Just a word of warning on the Peak Water Jug. I used one for about a year. I live in a hard water area in the south of England and I had to set the jug to almost it's lowest setting to get limescale free water. The problem with that is it only filtered about 30-40litres of water before the filter needed replacing (i used the same test strips as Jack to see when the filter needed replacing) A two pack of replacement filters costs £30! I then realised i could buy 8x 5 litre bottles (40 litres total) of Tescos Ashbeck water for £12 and that water is spring water from the Lake District and that area in England has has very soft water naturally. I tested that water and it gave me the same result as the Peak water jug on it's best setting. So not only is it cheaper to just buy from Tesco it's better water and you don't have the faff of having to monitor a filter, keeping a jug clean and buying expensive filters. Moral of this story is to just buy Tesco Ashbeck water over a Peak water jug. The product is completely pointless when it's cheaper to buy better bottled water. You can buy 165 litres of better water for the price of this jug and one filter (£50)
BWT filter I believe is supposed to replace calcium with supposedly non-scaling magnesium (not sure if the Peak water filter also does that or uses sodium ion exchange as most filters seem to do) so it may show you more hardness, but might not necessarily be worse for your machine, and magnesium should help with coffee extraction taste too. Next step is trying all the different water combinations and seeing what makes the best espresso, you actually have a good machine for doing that test (easy to change water, no huge boiler).
They definitely use magnesium in their filters, not really sure what Peak does. It would be a very tricky test as I expect the difference to be very small. One thing I can say is that Peak water on its own tastes better than BWT or Brita.
@My Coffee Show Jack, interesting video by the way! My current water filtration process is: 1st - Britta, I fill the britta jug and let it filter through there, then, 2nd - BWT, I pour the water from the Britta jug directly into the BWT for a second filtration, then I fill my DE1 with the BWT jug. Have you had any issues with scale accumulation, either in your DE1 or your gooseneck kettle from just using BWT filtration? I'm curious because my process of double filtration is perhaps excessive!
@Bens Coffee Rants What is your water filtration process, or do you happen to be one of the lucky ones in Bavaria / Austrian Alps or the like, where the tap water is incredibly soft?
@@foxtrot.tango.whisky thank you for sharing. So far no problems with DE1 but my Crem One was damaged just after 4 months possibly because of hard water. As for kettle, my wife uses tap water when I am not around and there is some scale there.
@@foxtrot.tango.whisky Your Dual filtration method sounds like it could work nicely. You can get water hardness test kits from an aquarium shop, or online, or a cheap TDS meter but they don't tell you exactly what's in the water, is the hardness from supposedly non scaling magnesium from the BWT filter, or scaling calcium that it didn't remove, you gotta have some faith I suppose :D I do find the Britta removes a good amount of hardness, so Britta then BWT should be more than sufficient and it would likely extend the life of your more expensive BWT filters. I have a Reverse Osmosis system which has a alkalizing / re-mineralizing filter but it doesn't seem to add much back to the water, like 15ppm (which is about 1grain hardness) our tap water here is about 130ppm or which is about 7-8 grains, too hard. I add half a dose of Third Wave Water packets to a 4L (gallon?) jug of the RO water which may not actually be necessary. I did really like the results I got from Perfect Coffee water packets but they have chlorides in it which may be bad for stainless steel boilers (corrosive!). Last I measured I Think that brought it up to like 70ppm which is about 5.4 grains hardness but supposedly with non scaling minerals... but who knows (I should probably add less).
this is when living in Manchester really pays dividends - we have best soft water in country and I can use tap water perfectly well for both espresso and for my pu-erh tea (which is even more finicky than espresso)… great show as ever Jack
Thank you. I am jealous! Not only you have one of my favourite roastery Heart and Graft over there but also soft water. I officially name Manchester the Coffee Capitol of UK.
Quote of the day: "... distilled water is not good for your health, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY not good for your coffee" :) This was an interesting video. I use bottled water, cause tap water in Malta is hard too. I am however planning to install a filtration system directly on the mains, primarily to safeguard appliances. I will make sure to do some tests before and after, but I am not sure which system I'll be installing yet. I know this video is all about the machine, but it would have been interesting to do a tasting session of the same coffee with the different water.
Thank you for watching. It is very difficult to be objective in this scenario but I think that coffee with Peak Water tastes little bit better than Brita or BWT but not sure if that minuscule difference in taste justifies the price difference.
