What Water to use for.............

leoni

Hi everyone,
My first post here so excuse me if this has been asked before...

I've been told to use certain water for the Livia 90 or the Bezzera bzo2s I've also been told they're from the same maker. . . anyways I was wondering if anyone here knows if the Bottle Water I get is good enough. The company I get my bottle water from is "Crystal Springs" . Also how would I go about finding out if that type of water is good enough. I'm close to buying a machine soon. Seriously considering the Bezzera bzo2s, unless I hear/read otherwise.. ???

I know some other machines require the same pickiness in water too.

Leoni.

FreshCoffee2

G'day Leoni welcome to this forum. Afraid what you have heard is in my opinion, misleading and is the kind of stuff that makes people unnecessarily paranoid. If it was that difficult, no one would buy the models you have mentioned. Use whatever you are drinking. Odds are, if the tap water in your locality is not "hard", it will be fine to use. If it's "hard" the odds are you already know about it and probably arent drinking it in which case you wouldn't put it in the machine. Irrespective of whether your tap water is "good" or not, if at home you are already using some kind of "water treatment" set up for your drinking...use that! Simple! Some bottled waters are actually high in mineral content and therefore I would say they may be worse than simple ordinary tap water in your machine.....! regardz, FC.

leoni

FC, Thank you very much for claring that up for me. I was really begining to worry there. Still haven't made up my mind on a machine though. Seems I'm more confused than I was 3 weeks ago. to HX, E61 or double boiler or not? I'm still reading Thank you again. Leoni.

john

HI Leoni Welcome to the forum. On the H2O, suggest as FC said to keep away from water that is hard and with high mineral content. Also suggest that you do not use reverse osmosis water. My preference is for filtered tap water. On the machine selection, you will have fun there. However, I suggest that you check out FC's website as he has some pretty ore-sum domestic machines. I have had one of his Diadema Junior HX (with E61)machines on the kitchen bench for about six months and it is excellent. Has a short heat up time (about 5-6 minutes) and the espresso and steaming capabilities are fantastic. Easy to use and clean. Don't forget when looking at these machines to include a grinder in your budget. John

mininova

Agree with all comments but just to clarify ;D further re: filtration just make sure the water is not "too" pure. Sounds crazy but anything smaller than a 15 micron filter can play havoc on the boiler fill probe. Had an instance where I replaced a filter on a 3gr machine with a 5 micron as it was all I had at the time. Occasionally the boiler would overfill causing all kinds of dramas and I suspected a sticky boiler solenoid (which I replaced) Problem remained until I remembered the filter change a few weeks back. After swapping the filter with a 15 micron unit the fault never returned and has been going strong for the last 4 months. Coincidence or not?

FreshCoffee2

Afraid this is purely coincidence. The "size" of the filter should make no difference OR, it if it were to have an effect it would be more likely to work in the reverse to that which has just been stated. The most common problem that stops the "auto fill" from cutting out is when you get a build up of discolouration or scale on the water level probe (which sits in the water in the boiler), and this effectively stops the completion of the circuit that gives the signal for the CPU to stop the auto fill function. You clean the probe (rub with steel wool) and away it goes again... So if minute particles get through the filter & build up on the probe causing a malfunction, then it would be more likely to happen with a filter that allows larger (rather than smaller) particles through. On the other hand any build up of scale on a probe is due to the scale coming out of solution in the boiler due to the effect of heat etc...and if the scale was in solution in the water when it came through the filter and into the machine, then it is was not a "particle" at the time and therefore could not have been filtered no matter what was the spec of the filter. Dirty probes require manual cleaning therefore changing from one spec water filter to another will not fix a problem that has already been manifested. In the case of the "fill" solenoid valve being jammed open by a particle of rubbish causing an over fill....a "larger" spec filter will allow larger particles through and is therefore nore likely to allow this kind of problem to occur. A particle that is only say 15 microns in size is never going to jam up a solenoid valve. Most jam ups in solenoid valves are caused by swarf material (or loktite) that actually originated inside the piping of the machine (and therefore from the original manufacturiing process of the machine) in a position somewhere AFTER the water came through the filter. IE these particles never came through the filter/s. Hope this helps, FC.

mininova

I see your point FC and am not dis-agreeing but I should have also stated this occurred on a NEW machine. During my diagnosis the first thing I checked was to make sure the wire from the CPU to the fill probe was not faulty (along wilth all associated connnections)as well as removing the probe and checking for scale on the probe itself (it was spotless) Its weird cause I didnt think it made any sense either as you would not think a 10 micron diffrence between filters would do much at all. Oh well, it was just a thought and a solution that worked for me at the time.

FreshCoffee2

Aha! ;D This is the kind of thing that happens frequently enough in NEW machines and it is almost always caused by pieces of swarf from the manufacturing process...minute brass filaments or bits of loktite. As already mentioned, they couldnt possibly have come through a particle filter with the inlet water (too big), they are already in the machine and get dislodged in use and flow down to the seat in the solenoid valve, holding it open. Sometimes they dislodge themselves and flow through to get caught somewhere else where they wont cause any more problem, and other times you have to clear them manually by having someone dismantle, inspect and clear the valve. Sometimes, it can happen repeatedly in the same valve in the same machine until all the swarf that is likely to come through, has done so! Regardz, FC.