Hi All, I’m a complete newbie, so please excuse my ignorance. I’m in need of advice choosing my first espresso machine to pair with a Niche Zero that arrived (earlier than expected) this week. The more I read and research the more indecisive I become in this rabbit hole. I will be making 2-3 milk drinks a day. Currently my shortlist is as follows: Bezzera PID (Fast heat up but hesitant to pull the trigger on this one as not many reviews / community available so would really appreciate any feedback on this machine in particular) Mara X (Cheapest option, no cooling flush required, different temps) ECM Mechanika Slim (Better build quality than other contenders? But require cooling flush and longer heat up time) Lelit Bianca (As we aren’t espresso drinkers so once we add the milk wondering if this machine would be overkill for us but would prefer to avoid upgraditus) I have discounted the Elizabeth as I just don’t like the appearance. (Mainly the steam knob and lack of mod options) Water We live in a very hard water area so also need to plan what to do regarding water this year whilst saving for an osmio zero. I have read threads on water but finding them hard to follow. Use lockhills or does it need mixing with Tesco ashbeck? Zero water jug and remineralise? WDT tool - does anyone have a recommendation of where to purchase one? I have seen a lot on Etsy but all seem to be from US with £20 shipping Thanks in advance

1st Espresso Machine and water recommendation

CoffeeShakes

Hi All,

I’m a complete newbie, so please excuse my ignorance. I’m in need of advice choosing my first espresso machine to pair with a Niche Zero that arrived (earlier than expected) this week. The more I read and research the more indecisive I become in this rabbit hole. I will be making 2-3 milk drinks a day. Currently my shortlist is as follows:

Bezzera PID (Fast heat up but hesitant to pull the trigger on this one as not many reviews / community available so would really appreciate any feedback on this machine in particular)
Mara X (Cheapest option, no cooling flush required, different temps)
ECM Mechanika Slim (Better build quality than other contenders? But require cooling flush and longer heat up time)
Lelit Bianca (As we aren’t espresso drinkers so once we add the milk wondering if this machine would be overkill for us but would prefer to avoid upgraditus)

I have discounted the Elizabeth as I just don’t like the appearance. (Mainly the steam knob and lack of mod options)

Water

We live in a very hard water area so also need to plan what to do regarding water this year whilst saving for an osmio zero. I have read threads on water but finding them hard to follow.

Use lockhills or does it need mixing with Tesco ashbeck?
Zero water jug and remineralise?

WDT tool - does anyone have a recommendation of where to purchase one? I have seen a lot on Etsy but all seem to be from US with £20 shipping

Thanks in advance

LMSC

CoffeeShakes Welcome to the forum. Great first post. You have done your home work. Well done.

If you can afford, Lelit Bianca is what I will suggest. If you don’t mind spending another £150 more than Bianca, Vesuvius direct from ACS will also be an excellent choice. It’s fantastic; you may contact @Paolo_Cortese for details.

Re-Water, Zero water, RO (example Osmio Zero) and distilled are your choices.

DavecUK

CoffeeShakes Welcome to the forum.

The Bianca is very nice machine and would fully cure upgraditis @Cuprajake has one and is very happy with it. It’s recently had an upgrade with some new features. It’s nicely finished, some clever programming and near silent in operation.

The Minima will do the same job, but quite noisy in comparison to the near silent Bianca. Minima has a larger service boiler, so better steaming, but the difference is not huge and certainly won’t make any difference. It produces a very good shot and can have a paddle system for flow profiling added later.

MaraX is a simple, easy to use option and a great price…it’s special vibration pump is very quiet.

If you can stretch to the Bianca, do so, otherwise consider the Minima, which looks great in black…

I am sure others will have some more suggestions…possibly the Sylvia ProX, although I don’t know much about that.

dutchy101

Have you considered the ACS Minima?

I’m currently using a 2.8 litre zero water jug and adding sodium bicarbonate to the water for use in mine whilst I await a reverse osmosis unit. The jug and a filter was very cheap from Lakeland. It’s even cheaper now £17.99. I can’t seem to post the direct link but that’s pretty amazing value in my opinion.

I’m using this tool for WDT. Took a couple of weeks to arrive but it’s great.

B Blesiya Needle Coffee Tamper…

LMSC

dutchy101 Just curious!

How long does the filter last and how often do you test for its effectiveness please ? How long does it stay at its’ best ?

Thx

CoffeeShakes

dutchy101 Thanks I have just had a look on Lakeland but can’t seem to see the £17.99 offer, only one that seems available is £25

Waitforme

Ali express WDT tool , about £12 delivered….

dutchy101

LMSC

I am using the zero water jug for water for my espresso machine only. Thus far, I’ve made up 20 litres using the jug. I’m expecting the filter to last maybe another 10 litres before changing it (seems in line with the guidance and the hardness of my tap water).

The jug came woth a TDS reader which is pretty sensitive - it measures 0 from the filtered water (but 300 odd from my tap water). The minute this changes from zero in the filtered water I’ll change the filter.

I’ve also got a KH and GH drop testing kit which I’ve used (although primarily to assess the amount of sodium bicarbonate to add for alkalinity - not so much hardness as the minute the TDS sensor increases from zero I’m going to change the filter). The drop trst kit for hardness seemed in kilter with the TDS reader when I used both in parallel.

When you say “how long does it stay at it’s best?” do you mean the filter or the water?

LMSC

dutchy101 When you say “how long does it stay at it’s best?” do you mean the filter or the water?

Thanks for the reply. I meant, the filter. You are already testing it regularly. So, you are good here. Another question, if you don’t mind. What sort of readings - GH and KH - do you get from zero? Thx

dutchy101

Don’t mind at all.

I ended up working backwards and taking a bit of a punt with the alkaline as the spreadsheet was bamboozling me and the water was showing pretty much zero from the drop tests.

I saw a suggestion to remineralise the water with 50mg of sodium bicarbonate/ litre in the bottled water thread and tried this. After testing it turned out I needed a little more to bring it to the desired level so I worked out with 320mg it was right for 5 litres. I’m using this as a recipe and have tested the composition with the bottles I’ve made up afterwards and it’s in the right zone (10 drops into 20ml of water to turn the water yellow).

In terms of harndess I’m relying on the TDS reader but will give my latest bottle a test with both drops to check

LMSC

dutchy101 remineralise the water with 50mg of sodium bicarbonate

50 mg/l in the main sheet is bicarb. If you go to the other sheet, it will give the amount of sodium bicarb required to get 50 mg/l bicarb, which I think is 67 mg/l of sodium bicarb. So, your 320 mg for 5L is good. 😊

dutchy101

Yeah that worked for me. I figured I needed to just find the recipe and stick with it and it’s holding true for me so far. Like I said, the spreadsheet was bamboozling my head lol

dutchy101

It’s gone. Must have been the last one and someone else has snapped it up. Shame as it was a 2.8 litre one which seems to be about £40 everywhere else except Amazon where it’s £27.59

Deal: ZeroWater 12 Cup Water Filter Jug With Advanced 5 Stage Filter, 0 TDS, NSF certified, Reduces Fluoride, Chlorine, Lead and Chromium, Water Quality Meter + Water Filter Cartridge Included, 2.8 litres

Cuprajake

I use potassium bicarb.

I mix 10g per litre of rodi water to form a concentrate, then use 50ml into 5l of rodi water for coffee water

This will never scale.

Jake