

So almost 1000 bottles for the price of an Osmio…

LMSC

Thx guys! Appreciate the inputs. Not for the machine. She doesn’t have an expensive machine and uses Tesco Ashbeck.

It’s mainly for drinking as she doesn’t like the taste of tap water, besides not feeling safe.

Brita filter, for example, is a temporary alternative. If she gets this, perhaps she can feed the machine as well. I would get her an osmio any day. Just the uncertainty re-the frequency of the filter is a challenge. 😊

Ernie1

LMSC besides not feeling safe

With all the news of sewage in our waters I can understand this.

If your Daughter’s tap water tastes anything like ours I’m not sure anything harmful can survive that much chlorine…!

mathof2

LMSC It’s mainly for drinking as she doesn’t like the taste of tap water, besides not feeling safe.

I live in London and use remineralised RO water in my espresso machine. For drinking, I use tap water filtered by a Brita jug and am very happy with the taste. (I assume it is safe.)

JahLaza

Osmio now offer a ‘hard water’ filter set. I’m interested to hear about it as they don’t offer much info on the website. I also live in an area of similar water hardness but only seem to need to change the filters annually. I descale and sanitise every 6 months

LMSC

JahLaza Had a good chat with Mark at Osmio. It was lovely he was frank and was not looking to sell. The hard-water filter is a standard fitting now.

He said besides hardness, the density of population would make a difference. I didn’t understand the latter. Monthly change would be a pain as a worst case assumption. With the dr’s pay, it would put her out of pocket very quickly.

I thought some one on the forum had given a positive feedback of the hard-water filter lasting 1 year with hardness level well in excess of 350.

@Ernie1 It tastes terrible, tbh. 😁

DavecUK

LMSC I thought some one on the forum had given a positive feedback of the hard-water filter lasting 1 year with hardness level well in excess of 350.

My water is 300 in summer and 250 in winter…TDS before and after softening. With soft water I always get a1 year from the filters, no problems at all.

LMSC

DavecUK Very similar to our set up at home. But, it would be straight hard water into Osmio Zero at my daughter’s place. 😊

DavecUK

LMSC Very similar to our set up at home. But, it would be straight hard water into Osmio Zero at my daughter’s place. 😊

Probably still be OK, although if your daughter owns the property, it would be a great idea to get a water softener..I wouldn’t be without one now.

MediumRoastSteam

~~Why would water be safer to drink when filtered through an RO system? I get it filters out minerals, heavy metals, etc, but it doesn’t filter out bacteria or viruses.~~

See post below. Nonsense from me. 🤦‍♂️

Rob1

MediumRoastSteam RO is effective at filtering viruses and bacteria.

MediumRoastSteam

Rob1 - yep. You are right. I was under the impression it wasn’t as effective, but Google tells me it is. I thought only distillation would effectively remove all the things from water.

Previous post edited so won’t misguide users. 👍

Rob1

MediumRoastSteam

It won’t filter out dissolved gasses, chemicals e.g pesticides and agricultural run off, chlorine and chloride (carbon block is effective for the former). It also won’t filter all bacteria and viruses….in fact it won’t purify water of everything, which is true even for Calcium never mind smaller things, it is effective at reducing most things to almost zero.

LMSC

She still rents, I am afraid! 😊