Thank you for this video. Very interesting love that you tried multiple solutions. May be you should have tried using water from Brita into BWT then test again
That is a very good question. Some people say that different tds of water means different density which can affect how fast it goes through the filter therefore affecting extraction.
In Canada the bottled water will actually tell you the total TDS as well as the breakdown (PPM) of minerals for each thing, I'm guessing you got the same thing there? Surprised that 'mineral' spring water was actually pretty soft water. Here usually our spring water is very high in minerals.
I haven’t noticed information about TDS on bottled water but they always put minerals on. I went for water with calcium levels below 30 and , at least with my cheap test, it worked.
I use Poland Springs bottled water. La Marzocco recommended it on their website. It has a TDS of 50 ppm. I'm in the US so I'm not sure if it's available there, but there might be an equivalent in the UK. I was wondering if the Decent has the same issues as a machine with actual boilers, as it is a thermocoil.
Well, as a man from Poland, I would strongly recommend to use Poland Springs 😛. I haven’t seen it in UK thought. Every machine can be damaged by lime scale and Decent says we should use good water to protect it.
If you want something else to do, you could try testing some Perfect Coffee Water or Third Wave Water and similar mineral products to re-mineralize distilled or reverse osmosis water. The water itself should be cheap, but the mineral products usually aren't so cheap (you can also source your own minerals). I found the Perfect Coffee Water did a better job with making light roasts nice with less bitter or sourness it seems. I think With Third Wave Water following their instructions it's actually too high in minerals and it tends to overextract easier, people report having good luck with it by halving the dosage! (Which also makes it half the cost, or you get 2x the amount of water out of it basically). I don't believe the myths that distilled or reverse osmosis (low mineral water) is unhealthy for you.
Thank you for the info. Until now, I have never thought much about water but as you said, it can make a huge difference. As for distilled water I heard that it actually removes minerals from your body when you drink it. Who knows? I have no minerals in my blood, just pure caffeine ☕️☕️☕️☕️
@@mycoffeeshow111 I don't think that's likely unless you're boiling your bones in it maybe. It's slightly more acidic than water with minerals. Not nearly as acidic as coffee or stomach acid. If it removes a minute amount of minerals from your food, it still goes through your digestive tract where it would be collected. You could probably argue that it is healthier for your kidneys actually!
I only used what I could easily get myself. For 3rd wave you add minerals to distilled water so it definitely works in terms of low calcium levels. Not sure how cost effective it is.
Im lucky enoigh coffee shop next to me has a filtered tap water for customers. When i run out of water i just go and fill up my 5l bottle. :) I Used brita filters before and i couldn't tell difference beween it and tap water, when comes to brewing v60s. TDS is not a good measurement for a water quality, since it also includes all the "dirt" in water but not always contains minerals needed for good brew. In my example was 360 ppm from tap, dropped to 170 after Brita. I might try BWT since its quite affordable, and have different options.
That is a clever way to get good water! The test I used detect calcium in water. Not saying that it the best way to assess the water, but you can check it yourself.
I've tried making my own brewing water but my coffee ended up tasting very bitter and undrinkable, i didn't know how to fix it so i got BWT water filters, now it's a lot easier for me and what i drink plus i still have all the stuff to make my own water again in the future 🇬🇧😎
@@mycoffeeshow111 I checked UK prices, and it seems a filter is £19.99 and cheaper if you buy more. My tap water is ~120 TDS and I still get 0 TDS after 4 months of use. It's pretty fun how changing recipes altar the taste of the coffee
@@l.l.coolray I think had the same results with supplementing reverse osmosis almost mineral free water with potassium bicarbonate, I think the problem is I added too much. It helps extract coffee more and ends up over-extracting. Thats my theory anyway, I ended up getting 'perfect coffee water' mineral packets, and it gives really nice results although it has chlorides in it which may not be good for stainless steel boilers!
I use the Peak Water Jug on a lower setting since my water is not too hard. I used to use Crystal Geyser Natural Spring Water, but I found out where it's sourced in my area, and the water hardness is pretty bad.
@@NickAlbano253 you are right. I wouldn’t recommend Brita for espresso machines. Lot’s of people said I should use distilled water with added minerals.
