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Thanks for the reply. The remineralisation systems use a cartridge which adds (I think) bicarb and magnesium to the near 0 TDS RO water to get it close to the 90TDS specified by the SCAA so it is stable, even tunable. The minerals come from the cartridge rather than mixing untreated water in.
I've always used cartridge filter systems and found that they reduce the bad tastes and aromas seemingly by a percentage, so if the water board have fixed a leaking main upstream and done a chlorine purge, it tastes chloriney, just less so than the tap water. This is not the case with RO. I have also torn down espresso machines which have always used cartridge filters and they still get destroyed, just takes a bit longer.
The other thing is I will gain an advantage in flavour over other shops not using RO. I'm going to be roasting in the shop and building a brand so the coffee quality needs to be an order of magnitude above the rest. I'm using Marco SP9s for consistent pourovers because everyone else pours them by hand, gets distracted and fucks them up. Every time. The competition are using decent roasteries and have well trained staff but they don't have deep technical knowledge of tasting so they don't tend to get the fine attention to detail stuff like water and absolute consistency in methods.
So the long and the short is that i want the water to taste consistent, it's the biggest problem i have with brewing coffee here.
Stevethecoffee-
I get it, I've been an engineer for a while now and seen plenty of machines that have been ruined by both ro and cartridge systems.
If you are going to go ro, then spend the money. The cheaper units are made for aquariums so are not designed for commercial cafe use, but it's not a panacea, ro won't be scared give you an advantage, knowledge of your water and its sources is the key here, call your supplier, find out about what sources it uses, what the pumping stations are like etc. We never have issues with chlorine taste, the taint filter on the bestmax premium takes care of if, even at a higher bypass level.
In my opinion, and I'm a Q grader so have done extensive sensory work, I've never known ro make coffee tastes definitely better than a cartridge based system. In both cases it's the care and knowledge of the owner that makes the difference. You are thinking about water as a key part of your offer already, and this puts you in a very small percentage of the cafe owners. This is the difference, not the ro. I'd spend the money elsewhere, or save it for a contingency fund.
If you like I can send you my water analysis sheets as well as my P&L from the first 3 years of the business, give you an idea of what to expect.
Matisse
Also, ro isn't always consistent. You'll have to mix in native water to the ro water to have any mineral content. As this is not stable, your brewing water will vary. Plus, efficiency is an issue, RO wastes water, increasing your bill, I certainly wouldn't use it for a dishwasher, a std salt softener recharged weekly is more than good enough.