OhmIQ’s new heating-water technology was launched at Host Milano in October. CEO Frederique Pirenne explains how this method stands to benefit the entire coffee community.
There is no bigger stage to promote new technology in the HoReCa space than Host Milano. With more than 1700 exhibitors and well over 100,000 attendees, it is a mecca for organisations and people who want to showcase and discover the equipment that will help the industry take its next great leap forward.
In October 2025, among the hum of the Fiera Milano exhibition complex was a company based in the United States that has the potential to totally change how water is heated in hot beverage machines. Crucially, it could also remove the problems that arise from pesky limescale buildup on traditional heating elements.
OhmIQ has already partnered with espresso machine manufacturers to trial its technology, but Host Milano represented the company’s international debut to the industry.
CEO Frederique Pirenne says the opportunity to expose those at the tradeshow to OhmIQ’s technology represented a significant opportunity for the business.
“Seeing is believing,” he says. “We have spent quite some time showing what our machine can do and how it can be integrated with some of our clients, and the response has been positive. We presented some of those integrated machines at Host and see ourselves fulfilling a real need in the industry.
“We’re currently working with espresso machine manufacturers, but we’re also working with steam ovens and a whole range of applications within the professional foodservice industry. We’re very excited to start new integration projects with players in different categories and make a substantial difference.”
Typically, espresso machines heat water through a boiler fitted with a resistance element. However, this method can result in the limescale present in water latching onto the element, which can slow water flow, reduce capacity, create heating problems, and eventually cause blockages.
Instead of the traditional method, OhmIQ’s technology causes the water heat itself through the use of positively and negatively charged electrodes that promote movement of the water inside the boiler.
“There are minerals in water and every mineral is either positively or negatively charged,” says Pirenne. “With a resistance element you create a temperature of about 190 degrees Celsius, which causes limescale to stick to it, crystallise, and harden.
“OhmIQ works by placing two electrodes in the water – one is positively charged and the other is negatively charged. The negatively charged minerals will go to the positive electrode, and vice-versa.
“We heat the water by switching the polarity of the electrodes, which moves the minerals from left to right and right to left. That creates heat. It’s a little bit like putting players on a football field. The more and faster you make them run from left to right and back again, the hotter they’re going to become. It’s the same effect.”
The act of using an electric current through the water changes how the limescale reacts according to Pirenne, who says it doesn’t latch onto the electrodes because the electrodes don’t get warm.
“Unlike a resistance element that generates heat and then disperses through the liquid, our electrodes don’t heat up. They become warm because the water in which they lay heats up ” he says.
“Since the electrodes never become hotter than the water, they don’t become hot enough for the limescale to attach to them.”
To truly differentiate how OhmIQ’s process of heating water differs from traditional resistance-element boilers, Pirenne says the business uses the acronym STEP.
“‘S’ stands for scaling, which OhmIQ doesn’t do. Scale can build up and make your resistance element less efficient before making it burn out, which means you have to replace it,” he says.
“‘T’ stands for time to temperature. The resistance element is basically a middleman in the heating process, but we take out the middleman which means we are faster at heating the water.
“‘E’ stands for energy efficiency – most instant heater espresso machines need to keep a vat of water warm, but we don’t. Our technology can warm water instantaneously, which means it is significantly more energy efficient.
“Lastly, ‘P’ stands for precision – as we are much more precise at heating water than current resistance technology. We can control the speed the minerals move, and you immediately see the water moving and heating up.”
Pirenne says three key problems associated with the effects of limescale buildup showcase exactly why OhmIQ’s technology is needed, in addition to the added energy efficiency, speed, and precision it can provide.
“The main things are service costs, warranty, and uptime,” he says. “When you’re looking at a coffee machine, you’re working with four- and six-millimetre tubes. At the moment if you have limescale buildup in the machine, all it takes is one minor obstruction and the machine goes down.
“Not only do you then have to call out a service technician to take care of it, which is a cost for the machine operator, you now also have a coffee shop that has severely limited its capacity to serve coffee – or it can’t at all. That could lead to significant financial loss for the café.
“Finally, you don’t have to descale the machine all the time. We’re not saying we take the limescale out of the water – that’s what filters are for – but you don’t have to run as frequent descaling cycles to keep the machine running smoothly.”
Although it often takes time for new technology to become standard in any industry, the beauty of events such as Host Milano is the exposure given to new and exciting innovations that could change the future of hospitality.
Pirenne admits the most difficult part of championing new technology is gaining that initial traction in the industry. However, he believes as OhmIQ’s capabilities continue to expand, so too will its application in professional and semi-professional coffee machines.
“We’re a new technology, and adoption of new technology is always the hardest part. That being said, this concept has been around for 100 years or so, it’s just never been commercialised because you couldn’t have the control you need – but we have that now,” he says.
“It’s like walking on ice: people will always look for footprints to know someone went before them, but we’re looking to be the first to take these new steps.
“I think this is the future. We’re only at the beginning of this technology and it will only get cheaper and more accessible as time goes on. What we want to do for the coffee community is introduce a new technology that solves a very real issue for the industry.”
For more information, visit ohmiq.com
This article was first published in the November/December 2025 edition of Global Coffee Report. Read more HERE.
