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steveja
11
Feb 15, 2018
Makes great coffee - BUT won't last long if you use even medium hard water (even with de-liming). That's my experience after burning up 3!.
BrettP
47
Apr 9, 2018
stevejaI always used distilled water on my second Bunn because the first Bunn eventually needed to be replaced due to hard water.
Distilled water is cheap, makes better coffee and does not ruin you appliances or require maintenance.
steveja
11
Apr 9, 2018
BrettPCan't agree Brett. Distilled or RO coffee water lacks alkalinity (making coffee taste harsh) And calcium and particularly magnesium (the temporary hardness ions) have a big impact on aroma. http://www.scaa.org/?page=resources&d=water-standards
I've recently been making coffee by starting with RO water and adding ions and the difference is huge.
Also fwiw I've owned a Bunn and it never had the problems of the Bonvita. The Bonvita (by Melitta) has a really small heating element, so it chalks up with lime fast.
BrettP
47
Apr 10, 2018
stevejaInteresting. I did not know that.
Colbra
77
Apr 16, 2018
stevejaTry using third wave water. It's specifically designed for this.
steveja
11
Apr 16, 2018
ColbraI'm a coffee fanatic. I looked into 3rd wave water(TWW), and yes it avoids the TEMPORARY HARDNESS that causes scale, but it completely fails as good coffee water, The alkalinity is far far too low, making the coffee too acidic and over-extracting causing harshness (TWW is has negative alkalinity - it's acidic!). . It has WAY too much sulfate ions - which gives gives a flat dry taste.
TWW is also stupid-expensive for a 1/4 tsp of common household chems. https://www.home-barista.com/knockbox/third-wave-water-t44736.html "For those who are wondering what's in it... Each capsule is a total 1.5 grams. 1.1 grams of magnesium sulfate, .3 grams calcium citrate and .1 grams of sodium chloride" You can buy all those ingredients from amazon prime for 0.91 cents (less than one penny) per dose vs TWW for ~$1.25 - that's over 100x markup for a little planning & mixing. I wouldn't bother b/c it fails to produce good coffee.
THIS is a much better coffee water IMO (tho too much sulfate and some temporary hardness).. https://s3-ap-southeast-2.amazonaws.com/hosted.fivesenses.com.au/hosted_docs/water_recipe.pdf
-- TL;DR --
I've done my own coffee-water experiments, and I can say this much. Alkalinity is the most important flavor factor (one the TWW seriously lacks). I find sulfate ions to be excessive about 160 to 200 uMol, while TWW has 1177 uMol of sulfate! Sodium ions are fine - even to ~2x the SCCA level (~800uMol), but beyond that is gets brackish, Cl (chloride) ions are not good generally and can be left out. (table salt is NOT a good addition).
Mg(magnesium) ions really help extract good aroma/flavor (moreso than Calcium, BUT they also extract any burnt notes (probably no good for Starbuckians) Hardness & TDS are mostly irrelevant except high levels detract with mineral notes. Water pH (within reasonable limits) has absolutely no importance compared to alkalinity. My spreadsheet shows that TWW get the sodium right, and everything else very wrong.