I’m still waiting to move into the house we are buying when I plan to plumb-in the Bianca with one of the multi stage in-line filtration systems. I’m currently using Volvic but occasionally it’s not easy to get and I’ve been known to forget to pick up a bottle when out and about. In a pinch it would be good to just top up with tap water for a day or so if I haven’t got bottled water to hand. How good are the Lelit filters with hard UK water? I’ve no idea what they actually consist of and if I did, I must admit I don’t know much about water quality other than I shouldn’t be using straight tap water in the machine. The short question I suppose is whether it’s ok to use the Lelit filter with tap-water occasionally without too much risk?

What about using Ashbeck ( Tesco) with 0.2 gm of Bicarbonate of Soda added per 5 litre bottle to bring the Alkalinity into the correct zone. It has a lot less TDS than Volvic.

Waitrose Lockhills is another choice. I would rather make a pour over or have tea than risking a hard water. I don’t know about Lelit filters, but I l know a few Lelit users use distilled or RO or just bottled. 😊

I am using a Lelit filter on my tap water in California, USA. It is working well to soften the water down below 25 ppm. I am not checking anything else like TDS or pH, so who knows about that, but in terms of soft, it works.

The filters are probably simple salt softeners so will replace Ca and Mg with Na. This doesn't do anything for alkalinity so how good your coffee depends both on that and how much Sodium you end up with. It's not really possible to say whether or not it will scale more or less than Volvic unless you know what's in the tap water pre-filtration at least.

@"Rob1"#p9929 Yes, that is all they are. They can be recharged apparently with salt. I am testing weekly with cheap test strips to see at what point I need to recharge the filter. I am hopeful my tap water will be sufficient over the years in this manner. The thought of going hog wild with water testing is just not appealing to me.

Huge variance in water accross the UK ours is very poor and very hard, one of those filters would'nt do anything. Funnily enough I'm just sitting here testing Lockhills….TDS 114 KH 54mg/l CaCO3 GH 102mg/L CaCO3

Thanks all. I haven’t got the kit to test, but I know I’m in a ‘very hard’ area. Better stick to bottled!

@"dutchy101"#p9965 How have I not heard of these! Thanks! Seems like the filters last about 55 litres, for £12.50 in four pack so much cheaper than Volvic too.

I'm using a Zero water jug whilst I await delivery of my Skuma Reverse Osmosis unit. I live in London with very hard tap water (around 335 TDS). The Zero takes it down to zero and then I add in 320 mg of sodium bicarbonate to 5 litres of zero water to bring up the alkalinity. I've just changed my 1st filter after about 30 / 35 litres.

Lelit in-line filters and hard water

Grif

LMSC I am currently using a Robot so not too concerned about water, I use Black Berkeys for our drinking water which would be no good for an Espresso machine as they don’t remove the scaling minerals. If…..or more likely when I buy a machine I will remineralise distilled water as I won’t need very large quantities, certainly not enough to justify an Osmio.

Ernie1

Yeah I’d only be using it for the Bianca and Moccamaster so approx 750ml per day. I could possibly ditch the Moccamaster in favour of a large Chemex but having lived in NL for a while I have a soft spot for them and it’s such a great ‘morning machine’.

Drinking water and anything going in the kettle is just out the tap.

I could totally justify an Osmio it’s just work surface space I don’t have. I know they’re not that big but with the Bianca, the x45 and the Moccamaster I’m already taking up a load of space.

We’ve also got a Kitchenaid, 4-slice toaster, microwave and the kettle too obviously so if I buy anything else to go on the counter we’ll be prepping food on the floor.

As soon as our house purchase completes I’ll get a plumbed in filtration system but I’m in a rental currently so no-can-do.

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