# BWT water filters



## CoffeeChris (Dec 2, 2011)

Just back from cup north and found a BWT leaflet in my bag. Anyone use BWT filters for there coffee machine, advertised as gourmet mineralised water. Currently use 4l ashbeck, 1l smart water and 0.4 of bicarbonate . Wondering if it would be more cost effective and equally good tasting water if I used BWT?


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## Rhys (Dec 21, 2014)

CoffeeChris said:


> Just back from cup north and found a BWT leaflet in my bag. Anyone use BWT filters for there coffee machine, advertised as gourmet mineralised water. Currently use 4l ashbeck, 1l smart water and 0.4 of bicarbonate . Wondering if it would be more cost effective and equally good tasting water if I used BWT?


Dunno. Had a good chat with them and they're dropping me an email when they're sorted with some info. Apparently they are the only ones that have magnesium in their filter. Might be worth dropping them an email with your requirements and they can then tell you what you need, and where to get it from.


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## CoffeeChris (Dec 2, 2011)

Rhys said:


> Dunno. Had a good chat with them and they're dropping me an email when they're sorted with some info. Apparently they are the only ones that have magnesium in their filter. Might be worth dropping them an email with your requirements and they can then tell you what you need, and where to get it from.


Wish I had seen the leaflet while I was there. Good idea. Will drop them an email. I'm guessing it's a new product? What are your thoughts on it?


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## Glenn (Jun 14, 2008)

BWT have been around for quite some time and their Magnesium filters are not new.

You can get them in a format that fits Brita Filter jugs - so you can do a side-by-side comparison before committing to a bigger order


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## tohenk2 (Oct 11, 2017)

I use it. If it is good also depends on the bypass setting and the untreated water of course. I like it. (On the Dutch forum koffiepraat.nl it is a well known brand)


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## Rhys (Dec 21, 2014)

Glenn said:


> BWT have been around for quite some time and their Magnesium filters are not new.
> 
> You can get them in a format that fits Brita Filter jugs - so you can do a side-by-side comparison before committing to a bigger order


I think they only fit their own jugs, which they recommended for my La Pavoni. There are also smaller inline filters for lower water usage. They said that if you are using larger filter systems and not using the amount of water they are meant for, then you'll get water sat in the filter material and it's been over-treated.


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

The BWT jug filters definitely do fit the Brita Maxtra jugs if that helps

Having had inline Brita Purity quell 600 and currently a BWT Bestmax premium 2xl, prefer the BWT for both coffee and drinking water, our water being quite hard here.

John


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

Rhys said:


> I think they only fit their own jugs.


As Glenn said above BWT make magnesium filters that fit Brita jugs. It's what i use to filter water in my Brita jug. Available in packs of 4 usually.


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## igm45 (Mar 5, 2017)

Step21 said:


> As Glenn said above BWT make magnesium filters that fit Brita jugs. It's what i use to filter water in my Brita jug. Available in packs of 4 usually.


Where do you buy these please?


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## lee1980 (Jul 25, 2017)

I ended up going bottled water just cheapest stuff from waitrose stretton hills, about £1.50 for 4x 2.5 litres I think.

I was going to get these to but not sure of what water hardness they remove, same as brita filters, we are in a med hard water area it seems.

I have kit to plumb in with a claris ever pure to next!

Amazon seems all fit brita to:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/BWT-Litre-Longlife-Filter-Cartridge/dp/B004X19KT4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1509953653&sr=8-1&keywords=bwt+filters


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

igm45 said:


> Where do you buy these please?


Last time I got them cheapest at Argos. Previously from Ocado. A pack of 4 lasts me ages. I use it for filtering tap water to drink and for tea. I don't use it for coffee as my tap water is very soft and the filter doesn't improve it any. But if you have harder tap water it should make a noticeable difference for coffee.

I currently use a mix of unfiltered tap and bottled water for coffee


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## lee1980 (Jul 25, 2017)

I guess for me it was more for stopping water hardness from scaling up R58 as its hard to flush etc with descaler. Many on here said its best to either use bottled or a proper plumb in filter to remove hardness.

Different again I guess if filtering for taste.


