"But I've already got a filtered drinking water system, why do I need something else?"
This is probably the main question we get asked when it comes to recommending a water filtration system as an addition to purchasing a new office coffee machine.
A filtered drinking water system is great for just that - drinking. But not so great for your coffee machine. Drinking water systems improve odour and reduce chlorine to improve clarity and taste, but they don't remove the other properties that can cause damage to your coffee machine over time.
We need a certain level of minerals in water to aid in the extraction of the properties we want from coffee - namely caffeine, tannin, melanin, sucrose etc. However, the drawback is when water is evaporated in your steam boiler these impurities are left behind, coating the insides of your coffee machine's water circuit.
A water filtration system designed for use with boiler systems inhibits scale and sediment from entering the coffee machine and balances the mineral levels so that the water is at an optimum TDS (Total Dissolved Solids) level for use in a coffee machine.
"Do I need to spend a small fortune on a Reverse Osmosis system?"
Water hardness and the impurities present in your local tap water will determine what level of water filtration is needed to best protect your coffee machine. Reverse osmosis (R.O) is by far the best system you can possibly employ to filter and balance the water quality for your system.
R.O systems have a bladder tank to keep water pressure at a constant rate and multiple stage filter cartridges to mitigate sediment, inhibit scale, reduce chloromides and balance minerals; expelling waste saline to a drainage point. Office Coffee Specialists stocks a very affordable 5 stage bench top Reverse Osmosis system for dedicated use with any of our office coffee machines.
"Can I add filtration to my current system?"
Yes, you can. There are other good quality water filtration systems you can run in addition to your existing drinking water filtration. They will not noticeably alter the taste of your drinking water as that is already optimised for drinking, however they will improve the mineral and scale hardness for your coffee machine.
Different coffee machine boiler metals require different water filtration.
Copper boiler systems are a little more forgiving than stainless steel ones. (who would have thought right?) Higher levels of chlorides in contact with stainless steel will cause accelerated corrosion and damage components such as elements, valves, solenoids and probes. This means more frequent servicing, expensive repair costs, reliability issues and shortened lifespan of your coffee machine.
If you don't know which water filtration is right for your coffee machine, take our 2 minute package builder quiz and it will help pick the recommended filtration setup for the machine you choose.