Sweet setup Eli, lots of luck!

nguye569 wrote:Here's an actual "user experience" post.
(2) water puddling under machine at random times (but more common at startup in the morning)

This has to do with overfilling the reservoir. Don't go above the MAX letters, or wrap some extra electrical tape around the hose connection.

nguye569 wrote:Here's an actual "user experience" post.

I've had my machine for about 10 months and it's now in the shop for my local dealer to figure out for warranty claims and repair. Over the past couple of weeks, I've had 2 issues pop up.

(1) no steam pressure. Seems to be something wrong with pressurestat not kicking back on sometimes and gauge staying stuck at 2bar until I try to use the steam.
(2) water puddling under machine at random times (but more common at startup in the morning)

Good thing I have my trusty Robot to hold me over.

Those two are related IME.

I ran my flo-jet water low and the safety kept the steam boiler from filling and reaching usable pressure. Could make shots just fine. But, a valve opened with water dripping into and overfilling the drip tray.

I power and water cycled it a few times and got it straightened out.

I made my first cap on it today after 2 years of shots only use for me. SO is a steamed drink fanatic. Gawd, what have I been missing?!

It's soooooooooo easy to make five star espresso in the LMLM.

Ypuh wrote:This has to do with overfilling the reservoir. Don't go above the MAX letters, or wrap some extra electrical tape around the hose connection.

I'm plumbed in though, so this can't be what's causing it for me.

My tech just got back to me, and said most of my problems were related to limescale build up on fill valve and expansion valve. They did some clean up and replaced some orings.

Now my question is if LMs are supposed to be this finicky with water or was there some general maintenance I didn't do? My machine is less than 1 year old.

Using LMs test kit, my numbers were pretty good post softener/carbon filter. The only issue is potentially chloride, but I was on the low end of range.

General ranges from LM test of my water after treatment:
Total hardness: 40 to 80ppm
Total Iron: 0-0.5 ppm
Free and total chlorine: 0-0.05 ppm
pH: 7 to 7.5
Alkalinity: 80 to 120 ppm
Chloride: 31 to 37 ppm

Imo, there should not be any scale buildup after one year if you're using the right water. I aim for next to zero hardness to be safe.

I'm looking into RO and mineralizing solutions, but even my dealer has told me he's had clients with worst water not have any scale related issues come up for them. I don't know enough water chemistry, but my numbers didn't seem so bad that I'd have issues relating to scale in under a year.

Hi! First post on these forums, but I've been reading this entire topic front to back the last week. I got my LMLM last friday.

I'm absolutely loving it.

My journey has been.. crazy. I've come from Senseo to Nespresso, to buy a bean-to-cup in 2016, and in january this year decided I wanted to try a real espresso machine. Heavily influenced by advertising in road race cycling I got me a Rocket R58 and Faustino grinder to match but hadn't done much research. As a new barista I've had lots of trouble getting decent cups of coffee out of the equipment. I managed to find a second-hand Niche Zero, which improved the quality of the coffee a lot. Also, I think there was something wrong with the Faustino. It was grinding way slower than specifications or video's I could find online and the taste of the coffee was all over the place. Eventually I got new burrs. However, it all was still very frustrating to get maybe 1 good coffee out of 10 pulls (and about 6 okay-ish).

Giving in to my frustrations, I sold most of my gear but kept the Niche. And pretty much regretted it desperately the next day. I bought a Jura E8, which really makes a nice coffee, but still I was missing grinding coffee, stamping, pulling shots, etc. Sooo fast forward ~4 weeks and here we are. Glad I kept the Niche.

I've already replaced the drip tray with one that fits the Acaia, and a Normcore v4 tamper is underway.

I think I will drop the steam pressure to ~1.3 bars, because I don't steam that often and so don't have much skill in it yet. It's just too powerful right now.

Some questions which remain after reading the whole topic:
* Keeping the machine on 24/7 or on the timer. This was discussed in this topic, but that was before the Connected app was released (enabling auto-on/off). Currently the machine turns on at 07:00 and shuts down at 21:00, every day. I pull shots throughout the day. Somebody monitored electricity usage, calculated how much it used for warming up and how much it uses if kept on 24/7. But I can't figure out what the conclusion was. Would it be better, for my usage pattern, to keep it turned on 24/7? The discussion focused pretty much on wear/tear of components but not so much on electricity usage.
* 0.6mm gicleur or not? I know OP installed it but would now advice against it because it didn't matter much (to him) in terms of taste. As I am an inexperienced barista, I'm not sure I would notice the difference in taste. However, I think I want to experiment with light roasts more, and as I understood it, the 0.6mm should help with extractions.

Interestingly the machine came with pre-brew turned off by default (while the non-connected versions had a default of 1s pre-brew). I haven't turned it on yet because I want to really get the hang of this machine/grinder/coffee combo first before tinkering.

@nguye569: sorry I can't offer anything more useful, but wow, that really is on the low end of water hardness. I get about the same results and haven't had any issues with my Cremina (although it is a simpler machine). Homeburrero (sp?) is an active forum member and knowledgeable about water chemistry, hopefully he'll chime in here.

Edit: actually my water hardness is >17 ppm. I use RO water with potassium bicarbonate (1.9g mixed in a 5 gallon jug of water). It's pretty much zero hardness with enough alkalinity to prevent corrosion. Some folks prefer more minerals for taste preference, but I'm paranoid of scale buildup (haven't noticed any adverse effects on taste).

I came across some of homeburrero's responses when people asked about RO and mineralizing solutions, and settled on homemaster artesian system. He seems to not have any bad things to say about it and it seems to be working for other people. It fits the bill for what I need, and they have a 1.2 gallon tank model that fits in my coffee bar.

But yes, definitely surprised to have issues after 1 year when my water is barely past the LM recommended.

*Edited spelling