# What about the water?



## grumpydaddy (Oct 20, 2014)

Started to read a few more sections here and started to notice comments like "Volvic is best"

Water around here is soft but even then it does taste awful on occasion, so much so that I already own a small distillation unit.

Little worry about furring up the works of any machine and maybe could use something like a Britta to reduce the chemical taste (almost metallic) but any thoughts about using distilled?


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## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Don't recommend distilled. You want ph neutral - 7 ideally. Volvic ticks this box and mineral content is good too. Ashbeck and Clearview from Tesco are good. Cheaper than Volvic.


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## MrShades (Jul 29, 2009)

Another vote for Ashbeck....£1.10 for 5 litres of the stuff.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=267832188


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

Clearview ain't bad 12.5 p a litre

£1.25 for 10 litres

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259614194


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## grumpydaddy (Oct 20, 2014)

You made me go and do some more reading. I was another under the misapprehension that the ph would be 7. should be OK for my kidney stones though


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## MrShades (Jul 29, 2009)

Mrboots2u said:


> Clearview ain't bad 12.5 p a litre
> 
> £1.25 for 10 litres
> 
> http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259614194


Errr.., that's s link to SPARKLING water MrB!


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

MrShades said:


> Errr.., that's s link to SPARKLING water MrB!


So......we all need a little fizz in our life

Derpty derp . Well spotted though









http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=259614228


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## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

THat's how boots gets his unique mouthfeel


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## MrShades (Jul 29, 2009)

Tis cheap, I'll give you that! What's the TDS of it, any idea?


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## Mrboots2u (May 10, 2013)

MrShades said:


> Tis cheap, I'll give you that! What's the TDS of it, any idea?


nope

little tesco only sells clearview near me not ash beck

too tight for volvic though


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

from memory, clearview up in the mid 100 range wheras ashbeck is about 80 and volvic 60 something.

sorry to be a bit vague, whilst no clearview at home do have both of the others but can't get to them at moment.

John


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## MrShades (Jul 29, 2009)

I've measured Ashbeck at around 55, quite a bit lower than the 80 odd on the label.


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## grumpydaddy (Oct 20, 2014)

boxes within boxes.... Ask one question and the answers take me to areas I had not yet thought of.

More reading about TDS and I find that this is most likely the technical answer to my op question although there is certainly more involved.

Thanks to you all for your input.... Yes this forum is satisfyingly technical.


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## thanasisnas (Sep 11, 2013)

Just mention...Evian TDS is 371...pretty large number in comparison to the others yoi mention


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

grumpydaddy said:


> boxes within boxes.... Ask one question and the answers take me to areas I had not yet thought of.
> 
> More reading about TDS and I find that this is most likely the technical answer to my op question although there is certainly more involved.
> 
> Thanks to you all for your input.... Yes this forum is satisfyingly technical.


Well if you want to get super technical there is more to it than just TDS, watch Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood's talk on water in the Tamper tantrum series! Really interesting stuff.


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## John James (Jun 7, 2014)

Just had to google TDS! I figured it wasn't Tenancy Deposit Scheme.

I will have to try bottled water, I use a Brita filter at the moment but the machine still seems to fur up.


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## Samwillson101 (Oct 17, 2014)

I am currently using a Brita filter in my machine I haven't found there to be a problem yet but I'm a complete newbie, should I be using store bought water?


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## Vieux Clou (Oct 22, 2014)

We just had our water bill with the analysis included. Mineral content (nitrates, sodium etc) around 2% of max permitted, pH 8, hardness 7.5% f (some kind of French norm, apparently translates into extremely soft). They do use chlorine for sterilization, but it's not detectable by taste or smell. I don't like it in my cycling bottles, though: it gets bitter over the course of the day so I use Contrex instead. I wouldn't use that in a machine, it's very hard.


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## 7877 (Aug 14, 2014)

aaronb said:


> Well if you want to get super technical there is more to it than just TDS, watch Maxwell Colonna-Dashwood's talk on water in the Tamper tantrum series! Really interesting stuff.


this is basically what I'm goign on at the moment. I had a bit of 1-to-1 with him, interestingly he didn't refer to TDS in that conversation at all. His view was it was about the buffer (bicarbs) and mineral levels if I remember correctly and the balance effects extraction of the coffee.....I've got some notes so will post what he reckoned the ideal was when I dig them out. However the bottled water he recommended to me at the time was Waitrose Essentials. I've not seen anyone mention this in any forums. He also said that unless you know what you were getting out of your tap in the fist place, its hard to know wheteher bottled would be better or some other filter/mineral replacement systems that tend to get used in the coffee shops - but that is probably a bit OTT for the home. You can use aquarium water test kits to check whats what out of your tap.


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

Sibling Chris said:


> this is basically what I'm goign on at the moment. I had a bit of 1-to-1 with him, interestingly he didn't refer to TDS in that conversation at all. His view was it was about the buffer (bicarbs) and mineral levels if I remember correctly and the balance effects extraction of the coffee.....I've got some notes so will post what he reckoned the ideal was when I dig them out. However the bottled water he recommended to me at the time was Waitrose Essentials. I've not seen anyone mention this in any forums. He also said that unless you know what you were getting out of your tap in the fist place, its hard to know wheteher bottled would be better or some other filter/mineral replacement systems that tend to get used in the coffee shops - but that is probably a bit OTT for the home. You can use aquarium water test kits to check whats what out of your tap.


Yeah the talk says basically two different waters with the same TDS can taste different so you need to think further than that! Interesting about the Waitrose Essentials, might give it a go next time.

I know the water in Norwich is awful, pour a glass from the tap and you can see the scale in it. Every coffee shop here (well the ones that actually know what they are doing anyway) will have a moan about how often they have to change filters.


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## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

Samwillson101 said:


> I am currently using a Brita filter in my machine I haven't found there to be a problem yet but I'm a complete newbie, should I be using store bought water?


what's your machine?

It depends on what the water is like to begin with really, a Brita filter wont remove everything and depending what machine you have it may be hard & expensive to descale, so even thought bottled water may seem like an additional cost it isn't in the long run.

I'd also recommend doing a comparison, make a coffee with the brita and with bottled and see what tastes better. keep all other parameters the same. it's easier to do with a brewed coffee.

Again if you want to know more I cant recommend Maxwell's Tamper Tantrum talk enough.


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## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

Looked again at the volvic and it too is up in the mid 100 range.

Used to use a Brita filter but found it only truly effective in the first week so changed to a BWT filter system which aside from blurb stating adds Magnesium back in, does seem to do a much better job at controlling scale as well as tasting better than the Brita.

The water here is rediculously hard and tried bottled for a while, asbeck best for us in terms of taste, however with the cooling flushes and cool down flushes post steaming, costs were getting silly ( hence possibly the question about machines above as may be relevant)

Pretty sure the BWT filters also fit the brita maxtra jugs and can source from Amazon.

Hope of some help.

John


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## Samwillson101 (Oct 17, 2014)

aaronb said:


> what's your machine?
> 
> It depends on what the water is like to begin with really, a Brita filter wont remove everything and depending what machine you have it may be hard & expensive to descale, so even thought bottled water may seem like an additional cost it isn't in the long run.
> 
> ...


Thanks, I am currently using a Gaggia new baby. I will trial both bottled and brita and go from there.

Thanks.


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## musicville (Jul 31, 2011)

im over in derbyshire and find the water to be neutral so tend not to bother with bottled


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