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## igm45 (Mar 5, 2017)

Step21 said:


> Last time I got them cheapest at Argos. Previously from Ocado. A pack of 4 lasts me ages. I use it for filtering tap water to drink and for tea. I don't use it for coffee as my tap water is very soft and the filter doesn't improve it any. But if you have harder tap water it should make a noticeable difference for coffee.
> 
> I currently use a mix of unfiltered tap and bottled water for coffee


Thank you for that,

Very hard water area here. Ordered from Ocado for £18.74, provided that they are in stock!


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## espressotechno (Apr 11, 2011)

FYI: If soft water ex-tap is further softened by a filter system, then the resulting water is quite acidic and gives weird tasting brews of teas & coffee.


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## igm45 (Mar 5, 2017)

igm45 said:


> Thank you for that,
> 
> Very hard water area here. Ordered from Ocado for £18.74, provided that they are in stock!


That lasted long,

Out of stock for home delivery with Ocado.

Argos next best at £23.99 for 6.


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## CoffeeChris (Dec 2, 2011)

I guess the question is. Would it be worth spending the extra outlay on these filters rather than buying bottle water. Currently live in a hard water area. Also believe these filters add extra magnesium which improves mouth feel


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## ajohn (Sep 23, 2017)

There is an interesting comment about bottled water in this

http://dwi.defra.gov.uk/consumers/advice-leaflets/hardness.pdf

I don't know if all of the UK's water suppliers are the same but Seven Trent have a water quality page, enter post code and it will list the results. If in degrees Clark or what ever the figure can be converted to TDS ( Total Dissolved Solids) via utilities on the web. Tests put Volvic as 130mg/L total. 110 is usually stated. These all tend to be healthy mineral waters so it's not surprising that they aren't truly soft.

Personally as even Volvic will need descaling from time to time I prefer the descale option but do live in a soft water zone. 2.72 Clark / 15.5mg/l using this converter

http://users.tinyonline.co.uk/chrisshort/waterhard.htm

They don't state TDS though just list specific substances generally all in ug/l so that figure wouldn't change much. Hardly at all actually. The conductivity levels quoted are also an indication of TDS. In my case that averages at 126 with a range of roughly +/- 25.

One person on here uses their kettle as a descaling indicator - any in that then there is likely to be more in the machine. Seems a sensible option to me but we now use a hot water dispenser however it seems that this will tell me when to descale. It hasn't yet and if it can measure scale some how might take a rather long time to do so. It's not a thermoblock type but has a mini "kettle" in it and controls how much water goes in via a knob in 20ml increments. It can use a run through filter but we don't. I assumed that it would need filters so bought a 12 month supply for circa £22 but sent them back as the makers say their is no need to use them.

John

-


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

ajohn said:


> There is an interesting comment about bottled water in this
> 
> http://dwi.defra.gov.uk/consumers/advice-leaflets/hardness.pdf
> 
> ...


Volvic is soft/just into moderately hard at ~63mg/L as CaCO3 total hardness (your 130mg/L is dry residue at 180C & doesn't tell us that much about the water's composition, though this would still be in typical range for recommended water for boilers). SCAE water spec recommends 50mg/L minimum. Volvic is a little high in bicarbonate, but the recommended range for total hardness generally extends further up from Volvic, rather than down. Most waters that are considerably softer will be too low in bicarbonate, or low in pH.


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## lee1980 (Jul 25, 2017)

Hhhmm wonder how Waitrose stretton hills fair then. I just hope I don't have to de-scale my R58 any time soon as from reading on here its not easy task.


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

lee1980 said:


> Hhhmm wonder how Waitrose stretton hills fair then. I just hope I don't have to de-scale my R58 any time soon as from reading on here its not easy task.


Waitrose Stretton Hills is at the softer end of UK water with total hardness, like Volvic, is around 60mg/L, it's low in bicarbonate but still broadly falls within recommended boiler water.


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## lee1980 (Jul 25, 2017)

Ah ok I see so got to be better than using tap or brita/bwt until I can get mine plumbed in with Claris everpure to be hopefully even better then.


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

CoffeeChris said:


> I guess the question is. Would it be worth spending the extra outlay on these filters rather than buying bottle water. Currently live in a hard water area. Also believe these filters add extra magnesium which improves mouth feel


They use ion exchange (and as I understand it) swap Calcium for magnesium. Whether it impoves the taste of your coffee is up to your palate. But a jug and filter is pretty cheap and could potentially save money overall but equally might not be as good as you would like.

