Tasty water

dfk41

I have used RO water for ages. I was always relaxed about it since the water sat in a boiler for hours. Now that I am brewing, I wondered if there was a need for RO water and is it a better option than my tap water. Which leads me to ask if those that do treat their water would mind sharing. Is it as easy as buying a sachet at tremendous expense or is there a better way? Do I need to consider bottled water?

MWJB

You can just use your tap water, it’s softer than my treated water for brewed.

dfk41

MWJB So would you stop using the RO then? I believe the Aiden tells you to descale based on volume of water used and nothing else

MWJB

dfk41 If you have the RO, try that in the tank, then try just tap water for the next tankful.

You’re not buying anything new to use the RO water, you already have it - so see what you prefer (same coffee, grind, parameters), might even be half & half?

Drip machines & kettles are easier to descale than espresso machines (never descaled my brew kettles, still clean), I don’t think you are going to suffer significantly with scale, especially following the Aiden prompts, so go totally by taste.

dfk41

The Aiden tells you when to descale. The problem though is that this is based on volume of water through the machine and not the water quality. So whether I use RO water or the hardest tap water I can find the machine will not differentiate! I think I will use tap water for a bit (I had been using RO as a force of habit) and see if I can taste any difference. The first time I am told to descale (it might be after 6 months, who knows) I will run through the automatic descale procedure but without the descaler solution to see if that resets the machine. There again it maybe fairly innocuous so I might just do it.