# Rocket Giotto with 3M Scalegard system - scaling issues



## Olliehulla (Feb 26, 2013)

I've had the 3M scalegard system since the end of Feb this year. I took the mushroom off today when I was giving the machine a clean / lube and found this. Now, call me old fashioned but I thought the 3M system was designed to stop scale ? This is on a machine that was descaled by me 1st March ..??

As a point of reference, I've taken the mushroom off before, shortly after buying it back in October last year and it was nowhere near as bad after a couple of years of bottled water used by the previous owner. Also checked again just before fitting the 3M scalegard system in Feb after 5 months of a Britta filter jug, same, very limited scale.

Any clues as to WTF is going on ?


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

Are you able to adjust the bypass settings? If so, perhaps you need to adjust them?


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## Olliehulla (Feb 26, 2013)

Daren said:


> Are you able to adjust the bypass settings? If so, perhaps you need to adjust them?


It's not adjustable AFAIK but happy to be told otherwise and pointed in the right direction. The filter I have is the P195BN-E with the VH3 head.


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## Daren (Jan 16, 2012)

Mmmm. It sounds like the filter cartridge isn't working. I'm happy to lend you my tds meter if you want to test it


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## DavecUK (Aug 6, 2013)

Daren said:


> Mmmm. It sounds like the filter cartridge isn't working. I'm happy to lend you my tds meter if you want to test it


I don't think a TDS meter will show if the water scales or not as it's Ion exchange..



Olliehulla said:


> I've had the 3M scalegard system since the end of Feb this year. I took the mushroom off today when I was giving the machine a clean / lube and found this. Now, call me old fashioned but I thought the 3M system was designed to stop scale ? This is on a machine that was descaled by me 1st March ..??


Did you take the mushroom off and inspect before you placed in on the 3M system as 5 months on a Britta jug system isn't really going to stop a lot of scale unless you changed the britta cartridge every few days? The water is very hard in our area and at the end of summer Hardness is around 300-320 ppm and dropping to around 260 in the middle of winter. 3M do say "scale reduction" and their quoted figures for say a SG115P system are around 338l which is probably very optimistic. If you also use the machine for hot water, plus cooling flushes then it's not difficult to go through a lot more water than you think e.g. 20 litres per week would mean a filter life of 3 months for the smaller systems and only 6 months or so for the larger ones..

Of course any bypass also has an effect.


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## Olliehulla (Feb 26, 2013)

Thanks Daren, I have a TDS meter already but as filter is ion exchange it doesn't tell me much.

Dave, agree with all you said. The filter is non bypass (I checked) however the P195BN-E is a big filter, it's rated for 2000ish litres at 300ppm going in and it's only been a couple of months at 2-3 coffees a day. The machine was descaled just before I connected it to the 3m system.


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