Has anyone else had this happen. For once, I ran some water through to heat up the shot glasses and it came out milky white. I ran a bunch more and it remained milky white. Reservoir was totally clean and our water is ridiculously soft.

I took it to service, who are still looking at it, and they sometimes when the heating element breaks the powder in the element turns the water white. Great. So I probably had been drinking that powdered stuff for a couple of weeks. It may or may not had something to do with serious stomach cramping that I just wrote off as a return after hiatus of middle-age dad stress stomach.

I filled a shot, let it evaporate and there is a serious dusting of the stuff in every shot.

Here's my questions: Anyone else had this happen and anyone know what that white powder is? I've emailed lelit but they have not got back to me yet. Google suggests what is normally in a heating element is fairly harmless, but I'd like to know for sure.

It struck me as odd that this could be a not uncommon thing.

Many copper salts are white and water-soluble, so it may well be a salt forming on the surface of the heating element from unusual ionic content in your water. Something's odd in there - if it were common, many of us would experience the same thing. My undergraduate degree's in chemistry, but college was so many years ago that I have absolutely no recall of anything to suggest which salt it might be or which mineral might be higher in your water than in most of ours. Opening the boiler and looking at the element will probably give you the answer to the source, if not the cause. Look at the clear tubing in the fluid path as well to see if there's any white stuff - its location may provide a clue to the source if it's not in the boiler.

If there's no sign of the substance in the boiler, something's precipitating in the water as it cools from brewing temperature. You might try bottled water to see if it still happens. But if you're still getting heat, the element has to be intact.

Nice to see a couple of other folks with Lelits. (I have a PL041TEM.) Sure don't see them talked about much on the forums (recently). Not sure if that is good or bad.

I have not experienced this. I see your unit is currently at repair, but I agree with bluesman...If I were experiencing, would first do a backflush clean, then try some bottled water (maybe distilled to be certain *nothing* is in it.). I haven't attempted a descale yet (need to learn on that), but that process may be in order as well.

I love my PL041TEM - I think it's the best small capacity single boiler machine around (thank you, 1st Line for recommending it over the Pasquini Livietta I called to order). The heating element is large for the size of the small boiler, which seems to make it easier for the PID to maintain a close temp tolerance. It cools rapidly after steaming when you pump water through the wand (about 10 seconds to get down from full steam temp to 95C) and stabilizes at 95 within a few more seconds. There's plenty of steam to make very nice microfoam, although since I got my Oscar I do find that more steam power and a 4 hole tip lets me make smoother foam that creates better defined patterns.

Jeff says his water is very soft, and the TEM hasn't been on the market that long - so major scale seems less likely to me. I wonder if there isn't a higher level of some metallic ion in the water that's reacted with the copper of the element to form an unusual copper salt. I don't see how the element can be bad if it's heating up normally. And I wouldn't use distilled water - there are too many consistent stories of boiler problems with it. Given how many of us use Poland Spring etc, I think it's safe and reasonable to try a tank of it - flush with half the tank, then see if the other half contains the white material.

Thanks for all the well-thought out comments. The shots had seemed off for a bit, but then I heard a pop and steam stopped working one day. I let it cool down, and the next day the steam was working, but much weaker.

I probably ran 2L of water through the machine and it all came out the exact same milky colour. Dried it left behind a Talcum like powder.

What caught me is that that the repair guy didn't seem surprised and said it could be the element. Yet, the heat was still working so all together odd. It's been a couple of weeks and they haven't even diagnosed it yet, which is kind of annoying. I'm sure they'll figure it out.

What's getting to me is what the heck was I drinking and was it responsible for my horrible stomach pain that has since cleared up. Or was it just a rich food and drink holiday season coincidence.

FWIW I really like the machine and guests who come by love the drinks I make. The heresy is that I can only get it to make good (by my taste) espresso with darker roasts. Lighter espresso roasts do horribly and I've never been able to figure out how to make them not so bitter or sour. Dark seems to work just right.

Did you perform the 'refill the boiler ritual' after each steaming? Switch the left switch to hot water, turn on the pump, open the steam till water comes out.....

FYI, I've read someone else say a burst element can still heat the water by virtue of the fact the water is in effect being electrocuted. I can't vouch for it though, but it seems logical.

...not to me. The boiler's metal - so if the element is discontinuous and the water were conducting electricity from and between the broken ends, the boiler itself would be live and so would every metal part on the machine that has physical contact with the boiler or the water.