Ok I scored some citric acid today and have been reading everything I can on descaling the HX and steam boiler.

Question..... to disable the auto fill simply pull off the wire, and slap it on the inner shell of machine with electrical tape? If it's too short I'm assuming I can just add wire to reach? I understand you're trying to ground it so it won't kick on when descaling the HX.

Or it seems you could slightly over fill the boiler to make sure it doesn't kick in:
--fill boiler to normal level
--take off the auto fill wire, flip machine on and let it run for few seconds
--reconnect wire and make sure steam and hot water valves are closed well.

This should ensure that the auto fill doesn't run when descaling the HX.

Any thoughts??

Your approach would certainly work, i.e., overfilling the boiler slightly so autofill can't occur. The autofill on my machine rarely kicks in unexpectedly, so I just descale the HX first and then the steam boiler.

I recently had an interesting debate (in another forum) regarding the benefits and risks of overfilling the boiler of a HX machine during descaling. The consensus appeared to be against overfilling.

Br,
Teme

OK, I'll bite. What were the benefits/risks being debated?

Teme wrote:I recently had an interesting debate (in another forum) regarding the benefits and risks of overfilling the boiler of a HX machine during descaling. The consensus appeared to be against overfilling.

Br,
Teme

Interesting Teme....what's the down side??

Certainly you have to at least slightly over fill the steam boiler with descaling solution to clean where the top of the water sits in the boiler...right??

I've read the descaling part of your blog a few times (nicely done!) to get info on how to get started......would you descale differently now??

HB wrote:OK, I'll bite. What were the benefits/risks being debated?

I hope the link works. The debate was on TMC, on this thread. I think Dave is a knowledgeable pro and had valid arguments. There was a caveat regarding having a thorough understanding of the inner workings of one's machine, though. Part of the disagreement was due to the fact that we were talking about different machine components (I got this wrong in this case and put it down to the language barrier if you dont mind). Nevertheless, I think it was an interesting discussion that I hope is of use to others.

Br,
Teme

Thanks for the link, Teme. Dave's made some good points, specifically here.

Anytime one removes the casing, there's a risk of electrical shock should the owner neglect to unplug the machine. One can add the usual lawyerly warnings about risk of death, fire, destruction of property, etc., but the fact is the manufacturer doesn't certify these machines as "consumer repairable." In addition to the potential personal risk, accidently pressurizing the boiler with the pump would be a very bad thing for the machine (it's only factory tested around 2-3 bar, not 16 bar! And the pressurestat is accustom to only ~1.2 bar). Of course, I keep the steam wand open during the entire operation, so that's not possible, but if somebody forgets...

Chris Nachtrieb once said to me that descaling the HX is really what matters and that's simple. He argues that few actually drink the steam boiler water and a little waterline scale isn't worth getting excited about. I have to agree with him and Dave, running descaler through the HX and then filling with descaler / flushing the steam boiler is a no-brainer and would deal with almost all of the scale build-up.

I agree. But going about descaling the boiler on HX and forgetting to open the steam valve is akin to forgetting to put on shoes when you leave the house in my opinion

I think the point here is that descaling is necessary at regular intervals and if one is unsure of how to go about doing it (even after reading this thread and the linked posts), it may be better to approach a local pro who do know their stuff.

Br,
Teme

HB wrote: Of course, I keep the steam wand open during the entire operation, so that's not possible, but if somebody forgets...

Are you talking about having the steam wand open during the overfilling of the steam boiler???, then closed to descale with the heating element on...right?

HB wrote: Chris Nachtrieb once said to me that descaling the HX is really what matters and that's simple. He argues that few actually drink the steam boiler water and a little waterline scale isn't worth getting excited about. I have to agree with him and Dave, running descaler through the HX and then filling with descaler / flushing the steam boiler is a no-brainer and would deal with almost all of the scale build-up.

Teme wrote: I think the point here is that descaling is necessary at regular intervals and if one is unsure of how to go about doing it (even after reading this thread and the linked posts), it may be better to approach a local pro who do know their stuff.

Br,
Teme

After reading the thread on TMC I may rethink how I descale the steam boiler.

Want to make sure I understand.... The main danger discussed was overfilling the steam boiler with the steam valve closed and causing too much pressure to build up in the boiler? This is magnified by heating the boiler? I think I have a pretty good idea about the basic workings of an HX machine, but it seems there are a lot of things I don't have a good enough grip on to be able to work myself out of a unforeseen incident.


I may just leave auto fill attached and descale just to the water level in the boiler. While that's going on seems like a good time to descale the HX.

I'm coming very late to this discussion as I am upgrading my equipment and need to know whether to get a small water softener or not. And I'm new to this forum.

After many phone calls and such, I found that our water as 80 mg/liter Calcium. I don't know exactly what that means.

I'm gettng ready to order my Izzo Alex and want to order a softener at the same time if needed.

Help please.