# Scottish water



## scottishcoffeegeek (Sep 27, 2016)

My R58 arrives tomorrow and it's a massive step up from what I had before. Wish this in mind, I'm just wondering what water I should use in it?

I live in a very soft water area where no scaling happens ever really. I don't remember ever having a kettle etc that ever showed any signs of scaling, but I'm not sure if this means my tap water is ok for using with my R58 or if I should be looking at bottled water, or buying a jug filter and using tap water through that.

Any advice would be very much appreciated as I'm keen to do the best for my new machine & look after it well.

Cheers!


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

Your local water authority will have an online report for your water (Calcium, Magnesium, Alkalinity, HCO3, Ca as CaCO3, total hardness - are the useful figures).

If your water is soft, why filter it?

The problem with soft water is that it can be acidic (


----------



## espressotechno (Apr 11, 2011)

99% of Scottish water is soft-very soft. The other 1% can be very hard. So exactly where are you ?

Using an ion exchange softener filter will just make the water too acidic - so don't use one !

If you want to filter your mains water supply then a carbon block filter will do nicely, removing chlorine, etc without affecting the pH.


----------



## scottishcoffeegeek (Sep 27, 2016)

espressotechno said:


> 99% of Scottish water is soft-very soft. The other 1% can be very hard. So exactly where are you ?
> 
> Using an ion exchange softener filter will just make the water too acidic - so don't use one !
> 
> If you want to filter your mains water supply then a carbon block filter will do nicely, removing chlorine, etc without affecting the pH.


I'm in North Ayrshire. I know you can get packs of stuff to just sit in the reservoir and change them every 6 months but just wondered what other options I should think about.


----------



## Stubhoy (Jun 18, 2018)

scottishcoffeegeek said:


> I'm in North Ayrshire. I know you can get packs of stuff to just sit in the reservoir and change them every 6 months but just wondered what other options I should think about.


I'm in east Ayrshire mate and agree the water is very soft here.


----------



## scottishcoffeegeek (Sep 27, 2016)

Stubhoy said:


> I'm in east Ayrshire mate and agree the water is very soft here.


Cool, what do you use in your machine?

Forgot what it's like down south until I was in Norfolk with the family & boiled the kettle for tea...nice layer of scum on the top!?


----------



## Stubhoy (Jun 18, 2018)

scottishcoffeegeek said:


> Cool, what do you use in your machine?
> 
> Forgot what it's like down south until I was in Norfolk with the family & boiled the kettle for tea...nice layer of scum on the top!濫


im just a beginner mate, it's tap water for me.


----------



## GCGlasgow (Jul 27, 2014)

I'm in glasgow and have been using tap water for 15 years with my classic, there has never been an issue with scale. I do descale the machine periodically just to give it a good clean.


----------



## scottishcoffeegeek (Sep 27, 2016)

Ok so here's what Scottish Water have given me, can anyone make any sense of it?!

Expressed as Calcium MgCa/l 11.20

Expressed as Magnesium Mg/l 0.83

Expressed as CaCo3 Mg/l 31.34

Expressed as English/Clark 2.20

Expressed as French 3.13

Expressed as German 1.76


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

scottishcoffeegeek said:


> Ok so here's what Scottish Water have given me, can anyone make any sense of it?!
> 
> Expressed as Calcium MgCa/l 11.20
> 
> ...


Your water is soft.

Alkalinity & pH would have been nice. There's nothing pertinent on those 3 pages.


----------



## chanstheorem (Aug 9, 2016)

This is the better spreadsheet to use for hardness in Scotland. "Hardness as mg/lCaCo3" is the number you're looking for.


----------



## scottishcoffeegeek (Sep 27, 2016)

chanstheorem said:


> This is the better spreadsheet to use for hardness in Scotland. "Hardness as mg/lCaCo3" is the number you're looking for.


Is that the only table they have? I don't recognise any of those places being anywhere near me.


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

scottishcoffeegeek said:


> Is that the only table they have? I don't recognise any of those places being anywhere near me.


You have already told us the hardness as mg/L CaCO3 = 31.


----------



## scottishcoffeegeek (Sep 27, 2016)

MWJB said:


> You have already told us the hardness as mg/L CaCO3 = 31.


How does that rate in suitability?

I've found the ph to be 7.83


----------



## MWJB (Feb 28, 2012)

scottishcoffeegeek said:


> How does that rate in suitability?
> 
> I've found the ph to be 7.83


Unlikely to scale as the alkalinity will be about equal or a little less normally. The pH should prevent corrosion too.

You don't need to filter either.


----------



## chanstheorem (Aug 9, 2016)

scottishcoffeegeek said:


> Is that the only table they have? I don't recognise any of those places being anywhere near me.


If you put in your postcode here then you can see which site your water comes from.


----------



## Mattius2 (Aug 28, 2016)

I'm in Lanarkshire. It's insanely soft. I have a giant 6L boiler on my Elektra on 24/7 and it needs a light descale about once every 10 years. Just use it straight oot the tap


----------



## Dr Forinor (Jul 30, 2018)

Excellent, glad I seen this thread, helped me out as well, thanks.


----------



## espressotechno (Apr 11, 2011)

The ultimate scientific test is........look inside your kettle to determine the water softness/hardness (!)


----------

