Elektra T1 with water LEAK, LEAK, LEAK
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PierreRobert
- Posts: 8
- Joined: 12 years ago
HI, all,
About five years ago, you wonderful people help set me on my espresso journey. I purchased a (new) Elektra T1 and a Compak K10 Pro. While it took some time to develop the necessary skills and understanding, I have been extremely pleased with the results. Far, far better coffee than a lot of the stuff I've paid $6/cup for in and about Seattle. [I'm actually on the Eastside in Bellevue.]
[For the record, my machine is on for approx 8 hours/day. I make 2-3 shots/Americanos and one latte most days. Oftentimes use hot water for tea. I backflush every other day or so. I completely drain the boiler weekly.]
However, my T1 appears to be a leak maven. I am now on my fourth leak. Twice the HX cap leaked, then the group head leaked, and now there's a leak starting at where the boiler element is attached to the boiler. I discovered this while making my wife's morning latte, which spewed water out of the steam wand. [I turned the machine off, flushed all the water out of the wand and emptied the boiler a bit, and that seemed to "correct itself."]
I have a (cation exchange) water softener cartridge. My water hardness (from the city) is listed at averaging between 1.69-1.74 gpg. I've done the aquarium KH/GH tests (both take one drop to change color). I descale at least every year (usually every 6 months) using 1Tbsp citric acid per liter water.
Yet I still am averaging a leak every year. I am getting really frustrated (and desperate) with this situation.
Please, please help!
About five years ago, you wonderful people help set me on my espresso journey. I purchased a (new) Elektra T1 and a Compak K10 Pro. While it took some time to develop the necessary skills and understanding, I have been extremely pleased with the results. Far, far better coffee than a lot of the stuff I've paid $6/cup for in and about Seattle. [I'm actually on the Eastside in Bellevue.]
[For the record, my machine is on for approx 8 hours/day. I make 2-3 shots/Americanos and one latte most days. Oftentimes use hot water for tea. I backflush every other day or so. I completely drain the boiler weekly.]
However, my T1 appears to be a leak maven. I am now on my fourth leak. Twice the HX cap leaked, then the group head leaked, and now there's a leak starting at where the boiler element is attached to the boiler. I discovered this while making my wife's morning latte, which spewed water out of the steam wand. [I turned the machine off, flushed all the water out of the wand and emptied the boiler a bit, and that seemed to "correct itself."]
I have a (cation exchange) water softener cartridge. My water hardness (from the city) is listed at averaging between 1.69-1.74 gpg. I've done the aquarium KH/GH tests (both take one drop to change color). I descale at least every year (usually every 6 months) using 1Tbsp citric acid per liter water.
Yet I still am averaging a leak every year. I am getting really frustrated (and desperate) with this situation.
Please, please help!
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PierreRobert (original poster)
- Posts: 8
- Joined: 12 years ago
Now that my panic and despair have subsided, I've rolled up my sleeves and dug into this problem a bit.
The short story is, the (developing) leak was a result of a disintegrating heating element gasket. When cajoled by my visiting brother-in-law to take it all apart (something I would not normally consider doing), the gasket was extremely brittle and fragmented. We installed a new gasket from EPNW, and the machine is back to making great coffee again!
I guess after five years, it was just time to replace this thing. [Yes, this is my first machine. I'm learning all the ins-and-outs of proper maintenance one leak at a time, it seems!]
On the scaling issues, well, I have no idea what has been going on. I did get a good look inside the boiler, though, while the heating element was off. It was pretty much spotless inside. Just clean copper. No white powder/residue anywhere that I could see. So there is simply no way that scale (alone) has been the cause of my woes.
Perhaps it was due to bad/lazy technique or maintenance. Whatever it was, it seems to have been corrected in the past year or two.
Thank you to all who read my tale.
The short story is, the (developing) leak was a result of a disintegrating heating element gasket. When cajoled by my visiting brother-in-law to take it all apart (something I would not normally consider doing), the gasket was extremely brittle and fragmented. We installed a new gasket from EPNW, and the machine is back to making great coffee again!
I guess after five years, it was just time to replace this thing. [Yes, this is my first machine. I'm learning all the ins-and-outs of proper maintenance one leak at a time, it seems!]
On the scaling issues, well, I have no idea what has been going on. I did get a good look inside the boiler, though, while the heating element was off. It was pretty much spotless inside. Just clean copper. No white powder/residue anywhere that I could see. So there is simply no way that scale (alone) has been the cause of my woes.
Perhaps it was due to bad/lazy technique or maintenance. Whatever it was, it seems to have been corrected in the past year or two.
Thank you to all who read my tale.
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MCALheaven
- Posts: 127
- Joined: 8 years ago
While first reading this I immediately thought of scale issues. But your water quality seems high. Assuming you ran it 8 hours a day, every day for 5 years, that's about 15,000 hours of heat applied to the gaskets. No wonder it was brittle! After learning how to do maintenance, the next question is either how often? or how do I change my habits to increase maintenance intervals?