Too much Mg in a brew can be overchemically tasting.


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

I intend to give these filters a try and compare against my standard bottled water combo. Always good to experiment.

My water in York is moderately hard but subjectively has a nice taste in my opinion. Not sure that translates to good coffee brewing.


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## lee1980 (Jul 25, 2017)

I have to say, since switching to bottled not noticed a difference in taste yet, maybe will when install claris!


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## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

lee1980 said:


> I have to say, since switching to bottled not noticed a difference in taste yet, maybe will when install claris!


Why then?

You're using the soft-ish water to protect the machine principally. Changes in extraction will trump changes in taste for reasonable water. But if you were to try high bicarbonate content water (not really recommended as this is usually accompanied with greater hardness), you'd likely notice muted acidity (at the same extraction).


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## lee1980 (Jul 25, 2017)

Yeah using to protect machine mainly because of what read about it being very hard to get de-scaling solution out of the R58. I have milk drinks so doubt would notice difference unless having black or espresso.


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

Going to pull the trigger on the gourmet edition stocked by has bean. Starting to struggle with the amount of plastic I get through.


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

First brew using the BWT filter was strange compared to my normal glaceau/Volvic mix. Might have to try 50:50 filtered with glaceau or something


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

fatboyslim said:


> First brew using the BWT filter was strange compared to my normal glaceau/Volvic mix. Might have to try 50:50 filtered with glaceau or something


Going to be tough trying to replicate volvic/glaceau with filtered tap water. Do you know what the composition of your tap water is?

By my reckoning the 50/50 Volvic/Glaceau has a TDS of 125ppm and GH/KH of 3/1. You are looking at something approximately like 95/30. With the greater part of the 95 being Magnesium over Calcium.

The BWT filter should convert some of the Ca to Mg but it all depends on your starting point.


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

Step21 said:


> Going to be tough trying to replicate volvic/glaceau with filtered tap water. Do you know what the composition of your tap water is?
> 
> By my reckoning the 50/50 Volvic/Glaceau has a TDS of 125ppm and GH/KH of 3/1. You are looking at something approximately like 95/30. With the greater part of the 95 being Magnesium over Calcium.
> 
> The BWT filter should convert some of the Ca to Mg but it all depends on your starting point.


There are published figures for my tap water but they are apparently very out of date.

50:50 BWT-filtered and glaceau lacked body and subtlety but it was juicy. Going to try mixing with volvic and also waitrose essential.

I'm assuming the magnesium levels are now probably too high and probably not 3/1 to calcium.


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

What are the out of date figures? Unless the water is coming from a different supply it is unlikely to have changed significantly.

From what you are describing it sounds like the BWT filtered water is very soft and you need a little more alkanity. Have you tried using unfiltered tap water in the mix?


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## fluffles (Sep 4, 2012)

Mark, have you got a GH/KH drop test kit? If not it's worth getting one as it will help determine which bypass setting to use.


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## Step21 (Oct 2, 2014)

From what I can a certain from Yorkshire Water website, your tap water is hard approx 260 ppm, last test Oct 2016. So too much alkanity

Filtering it via the BWT jug might get you down somewhere near half that at best case, say 130ppm but that is still twice the value of Volvic. Adding it to Glaceau is going to reduce the alkanity as Glaceau barely has any, but you are still going to end up with water maybe around 160 TDS and probably more Mg than you would want.

If you have any Deesideto mix ( which is very soft) you might produce something better? Only a thought.


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

fluffles said:


> Mark, have you got a GH/KH drop test kit? If not it's worth getting one as it will help determine which bypass setting to use.


Bypass setting? I have the 2.7 litre jug and the magnesium filters. Are you talking about an in-line filter or have I missed something?

I'll try to pick up some Deeside, thanks @Step21


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## fluffles (Sep 4, 2012)

fatboyslim said:


> Bypass setting? I have the 2.7 litre jug and the magnesium filters. Are you talking about an in-line filter or have I missed something?
> 
> I'll try to pick up some Deeside, thanks @Step21


Apologies, I thought you had an inline. I didn't have much joy with the jug either, inline is another thing entirely


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