Lelit Bianca User Experience - Page 146

#1451: Post by **Escaron** » May 16th, 2021, 11:03 pm

Hi there, new Bianca owner, upgraded from a Gaggia and love the machine. I've read the whole thread thoroughly and have a couple quick question for the experienced owners here.

I'm having a hard time dialing in the Ec offset on my machine. Initially I tried just sticking a TC into a puck full of coffee and running out the side of my portafilter while locked in. The temperature readings seemed way too low relative to the boiler settings (obviously wrong), temp would climb aggressively for the first 15s of the short and then drop off rapidly. No steady temp at all over the 30s run so I figured my attempt at a scace was not reliable. Using flash boil method I'm having a really hard time discerning when I'm getting the proper boil. I'm at around 3000ft elevation, boiling point here is 205F (96C). I filmed this video with a Ec of 10C. To me it looks like a vigorous boil between 211-212F (roughly 99-100C so I think up my offset by 3C to 13C)? Would appreciate feedback on whether I am picking the right point. Ps. Service boiler is turned off here, but in my limited experience I find when the service boiler is on my group is hotter so I feel like maybe the offset should be lower to compensate, not sure if people have similar experience?

[youtube] http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o95_3MFnmAA[/youtube]

My second question is, how often should you flush water through the service boiler and what is the best way to do this with least stress on the machine? I don't normally use it for anything more than steam, but seems like water starts to taste stale after a week in the boiler. I don't know if it's worth flushing each week or is that just introducing more minerals and will accelerate scaling? In terms of process to flush, what I found in a lelit guide is to take the boiler up to temperature and just run water out of the hot water wand until it stops and starts to refill, then let boiler heat up again and repeat a few times to get enough fresh water flushed through. Does this stress the heating element? Is it better to heat the boiler, shut off the machine, then flush, let it cool and then start the machine from cool and let it fill? Obviously this would take longer.

Appreciate the advice!

May 17th, 2021, 1:10 am

On your second question. Once a month I fill my tank with distilled water and use the water spout to empty the boiler as far as it goes (you'll get about 1/2 to 3/4 of a liter). The autofill will refill the boiler with distilled water. I make one cappa per day roughly; so you may want to do more often if you use the steamer more often.

If you have a TDS meter and are using regular water (not ion exchange softened, or a recipe that substitutes potassium and sodium for calcium and magnesium) the water coming out of your boiler should have a TDS at or below 150 (let it cool to room temp before measuring, even the temp compensated meters will read too high with 90C water))

On your first question: The flash boil is tricky, and I put it up for those who do not own a Scace device. But the boil should be vigorous, sputtering, and with steam (boil water in an open saucepan -- it bubbles and seethes well below boiling, but rolls and steams when really boiling).

The final adjustment is by taste in any case. If you are thinking that super precise calibrations will let you successfully follow the "recipes" of temperature, dose, time, shot weight that coffee roasters sometimes post for their espresso offerings, go ahead and get super precise -- but put your palate in escrow.

May 17th, 2021, 10:20 am

Thanks Jim appreciate the advice. I also make just one cappuccino a day so a monthly flush should be sufficient.

I'm certainly not trying to go for perfect calibration, just get a roughly correct temperature out of the group and like you said, use taste as the final determinant.

Having said that, am I hitting flash boil in the video I posted at all? Based on your comments makes me feel like I'm not there.

Thanks!

May 17th, 2021, 11:45 am

Looks like 210 to 212. But I'm no fan of videos. You should go with the point you hear and see steam first, before water.

May 20th, 2021, 12:31 am

Jack in the Box wrote:I got my Bianca in January 2020 and have used it daily since I got it to make 2-3 espresso's each morning for me and my wife. A few months ago I wasn't paying attention and ran the water tank down too low and the system stopped with the low water warning. I'm not sure if that event is related to what I'm experiencing now or if it was the catalyst to make me realize my Bianca wasn't behaving the same as it used to.

Turning it on to make an espresso no longer goes up to full pressure in the tank within seconds, but takes up to 13-15 seconds to reach full pressure. The gauge bobs up and down as it makes a bunch of noise seemingly struggling to get to full pressure. Once at max pressure, the groaning it makes settles down into what I remember as being normal.

To be honest, I ignored this issue for longer than I should have, but lately, I started actively paying attention to it and when I searched online for potential causes (and ideally a fix) I did find someone on reddit who had the exact same issue. His post is here -

I found a video from one of my first times using the Bianca back in January 2020, and I was shocked when I saw it got to pressure in the tank in seconds, and relatively quiet too. I took a video today, and the difference is startling, with it taking about 14 seconds to get to full pressure with lots of bobbing up and down on the gauge and a lot of noise and groaning to get there. You can see the two videos here - https://1drv.ms/u/s!AoFon8FBZ35Ltc906Tk ... w?e=I0nVXi

For the Reddit poster, the issue appears to be caused by the pump not getting fed enough water and sure enough, he fixed it by cleaning his filter support. I haven't had the same luck, but I'm pretty new with these types of machines so I'm not sure how to best troubleshoot and proceed.

