Hi
I recently installed a Commercial Water Softener Unit sold by CC for my new La Spaziale Vivaldi II.

Despite running much water through the unit to clear the carbon fines from the new carbon filter, and it running what I thought was clear, some carbon fines got caught in the filter canister and were being slowly released into the water flow.

This resulted in yellow water coming out of both my brew boiler and steam boiler.

After disassembling and sorting the problem out, and running many flushing purges through the system, for about 2 days now, the brew water is only a very very faint yellow color, and the water from the steam boiler is still light golden colour.

My question is this: If I have stopped the source of the yellow water (rinsed out any remaining carbon fines from the carbon filter), and I have purged the water through the machine many times, why is the water still coming out yellow (and more yellow from the steam boiler than the brew boiler).

What do you think I need to do to rectify the situation? Would a flush with some sort of citrus based descaled help (and if so, what brand/type do you recommend as being safe for the Vivaldi II).

Thanks
Craig

Does the water smell? First thing I think when I read smelly yellow water from a boiler is milk contamination in the boiler. Had that happen once and it was a mess. The water had a distinct sour smell and an off taste. I had to disassemble the machine and wash out all the piping/boilers with backflush detergent to get rid of it.

Thanks Dave. I have never foamed any milk on this machine yet as it is brand new.

Cheers
Craig

Sure it's carbon? The resin softeners always make my water yellow at first. I run them by themselves for a few gallons, then start running water through the carbon filter. If you do them both at the same time, you get yellowish water for a long time.

Thanks Ben. I will disassemble the filters and run a lot of water through each before reassembling them.

The water is a definite yellow color, so I need to sort out if it is coming from the filtration system, or somewhere inside my machine.

Regards
Craig

@Ben Z

You were correct - it was not any carbon fines causing the yellow color, but the resin softener that had not had enough water flushed through it to remove "what ever it is" that causes resin softeners to start out by giving that yellow color.

Thanks for your help.

Regards
Craig

Well after my 19 November success outlined above (disassembly of the filtration system and running heaps of water through the softener unit) and achieving clear water, the dreaded yellow water has come back.

Funny thing is, it takes less than 1 litre of water directly out of the softening unit until it starts to run clear. To be sure I had this unit completely flushed, I ran another 15 litres of water through it quickly (all came out clear) then trickled another 15 litres of water through it (all came out clear as well).

Finally I flushed my S1's boilers with fresh water, and beautiful clear water came out both boilers.

So now it's 11 days later, and I'm back to yellow water coming out of the machine.

I have disassembled the water softening unit no less than 3 times, and flushed it each time with heaps of water. I'm unsure why the softening unit continues to release softening salts into the water after a period of time.

I have emailed the service department at Chris Coffee to ask for help, but would love to hear from some Home Barista members who might have an insight on how to permanently solve the problem.