Stuart's Bosch Tassimo Hot Drinks Machine Forum
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Using soft water in a Tassimo
Posted by private, Thu 14 Mar 2013 4:35 pm
Recently on the Tassimo Canada Facebook page, a woman posted a question about the fact that she has a salt water softener that feeds all the taps in her home. She wanted to know if that would be OK to use the water in her Tassimo. I was surprised that an entire home had been plumbed for soft water. I always thought that the kitchen cold and the outdoor taps were bypassed.
I told her about the cautions in all Tassimo manuals against using chemically softened water, indicating that using it can lead to excess pressure buildup in T Discs, leading to explosions. I suggested that she should look at a reverse osmosis or distillation system, although I conceded they can be expensive. Another alternative would be bottled water.
Then another regular contributor suggested she just use a Brita filter. I did the web research on that, and replied that Brita and Pur filters, just like the Mavea filters in some of the Tassimo models, do not filter out sodium or sodium ions. Also if a filter of this type could nullify the negative effects of soft water, why would the T55 and T65 manuals not eliminate the soft water caution?
This contributor then stated that she has always used her Brita filter and soft water with her Tassimo and had no problems. I believe she has told this questioner what she wanted to hear (a cheap and easy solution) and convinced her to do the same.
I ended up sending a private message to Tassimo asking someone from their technical staff to review the post and comments, and give a recommendation. I'm not sure this will ever happen. Stuart, what is your take on this?
I told her about the cautions in all Tassimo manuals against using chemically softened water, indicating that using it can lead to excess pressure buildup in T Discs, leading to explosions. I suggested that she should look at a reverse osmosis or distillation system, although I conceded they can be expensive. Another alternative would be bottled water.
Then another regular contributor suggested she just use a Brita filter. I did the web research on that, and replied that Brita and Pur filters, just like the Mavea filters in some of the Tassimo models, do not filter out sodium or sodium ions. Also if a filter of this type could nullify the negative effects of soft water, why would the T55 and T65 manuals not eliminate the soft water caution?
This contributor then stated that she has always used her Brita filter and soft water with her Tassimo and had no problems. I believe she has told this questioner what she wanted to hear (a cheap and easy solution) and convinced her to do the same.
I ended up sending a private message to Tassimo asking someone from their technical staff to review the post and comments, and give a recommendation. I'm not sure this will ever happen. Stuart, what is your take on this?
Posted by StuartDalby, Thu 14 Mar 2013 5:53 pm
I have not thought about this issue and wonder if it is a region-specific thing.
In the UK, I don't think Tassimo manuals contain any warnings against the use of chemically softened water. I suspect it is not an issue over here where we only have either hard or soft water. I am not aware that soft water ever causes a problem where as hard water can result in limescale buildup. Tassimo's descaling programme appears to prevent this being a problem.
If in Canada Tassimo manuals contain a warning against the use of chemically softened water, I'd recommend such water is not used in the machine.
Like you have done, the best people to ask what type of water can and cannot be used in the machine are the Tassimo people in Canada themselves.
Sorry I cannot help more,
Stuart
In the UK, I don't think Tassimo manuals contain any warnings against the use of chemically softened water. I suspect it is not an issue over here where we only have either hard or soft water. I am not aware that soft water ever causes a problem where as hard water can result in limescale buildup. Tassimo's descaling programme appears to prevent this being a problem.
If in Canada Tassimo manuals contain a warning against the use of chemically softened water, I'd recommend such water is not used in the machine.
Like you have done, the best people to ask what type of water can and cannot be used in the machine are the Tassimo people in Canada themselves.
Sorry I cannot help more,
Stuart
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