Tips on hard water and lime

Our advice will save you hundreds of dollars on repairs. 

Don’t Neglect Your Water

Water is probably the most neglected part of making coffee. If you don’t like the taste of your water, you won’t like the taste of your coffee. Most tap water is fine—whether it be well water or city water—but we recommend you test your water periodically. In most instances, relatively inexpensive water treatment can make a big improvement in your coffee. For example, if your water has a distinctive chlorine or other taste, there are numerous inexpensive, easily installed, taste & odor filters available

Check Your Water Hardness

Besides taste, the biggest water concern is its softness; hard water is the enemy of anything that heats the water. When an espresso machine boils water, the minerals in the water fall out and accumulate in your boiler—just like your home hot water heater.

Once in your boiler, that accumulated lime reduces your boiler capacity, can reduce heating element effectiveness, and may cause your boiler to overfill. Water carries small pieces of lime throughout the machine where it blocks flow meters, keeps valves from closing, and clogs lines.

We aren’t exaggerating when we say 85-90%+ of our repair business is directly attributed to lime.

Watch Out for Lime Buildup

Is your business in Indiana?

Central Indiana sits on top of some of the world’s best limestone, which is a good news/bad news situation.

The good news is Indiana limestone is so desirable it was used to build the Empire State Building.

The bad news is that the same limestone ensures we have extremely hard water. Any central Indiana water used to make espresso must be softened.

Choosing to save a little money today—by not softening your water—will cost you much more money later.

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