What water do you use?

 

If you're using tap water, it depends on where you live. Your local water authority might tell you how liable are appliances to attract scale.
We live in south Manchester, an area that has soft water. Stainless steel kettles when we had therm, never furred up.

I've a Sage Barista Touch, which regularly tells me that it needs descaling. It's triggered by the amount of use. I just go through the motions, starting the programme cycle, just to shut it up.

 

Used mix of bottled and mains.

Going to plumb it in so thought I'd check beforehand.

After looking up here: Hard Water Map UK - How Hard Is The Water In My Area?, I had this report for Newcastle (Northumbrian water):

Water quality information
Maximum hardness
Moderately soft
Calcium Carbonate
77.50
Degrees Clark
5.34
French Degrees
7.75
German Degrees
4.40

 

Used mix of bottled and mains.

Going to plumb it in so thought I'd check beforehand.

After looking up here: Hard Water Map UK - How Hard Is The Water In My Area?, I had this report for Newcastle (Northumbrian water):

Water quality information
Maximum hardness
Moderately soft
Calcium Carbonate
77.50
Degrees Clark
5.34
French Degrees
7.75
German Degrees
4.40

Mineral contents in common bottled waters

Hi folks, I'm not sure if this is of interest since a majority of people seem to hold a good understanding of the mineral contents of waters, and how mineral wreak havoc on coffee equipment -- but I certainly didn't have as much of a clue, and spent an hour this afternoon collecting the mineral...

www.coffeeforums.co.uk

Have a read here for some water info. Rocket should be able to supply you with the specs of water for use in their machines. From a glance, your water is probably too hard from your calcium carbonate. @MWJB is useful on this stuff

Not many mains supply ideal water. Even so, I'd want to test it to ensure it was what the report stated, and then ensuring that it remains consistent. I'd recommend getting a filter in place if you plan to plumb.

 

Would be good to have a comment from a Rocket/Cinquantotto owner...

 

@natmat Total hardness as calcium carbonate looks OK at 77.5mg/L, it would also be good to know the alkalinity (also as mg/l as CaCO3 - less than 60mg/L would be great), you may be able to find this in the in depth water report.

Which bottled waters were used?

 

You should never descale a rocket espresso machine.

it says this in the instructions for every machine.

the descaling chemicals damage the components more than limescale ever will and there is no way of getting it all out.

 

Thanks for that, I'll re-read the manual, I didn't spot that.
Up to now I've only used Cafiza for monthly backflush and portafilter cleaning; nothing more aggressize.

 

Remind me never to drink tap water in the US.

it’s a risk to use it as it never comes all the way out. So not only are you consuming small amounts, the machine is rotting slowly over time. Along with your gut.

best to have inline filters.

 

An inline filter would be nice but the Cellini with a PID doesn't have a way to plumb it in. The only option is a water tank. Being that the descaling product is a food grade acid you're consuming that sort of thing all the time in the products you purchase...there's no escape

 

I know there are those that cringe when the topic of descaling are mentioned BUT for those of us brave souls who do this unholy procedure I wanted to share this video I came across the other day. The video is presented by idrinkcoffee.com and the instructions in the video make the process very simple and easy to follow. Also, for those who are scared they'll end up with "acid" in the coffee water, you can simply put a teaspoon of baking soda in a glass of water drawn from the hot water tap and see if it foams. Right? Chemistry doesn't lie. Anyway, enjoy the video even if it's just for information sake.