Additional info that could be helpful:

- Never descaled the system since I've bought it beyond the standard 4-6 week black flush through the group head
- I'm using the built-in water tank (not plumped in)
- Have never used tap water in the system, it has only ever seen water I mixed using the Barista Hustle recipe listed here - https://www.baristahustle.com/blog/diy- ... pes-redux/
- Upgraded to V2 LCC last summer when it was available in Canada. Didn't have any issues (to my knowledge) with the replacement
- Took out the plastic water tank and cleaned it, the tubing, the filter on the tube.
- Haven't opened the unit itself (beyond the LCC replacement), and have not taken off my mushroom to inspect for scale.

I'm open to any and all suggestions on how to troubleshoot this problem. Until I found that video from last year I didn't realize how bad this problem has become and I'm hoping it is something that can be fixed.

Shout out to smo!, who suggested I likely had a scale issue. They were right.

Descaling returned my Bianca right back to how it was out of the box. I first opened up the flow regulator and sure enough, I saw some scale build-up. I followed the instructions posted for the Bianca here (Lelit Bianca: How Best to Descale?) using the Puly descaling liquid and it didn't take long before all my pressure and pump issues disappeared.

Thanks for the prodding to finally address it!

#1456: Post by **Escaron** » May 25th, 2021, 10:59 am

Has anyone experienced increased stiffness in the e61 lever AFTER lubricating the cam and pins? I've pulled the assembly apart twice following the instructions from coffeetime wiki and the various videos on YouTube for the Mara/Bianca. I applied a relatively small amount of grease on the required areas. Both times the lever seems very hard to operate and definitely worse than before I did the cafiza back flush. It eases up a bit as the machine warms, but the motion is never smooth and feels like I'm pushing it through molasses instead of it gliding nicely even when it's between pins. It almost feels like resistance in the barrel leading from group to lever that is causing this, not cam/pin action itself. I didn't think there was anything there other than rubber washers that could cause friction?

The only thing is I'm not using Molykote 111, just a generic NSF H1 food safe grease, but I can't imagine that makes all the difference? Is it possible to put too much grease on to the point where it creates friction on the cam or in the barrel out to the lever?

I'm at a complete loss.

#1457: Post by **JRising** » May 25th, 2021, 2:02 pm

Regarding the control lever feeling stiffer after lubricating...
Do it again, but clean the shaft really well. If there's old, black grease left on the shaft, it will mix with the new grease and take away from it's lubricant properties. I've only seen it happen after replacing the seals and re-lubricating, but the new grease goes black from the contamination of the old grease (the black is from the old seals that have been leeching into the old grease). You want to get rid of all of the old guck, clean the shaft really well so you can see the nice shiny brass and don't hesitate to put a lot of lubricant all over all surfaces of the new seals and the shaft. Slide it back and forth rotate it around a few times to really get the lubricant on all surfaces before re-tightening the whole assembly back in place and torquing the spring and collar back down on it. Also make sure there's some grease on the cam and the tips of the valves where they ride the cam (Although, you can feel the difference between the metal on metal "grinding" friction and the shaft seizing in the seals "applying brakes" friction).

#1458: Post by **LeoZ** » May 27th, 2021, 3:44 pm

hi all.. some questions for ya. after 1.5 years of use, i am noticing some increasing annoyances.. my machine is hard plumbed with a BST filter and regulator, maintaining approx 2.5 bar of (standing, not flow! flow is typically maxed at ~11 bar) inlet pressure, and keeping the OVP to a max of 9.5bar brew pressure (not that this matters).

1. i noticed that upon startup, the OVP area (not sure from here, or something above it - vaccuum breaker?) the machine tends to leak until its hot and things seal up. given the price of the machine, i dont expect to need a towel

anyone else have this issue or a recommendation?

2. it will occasionally leak out of the back. im guessing this is the boiler area. when i turn the machine off, let it cool, and restart, this leak tends to stop. again, not an expectation of a $2500 investment.

3. maybe conjecture.. the machine seems much louder when plumbed vs using the tank. its not hammering as there is good, consistent flow. anyone notice this? when filling the steam boiler or free flowing water through the brew boiler, both plumbed and tank produce up to 11 bar of inlet flow.

4. steam/boiler water - it tastes like crap. very metallic. 1st line told me its the water quality. so, i changed from plumbed to the tank. used non-BST filtered water and instead a standard charcoal filtered source for my fridge. same result. flushed and used tap water. same result. comments welcome here too.

thanks all!

#1459: Post by **Smo** » May 27th, 2021, 11:08 pm

another_jim wrote:On your second question. Once a month I fill my tank with distilled water and use the water spout to empty the boiler as far as it goes (you'll get about 1/2 to 3/4 of a liter). The autofill will refill the boiler with distilled water. I make one cappa per day roughly; so you may want to do more often if you use the steamer more often.

the taste of steam and water will become good.

#1460: Post by **Smo** » May 27th, 2021, 11:16 pm

To find a leak, you need to remove the top cover, there are no other options.
You may only have to fix the silicone tube.

Find good water, your options are clearly bad.
Read the topic water here.
When buying a car for a million dollars, you still have to go to a mechanic. He will not let you refuel it with crude oil.