# And then there's the water filter.......



## gypsysoul3 (Jul 13, 2012)

Just wondering what all your thoughts are about what water filter makes the best coffee, if in fact it much matters. Thanks for your thoughts.


----------



## lookseehear (Jul 16, 2010)

Espresso or brewed? If espresso which machine for?


----------



## Outlaw333 (Dec 13, 2011)

For home, my brita does the job(luckily i have great water here so brita is all i need) for commercial then something from 3M or Everpure would be your best bet but of course the setup depends entirely on your current water chemistry and yes filtering your water is very important, water makes up almost the entirety of your cup of coffee, not to mention the effect different water parameters have on the actual extraction.

Go forth and research my friend!


----------



## Earlepap (Jan 8, 2012)

Logically water has to make difference. I use britta filtered water as a base just to minimise scale as the water is hard as nails round here. However there is opinion knocking around that any filtration that uses ion exchange - which britta and those of the same ilk do - is no good for coffee. Couldn't tell you any more about that as I've not read much, and I'm not chemist. All I can say is that I find britta tastes better than my tap water, and it's reassuring to know there's less scale building up on the kettle/espresso machine.

Sometimes I use bottled water. I've tried Volvic, bog standard Tesco and Waitrose water, and also Highland spring. Can't say I've noticed much discernible difference between the Volvic and Highland, but the cheaper own brand stuff seems to taste less "pure".

Of course it's subjective, and I think a part of it is the knowledge of what's in your cup influencing how you taste. I'd like to do a blind trial between waters.


----------



## DonRJ (Apr 3, 2010)

I know most folks go for Brita but I have just changed to Aqua Optima jug and cartridges, much cheaper to run. That is there own design, not the Brita Maxtra copies that they do.

I have been testing the before and after filtering TDS and the Aqua Optima is producing significantly better results so far. My water is extremely hard, typically over 500, I am getting it below 100 with the Aqua Optima and only 300+ with the Brita on side by side testing. The acid test will be how long the filtering performance is maintained in my typical daily use regime.

I could use zero TDS water from my reverse osmosis system but it is too pure for drinking water and coffee.


----------