I hear good things about Perfect Coffee Water packets. However, I stopped using it on my Breville because Breville doesn't recommend the packets for their machines. It might have something to do with their machines having a cheaper heating system. Since you have a higher-end machine, I think you should be fine. However, it wouldn't hurt to reach out to the manufacturer who makes your machine and see if it's okay to use Third Wave Water or the other one I mentioned here.
I just bought recently Breville Dual Boiler. It came with one water test. I tested my filtered water from the fridge. I got one line from five which probably means it’s very soft. On Breville dual boiler for some reason asking to set the water hardness on the mashine settings
@@mycoffeeshow111 OK the strips just arrived, my tap water is bordering on 1000 reading (yikes!!) the Aldi bottled water is slightly darker than 120, but not as dark as 180 on the scale on the packet - So I think I'll stick with that since its 8ltrs for £1.35
@@mycoffeeshow111 Not sure about that. The website is still up, and happily selling Starter Packs (as is everyone else for Peak) but no replacement filters :S Seems a tad cheeky them selling the Starter Packs if it that is the only way to get hold of filters. (Not looking to be negative about Peak, it's a neat idea).
Just a word of warning on the Peak Water Jug. I used one for about a year. I live in a hard water area in the south of England and I had to set the jug to almost it's lowest setting to get limescale free water. The problem with that is it only filtered about 30-40litres of water before the filter needed replacing (i used the same test strips as Jack to see when the filter needed replacing) A two pack of replacement filters costs £30! I then realised i could buy 8x 5 litre bottles (40 litres total) of Tescos Ashbeck water for £12 and that water is spring water from the Lake District and that area in England has has very soft water naturally. I tested that water and it gave me the same result as the Peak water jug on it's best setting. So not only is it cheaper to just buy from Tesco it's better water and you don't have the faff of having to monitor a filter, keeping a jug clean and buying expensive filters.
Moral of this story is to just buy Tesco Ashbeck water over a Peak water jug. The product is completely pointless when it's cheaper to buy better bottled water. You can buy 165 litres of better water for the price of this jug and one filter (£50)
@@Tass... thank you for sharing! Your reasoning makes sense.
BWT filter I believe is supposed to replace calcium with supposedly non-scaling magnesium (not sure if the Peak water filter also does that or uses sodium ion exchange as most filters seem to do) so it may show you more hardness, but might not necessarily be worse for your machine, and magnesium should help with coffee extraction taste too. Next step is trying all the different water combinations and seeing what makes the best espresso, you actually have a good machine for doing that test (easy to change water, no huge boiler).
They definitely use magnesium in their filters, not really sure what Peak does. It would be a very tricky test as I expect the difference to be very small. One thing I can say is that Peak water on its own tastes better than BWT or Brita.
@My Coffee Show Jack, interesting video by the way! My current water filtration process is:
1st - Britta, I fill the britta jug and let it filter through there, then,
2nd - BWT, I pour the water from the Britta jug directly into the BWT for a second filtration, then I fill my DE1 with the BWT jug.
Have you had any issues with scale accumulation, either in your DE1 or your gooseneck kettle from just using BWT filtration? I'm curious because my process of double filtration is perhaps excessive!
@Bens Coffee Rants What is your water filtration process, or do you happen to be one of the lucky ones in Bavaria / Austrian Alps or the like, where the tap water is incredibly soft?
@@foxtrot.tango.whisky thank you for sharing. So far no problems with DE1 but my Crem One was damaged just after 4 months possibly because of hard water. As for kettle, my wife uses tap water when I am not around and there is some scale there.
@@foxtrot.tango.whisky Your Dual filtration method sounds like it could work nicely. You can get water hardness test kits from an aquarium shop, or online, or a cheap TDS meter but they don't tell you exactly what's in the water, is the hardness from supposedly non scaling magnesium from the BWT filter, or scaling calcium that it didn't remove, you gotta have some faith I suppose :D
I do find the Britta removes a good amount of hardness, so Britta then BWT should be more than sufficient and it would likely extend the life of your more expensive BWT filters.
I have a Reverse Osmosis system which has a alkalizing / re-mineralizing filter but it doesn't seem to add much back to the water, like 15ppm (which is about 1grain hardness) our tap water here is about 130ppm or which is about 7-8 grains, too hard.
I add half a dose of Third Wave Water packets to a 4L (gallon?) jug of the RO water which may not actually be necessary. I did really like the results I got from Perfect Coffee water packets but they have chlorides in it which may be bad for stainless steel boilers (corrosive!).
