optimal water treatment for commercial machines

Mokka

Hi,
has anyone experience with optimal water treatment for commercial machines and how to determine if not all is well.
We were initially advised to use a single cartridge with triple combination sediment/carbon/scale-inhibiting for our ECM.
We have changed the cartridge every 3 months.

After 18 months I now find that the waterspout needs constant cleaning because of sediment/scale built up and I'm worried that other parts of the machine might be affected as well.

The coffee machine tech guy seems to think it is normal and nothing can be done to properly clean and avoid such built
up.

I find that somehow hard to believe and I'm worried that it eventually will affect the performance of the machine not to mention the taste of our coffees.

Mokka

Gonzo

Depends on the area you're in and that is, the type of town water you're on. Maybe you need to change the filter every 2 months instead of every 3...or maybe every month....maybe the type of filter you using is not good enough for the area you in. It might only be a "light duty" type of thing and you may need better / Need to pin the service tech down for solid answers, also telephone local water "shop" although dont expect them to know anything specific about coffee machines...problaly dont really need to. The other way ( beside using filter that releases "scale inhibitor") is to use a water softener. It attacks the same problem (build up of scale) BUT FROM opposite end of the spectrum. Softeners usually have much larger capacity than small "in line" water filters. Again...look at the "capacity" of your method of scale inhibition & see if you can do better/more. G.

Mokka

Thanks Gonzo, Good point! I should have thought of softener myself since I have to add it to the fish tank on a regular basis :-[   I just trusted the tech guy, who set up the system. Do you know what the ideal water hardness for a coffee machine should be? Any particular brand of softener? Mokka

FreshCoffee2

Hello Mokka, well, you should be able to "trust" the service tech but I agree it does not hurt to get a second opinion paricularly from a business specialising in water quality in your area. Then go with your gut feeling. My company has water softener/filters that are intended for use with commercial espresso machines and they come in different sizes, from memory 6, 8 and 10/12 litre capacity. They look like a stainless steel fire extinguisher and are connected into the inlet water line under the bench/machine. The large one is pretty tall, they have to stand upright (or wont work properly)  and usually you need to remove the shelf in the cupboard underneath the machine to fit it in. They are a permanent water filter and "rechargeable" softener. That is, every 3 weeks you do a 1/2 hour regenerating operation (strangely enough called "regeneration") on the thing to rejuvenate its capacity to soften the water passing through. If the water is exceptionally hard, you would say use the larger capacity one and regenerate it more often, simple as that. But some find this tedious and stop doing it. I believe there are much more modern water softeners around now that do their thing kind of automatically. For this, speak to the water quality business! But you might already be on the right track with a "scale inhibiting "filter".  For all of this, speak to the water quality business! If after all that you decide you'd like one of our water softener/filters, please do not hesitate to contact off line. Regardz, FC.

Mokka

Thanks FC, I have some water guy come out on Monday. Hopefully he'll get it sorted. But then.... I quite like the marketing idea my staff came up with. Coffee calciplus and charge extra for it. Mokka