I have a slow drip coming from the La Marzocco hot water dispenser. I'm hoping this isn't a sign meaning I need to replace the whole valve, would anyone know a simple fix to this problem? perhaps simply replacing a rubber gasket? Thank you in advance for any advice!

It depends what generation of linea you have, but if its relatively new (say 2000 or newer) the 3 way valve that controls the hot water is pretty easy to take care of and pretty easy to fix when it fails. If its leaking, scale is your most likely culprit. If you power off the machine, take the valve off, disassemble it (its only 2 14mm nuts) then soak everything but the black magnet in citric acid, clean it all with a toothbrush and reassemble that will typically fix it. The normal issue is that a tiny bead of scale build up on the "ridge" in the shaft that makes a seal with the bottom valve seat. Feel free to email me if you have any questions.

Hi Brian,
If you need to replace the valve "nucleus" or plunger it isn't too expensive, certainly relative to the machine. However like the PP suggested, scale may be your culprit, and I would follow-up the repair with a check of your water softening/filtration to make sure the water coming into the machine is clean. If it isn't and your machine is scaled-up, you should probably have it descaled, followed by a hard look at your filtration/softening to make sure it's conditioning your water properly. Good luck