The S1 Cafe - Helping Your Espresso Dreams Become Reality

My water hardness is back up to 100ppm so I think it's time to change my softener cartridge. (The filter booklet says replace at 3 months max).

I asked my retailer and he had no idea where to get a replacement cartridge. Does anyone know where I can buy one in Canada or US?

There is a European website, but with no contact or retailer info in North America:

http://www.water-and-more.com/EN/Produc ... artridges/

I tried asking LaSpaziale and the filter manufacturer, but no answer yet.

have u tried union or the retailer in calgary ( im sure u thought of that already)

fiddlefly wrote:have u tried union or the retailer in calgary ( im sure u thought of that already)

Cafe-Union had no clue. Caffe Tech in Edmonton only sells machines from Chris Coffee (i.e. no filter). Tried PlanetEspresso in Mississauga as well. None there either.

That's all the places I know of in Canada that sell S1s. I don't think any of the US sellers carry it since they all seem to sell the mk2.

I think I may need to get one shipped from Europe, where they sell the Mini mk1. I guess I'll order a few. Any idea how long a softener cartridge can be stored? I thought I remember them having some sort of shelf life.

Why don't you tell the company that sold you the machine that you expect them to support it? Let them pay the freight from Europe.

JohnB wrote:Why don't you tell the company that sold you the machine that you expect them to support it? Let them pay the freight from Europe.

I tried that. They didn't say no, but I don't get the feeling it will be arriving any time soon. After my last discussion with them, I figured I better find it myself or else I'll be trying to descale that sealed Mini boiler with a syringe (not looking forwward to that).

I'm starting to think about making my own Mini steam boiler (easily turned from from solid bar stock) with a proper bolted end-plate and gasket (cut from the existing boiler).

I think I can buy bestcup filters in my country, but i'm not sure yet. Don't know the price. In case you couldn't buy them, I could send them to you.

Wow! That would be awesome.

Let me know if you find one.

Chris Coffee now stocks the cartridges:

http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/hom ... ndsoftener

At $25 each for something that needs to be replaced every 3 months, I think I'll just stick with my RO water (which costs me only $10 every 3 months).

Plus that water unit looks cool

I also noticed on the CC website that they say the cartridge in only recommended if your water is already below 10 grains. So I assume this means it can only bring down the hardness by 7 grains. So if you are at 12 grains, the RO may be a better choice.

They also say the cartidge has 100g of resin which makes it good for 13 gallons (that's 16.5 reservoir refills).

Yes.....my convo with chris:

"Im no rocket scientist but if I understand this correctly given that the average water hardness here is 11.5 grains/gallon, thus 100/11.5 = 8.7 gallons
8.7 gallons x 3.8 liters/gallon = 33 liters. The mini vivaldi tank is 3 liters correct? If so, Ill need to replace a cartridge after 11 fills...."

That could be alot of cost for cartridges...

I picked up a few Bestcup M water softener cartridges for my Mini last time I was at Chris Coffee. But I'm now down to my last. Does anyone know if there is a Canadian on-line seller of these cartridges yet?

Considering the cost of those filters why don't you just install one of these set ups under the kitchen sink: http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/hom ... enersystem The replacement filters cost about $10 each & last 8-9 months or longer. I have one installed in the Speedster coffeebar & another under our kitchen sink feeding a dedicated cold water faucet. We use the water from the kitchen set up for the MIcrocasa & my wife's hot water pot. I added a manual mixing valve to each system so I can add hard water back in between the softener & carbon filters to bring the overall hardness up into the 2-3grain range as I don't care for the taste of fully softened water.

Usually when I run out of mini softeners, I just buy some RO water fro my cooler and do a 50/50 with tap water. It's cheaper, but less convenient since it involveds me making a trip to the grocery store.

The plumbed in softener sounds good. But I'm not really into any plumbing right now.

Seattlecoffeegear.com sells the Best Cup S filters for $12.50 plus free shipping for over $50.

What's the difference between a Best Cup S and Best Cup M?

If my tap water is below 3 grains... do I need to use the filter ? Can I use the water directly from the tap?