Last I measured I Think that brought it up to like 70ppm which is about 5.4 grains hardness but supposedly with non scaling minerals... but who knows (I should probably add less).
this is when living in Manchester really pays dividends - we have best soft water in country and I can use tap water perfectly well for both espresso and for my pu-erh tea (which is even more finicky than espresso)… great show as ever Jack
Thank you. I am jealous! Not only you have one of my favourite roastery Heart and Graft over there but also soft water. I officially name Manchester the Coffee Capitol of UK.
If I gave you 1 end of a really long hosepipe...?
Best water and criminality 😂
My RO filter has TDS of 18, in the Maldives water supply is coming from the sea after filtration, which has a TDS above 200 something
Well, I envy you being there anyway 😊.
Quote of the day: "... distilled water is not good for your health, BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY not good for your coffee" :) This was an interesting video. I use bottled water, cause tap water in Malta is hard too. I am however planning to install a filtration system directly on the mains, primarily to safeguard appliances. I will make sure to do some tests before and after, but I am not sure which system I'll be installing yet.
I know this video is all about the machine, but it would have been interesting to do a tasting session of the same coffee with the different water.
Thank you for watching. It is very difficult to be objective in this scenario but I think that coffee with Peak Water tastes little bit better than Brita or BWT but not sure if that minuscule difference in taste justifies the price difference.
Thank you for this video. Very interesting love that you tried multiple solutions. May be you should have tried using water from Brita into BWT then test again
Thx for watching. Interesting idea. Right now I am on BWT but still looking for better options.
Curious how brita vs bwt vs peak water compares in terms of the taste in pour over coffee
That is a very good question. Some people say that different tds of water means different density which can affect how fast it goes through the filter therefore affecting extraction.
Nice comparison water filter review, fun and nicely done
@@orrinbelcher6593 thank you very much for your kind comments!
In Canada the bottled water will actually tell you the total TDS as well as the breakdown (PPM) of minerals for each thing, I'm guessing you got the same thing there? Surprised that 'mineral' spring water was actually pretty soft water. Here usually our spring water is very high in minerals.
I haven’t noticed information about TDS on bottled water but they always put minerals on. I went for water with calcium levels below 30 and , at least with my cheap test, it worked.
I use Poland Springs bottled water. La Marzocco recommended it on their website. It has a TDS of 50 ppm. I'm in the US so I'm not sure if it's available there, but there might be an equivalent in the UK. I was wondering if the Decent has the same issues as a machine with actual boilers, as it is a thermocoil.
Well, as a man from Poland, I would strongly recommend to use Poland Springs 😛. I haven’t seen it in UK thought.
Every machine can be damaged by lime scale and Decent says we should use good water to protect it.
If you want something else to do, you could try testing some Perfect Coffee Water or Third Wave Water and similar mineral products to re-mineralize distilled or reverse osmosis water. The water itself should be cheap, but the mineral products usually aren't so cheap (you can also source your own minerals). I found the Perfect Coffee Water did a better job with making light roasts nice with less bitter or sourness it seems. I think With Third Wave Water following their instructions it's actually too high in minerals and it tends to overextract easier, people report having good luck with it by halving the dosage! (Which also makes it half the cost, or you get 2x the amount of water out of it basically).
I don't believe the myths that distilled or reverse osmosis (low mineral water) is unhealthy for you.
Thank you for the info. Until now, I have never thought much about water but as you said, it can make a huge difference. As for distilled water I heard that it actually removes minerals from your body when you drink it. Who knows? I have no minerals in my blood, just pure caffeine ☕️☕️☕️☕️
@@mycoffeeshow111 I don't think that's likely unless you're boiling your bones in it maybe. It's slightly more acidic than water with minerals. Not nearly as acidic as coffee or stomach acid. If it removes a minute amount of minerals from your food, it still goes through your digestive tract where it would be collected. You could probably argue that it is healthier for your kidneys actually!
@@BensCoffeeRants ok, you convinced me, from today I will only drink distilled water 😁
This is what I recommend doing too. I loved Perfect Coffee Water when I used it on pour-over stuff.
how many times you filtered water using Brita? 1 or3 times?
Hi, I normally do just 1 filtration. Do you think I should do it multiple times?
I would be curious how this compares to solutions like third wave water?
