2mo ago

Best affordable RO system for coffee?

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I live in a super hard water region. So hard in fact that it destroys every appliance despite regular descaling. I've remineralized 5l jugs of demineralized water for years but I feel it's not very sustainable in the long term. Plus demineralized water is not supposed to be safe for human consumption.

I'm looking for an affordable RO system that removes most if not all TDS so I can remineralize it using my favorite recipe.

Do you use any? What are your thoughts? Thanks !

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Why is"demineralized" water not safe? How is it demineralized?
Have you thought about getting a water filter for your water supply? Reverse osmosis or ion exchange.
- ELI5: Your body runs on slightly salty water, aka saline. By drinking "pure" /demineralized water, you reduce the concentration. If you only drink distilled water with no other mineral intake, you will start bursting/killing your cells due to osmosis. However, most everyone has plenty of salt/minerals in their diet anyways from food, so it's not a problem for most people. TLDR: don't go on an all distilled water diet, and you'll be fine.
  
  For your cells it does not matter if it is distilled or normal water, the concentration of salts is way too low in either case. Hence drinking 15 liters in one go will kill you. Other than that you will have a hard time getting in trouble from drinking to little salts, unless you live at an ocean and only consume that water for salt while also being extremely careful not to take in any salts... perhaps.
- From what I've read you should be getting adequate minerals from your diet anyways. Ive been drinking RO water for like 2 years now, but I take a multivitamin daily as well.
- Honestly, no idea. It's written on the jugs that it's improper for human consumption and destined to be used in appliances. It might just be that it's not been certified, or maybe the general processing chain is not food grade. I dunno. Or maybe because it's been demineralized it lacks the chemicals considered "essential" for drinking water.
  
  In college I discovered the physics department's distilled-water tap and started filling my water bottles from that because the regular drinking fountain on that floor was nasty. A classmate tried to tell me distilled water would make me die from dissolving all my minerals away or something, which I poo-poohed and kept drinking it for the taste. In hindsight I should probably have avoided it for the same reason as the big sign on the physics department ice maker, also accessible anonymously from the hallway: "No maintenance is performed to deter bacterial growth". Oops. Well I turned out ~~just fine~~ ~~pretty good~~ okay so all's well as ends without food poisoning.
  
  There are no essential ingredients in water. There is usually so little in water that you can compare a liter water to a small piece of beard. Also note that in some areas the water is naturally extremely soft.

I recently got a waterdrop brand RO filter, which I think will help reduce scale a lot in my espresso machine and probably make descaling faster / easier. I also love basically having no scale build up in my humidifier. My TDS goes from about 100 to 3 or 4 according to the readout on the faucet and my handheld meter. I'm biased though because they accidentally refunded me so I basically got it for free.
I got a "refurbished" G3P800 which looked identical to new and was significantly cheaper than MSRP, so I would check out what they have refurbished on their site or sold through their official store on eBay. They're also on Amazon I'm sure, but I avoid Amazon.
If you choose their cheaper models like the G2 and get a refurbished one they go pretty cheap like just under $200

Not specifically RO, but even better IMO: https://www.megahomedistiller.com/
Also, it's Made in Taiwan, so not supporting China.
I've been using this one for over ten years and it's amazing. Don't need to buy any filters at all, it's very simple and has just one button. Distilling is supposed to be even better than RO, too.
I've been drinking mainly distilled water the whole time and I'm totally fine. The stuff about it being bad for you is nonsense.
- Oh nice, this should be what I'm looking for. Bigger energy costs but much less waste water. And available in Europe!
- How do you descale it if your water is hard?
  
  You just put a bit of citric acid in it with some water and boil.
  
  As someone who lives in an extremely hard water area, citric acid is your friend. It looks like a giant kettle after all.
- $400 for a kettle with a condensation coil? No thanks. Wastes a ton of electricity boiling the water too, so the long term costs are way higher as well.

I use a 7 stage 3M set up. No idea whether this is affordable or not in your region. Here in SE Asia it was a reasonable price.

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