When you break it down, the classic and well-loved espresso is made up of 98% water. So as much as there is a big focus on where your beans come from and how fine the grind is; are you looking at where your water is coming from?

As much as water can affect the taste of your coffee, that’s not what we’re looking at today.

Today we’re looking at the harmful side of the water and how it’s shortening the lifespan of your coffee machine without preventative care in place.

Predominantly, our clients live in an area with hard water. This means that the water is containing lots of minerals like calcium and magnesium, that have been collected from its journey through the pipes deep underground. Though, this is also prone in soft water areas on a smaller scale, so make sure you are also getting the correct preventative care in place!

Unfortunately, it means when the water gets to you and is heated up, you get… you guessed it – limescale.

Limescale is the number one problem we deal with at Barista 999, and whilst it’s never totally avoidable, there are preventative steps you can take to hugely prolong the life of your machine and its parts.

Why Limescale is a problem.

Limescale essentially creates blockages in the pipework in your machine, coffee machines have little intricate parts that are fragile. If you have a domestic machine, you may find that it can block up completely so that no water comes out. That’s why it’s important to descale them regularly. However, the bigger commercial machines aren’t as easy as putting a sachet of descaler in, so it’s important they’re serviced regularly to prevent this build-up.

Not only does limescale damage the inside of your machine, but it also damages the quality of your product. You can have the nicest beans in the world, but if your water is going through built-up limescale and a bad filter, there’s damage done already.

Limescale affects the colour of the water, the bitterness of the drink, right down to the delicate crema on top of your coffee. So, it’s important to take preventative steps immediately.

So, what is this ‘Preventative care’?

Preventative care is not a 100% guaranteed solution to stopping the issue, however, it’s guaranteed to slow down the issue, which means your machine is making more coffee before it needs some TLC.

The solution is simple, water and filters.

The water test is simple, we take some water before it has gone through your filter, and then we take some from your filtered water. We drop This will give our engineer an answer as to what filter you need and if the one you are using is still working, or ever did work!