I only used what I could easily get myself. For 3rd wave you add minerals to distilled water so it definitely works in terms of low calcium levels. Not sure how cost effective it is.
Im lucky enoigh coffee shop next to me has a filtered tap water for customers. When i run out of water i just go and fill up my 5l bottle. :) I Used brita filters before and i couldn't tell difference beween it and tap water, when comes to brewing v60s. TDS is not a good measurement for a water quality, since it also includes all the "dirt" in water but not always contains minerals needed for good brew. In my example was 360 ppm from tap, dropped to 170 after Brita. I might try BWT since its quite affordable, and have different options.
That is a clever way to get good water! The test I used detect calcium in water. Not saying that it the best way to assess the water, but you can check it yourself.
Ever consider making your own water? I have a Zero Water filter and make water for espresso and filter adding minerals myself.
I've tried making my own brewing water but my coffee ended up tasting very bitter and undrinkable, i didn't know how to fix it so i got BWT water filters, now it's a lot easier for me and what i drink plus i still have all the stuff to make my own water again in the future 🇬🇧😎
It could be an option as well. Are those Zero filters expensive?
@@mycoffeeshow111 I checked UK prices, and it seems a filter is £19.99 and cheaper if you buy more. My tap water is ~120 TDS and I still get 0 TDS after 4 months of use. It's pretty fun how changing recipes altar the taste of the coffee
@@rgallard0 thank you very much. Seems like a good deal
@@l.l.coolray I think had the same results with supplementing reverse osmosis almost mineral free water with potassium bicarbonate, I think the problem is I added too much. It helps extract coffee more and ends up over-extracting. Thats my theory anyway, I ended up getting 'perfect coffee water' mineral packets, and it gives really nice results although it has chlorides in it which may not be good for stainless steel boilers!
I use the Peak Water Jug on a lower setting since my water is not too hard. I used to use Crystal Geyser Natural Spring Water, but I found out where it's sourced in my area, and the water hardness is pretty bad.
Thank you for sharing! Where do you get your filters? It is more and more tricky to find them.
I get mine from Prima Coffee
It’s expensive, but I find the Brita to barely do anything for hardness.
@@NickAlbano253 you are right. I wouldn’t recommend Brita for espresso machines. Lot’s of people said I should use distilled water with added minerals.
I hear good things about Perfect Coffee Water packets. However, I stopped using it on my Breville because Breville doesn't recommend the packets for their machines. It might have something to do with their machines having a cheaper heating system. Since you have a higher-end machine, I think you should be fine. However, it wouldn't hurt to reach out to the manufacturer who makes your machine and see if it's okay to use Third Wave Water or the other one I mentioned here.
I’m using filtered water from my Samsung fridge. Changing fridge filter every 6 months as recommended.
Have you ever tested the hardness of that water?
I just bought recently Breville Dual Boiler. It came with one water test. I tested my filtered water from the fridge. I got one line from five which probably means it’s very soft.
On Breville dual boiler for some reason asking to set the water hardness on the mashine settings
@@-Vee_ Thank you. I have never known they give a water test with DB but it make sense.
@@-Vee_ I would guess the Breville may notify you of when they recommend you de-scale the machine, based on your water hardness.
I use Aldi bottled water for my coffee as the water is awful from the the tap in Suffolk
I've ordered some of those strips via your link, I'll update what I think the reading is for this bottled water
@@ColdCoffeePhotography thank you very much. I was just about to ask if you tested that water.
@@mycoffeeshow111 OK the strips just arrived, my tap water is bordering on 1000 reading (yikes!!) the Aldi bottled water is slightly darker than 120, but not as dark as 180 on the scale on the packet - So I think I'll stick with that since its 8ltrs for £1.35
@@ColdCoffeePhotography if it is cheap and tastes ok then why not. Thank you for letting us know!
Peak water filters still out of stock🫣🤔🙄
I know. I have that funny feeling that they went bust. Currently using BWT
@@mycoffeeshow111 🫣
@@mycoffeeshow111 what BWT filters are you using? Send link,?
@@neilrobins3329 sure. They work nicely with brita jug. amzn.to/44AuBtr
@@mycoffeeshow111 Not sure about that. The website is still up, and happily selling Starter Packs (as is everyone else for Peak) but no replacement filters :S Seems a tad cheeky them selling the Starter Packs if it that is the only way to get hold of filters. (Not looking to be negative about Peak, it's a neat idea).