I have a LaSpaziale Dream T (tank) espresso machine. I have hard water and even if I use the in-tank water softener pouch ("Oscar") my water remains hard. I recently brought it in to Chris' Coffee for service and the tech said I needed better water. (The cost of that service was equivalent to years of purchasing bottled water!)

I have read the posts on making my own water using distilled water. I think these are the steps

STEP 1: Mix
** 14g of baking soda into 1000ml of distilled water
** 12g of epson salts into 1000ml of distilled water

STEP 2: Mix
** 5ml of each of the above into 1 liter of distilled water. <-- use this in my machine

Does this recipe sound correct? Does anyone have advice? Is there a better/easier solution?

Tom

The easiest recipe.
Dissolve 9g of baking soda in 100 ml of distilled water.
Add 1 ml of the resulting solution to one liter of distilled water and use it in your coffee machine.
A 1 ml medical syringe will help you.

An 9% baking soda solution can be prepared even without using a scale.
The solubility of baking soda in water at room temperature is approximately 9g per 100ml.
So take 100 ml of water, add 2 teaspoons of baking soda and stir until the dissolution stops. Then separate the precipitate from the solution.

I'm sorry... I am not sure what you mean when you say "separate the precipitate from the solution"

Can you explain in non-science English?

Tom

Pour the liquid solution off and leave the sediment.

TomP10 wrote:STEP 1: Mix
** 14g of baking soda into 1000ml of distilled water
** 12g of epson salts into 1000ml of distilled water

STEP 2: Mix
** 5ml of each of the above into 1 liter of distilled water. <-- use this in my machine

Does this recipe sound correct? Does anyone have advice? Is there a better/easier solution?

That recipe is sensible and correct. It would give you scale-free water with healthy alkalinity for corrosion protection. That amount of Epsom salt would give you a total hardness of 20 mg/L (all of it due to magnesium, calcium hardness is zero) and a healthy alkalinity of 42 mg/L.

Some would argue that you don't really need the Epsom, so you could leave that out, in which case you would have water similar to the rpavlis water, which is very well liked by users on this site. ( See Poll: What DIY Water Recipes Do You Use for Espresso? ) You could taste test it with and without the Epsom salt and if the taste isn't better with the Epsom salt just leave it out.

P.S. The recipe that Smo outlined above is, like rpavlis water, a bicarbonate-only recipe with roughly 50 mg/L alkalinity.

TomP10 wrote: Does anyone have advice? Is there a better/easier solution?

Tom

Since I purchase RO water (refills) in 19 litre (5 gal) bottles, I find it much easier to just dissolve about 2.2 grams (1/2 teaspoon works perfectly) of potassium bicarbonate into about 1/2 a cup of boiler water (since it's boiling+, dissolves pretty well instantly/completely). I then dump this into the whole 5 gal bottle and give it a quick shake and it's ready to use directly. Get a little hand pump or whatever you need to do to pour it into your espresso tank. No measuring for each fill. I did the concentrate thing for a while but just found the process tedious after a while.

homeburrero wrote:P.S. The recipe that Smo outlined above is, like rpavlis water, a bicarbonate-only recipe with roughly 50 mg/L alkalinity.

Yes, everything is absolutely correct, I add a little less than 0.7-0.8 ml per liter.
I wrote everything in a simplified way.
For good, a person should delve into the problem and understand what he is doing.

I simply add 400 mg potassium bicarbonate to 1 gallon distilled water. It dissolves easily, no dilutions needed.