Hello. I have a Bianca that used to have an incredible heat up time...under 15 minutes as mentioned elsewhere in this forum. Something has drastically changed recently and it is now taking over an hour for the steam boiler to come up to temperature. I've had it since November 2018 and despite using a BWT filter, I've had some scaling issues that caused my vacuum breaker valve to stop workin. I'm going to give it its first ever descaling today and hope that might make a difference but otherwise I have no ideas what might be causing the sudden change. I would expect a heating element would either completely work or completely not work. Can't figure out why it would just be so slow. Would be grateful for any thoughts and I'll repost after I finish the long descaling process. Thanks!

Welcome to HB Matt

It might be that the heater element has become scale encrusted. See what happens after a complete citric acid descaling. There are plenty of threads on this site on the subject.

With the machine unplugged, you can also measure the resistance of the heating element as well, if you have a meter and know how to use it.

Good luck & post back.

Hi, Steve. Thanks for posting back.

Descaling is finished. It seems to be heating faster but I should let the thing cool all the way down and see what happens. I've got an early flight tomorrow so I'm going to have a timer turned it on tomorrow and will have to wait until I return from a weeklong business trip to really see if it's fixed.

While having things torn apart, I noticed a couple concerning things...

• There appears to have been a leak from the water level sensor but it no longer seems to be leaking. Judging by the scale I would assume this might be from before I installed the BWT water filter and maybe the scale plugged it!

• I also noticed there is a faint hissing coming from the PID temperature sensor. I tried to snug it up a with a wrench and it moved about 1/16 of a turn but is still hissing. I think I should remove it clean the threads and reset it. Should I use nylon thread tape or some sort of sealant when I put that back in?

• Took an ohms reading of the steam boiler heating element. It was 12.5 when the meter was set at 20k. I think that just means that there's not Completely broken with an open circuit. Not sure if more can be gleaned from the reading.

Thanks! - Matt

Boiler water level sensor and temperature sensor should be removed and threads cleaned. The water level sensor should be clean from all contaminants and appear shiny. Boiler should be rechecked for leaks and if need be Teflon tape could be used around the threads as that might prevent leaks but if it was not there originally it should not be necessary. Teflon tape might also interfere with sensor ground electrical continuity to boiler ground.

12.5 ohms equals about 1150watts so the element seems OK.

Thanks for the advice! I will pull them both out and inspect/clean them. I don't see Teflon tape now so I won't use it. Good point about conductivity, which I would not have thought of.

You can also recheck the resistance of the steam boiler heater element on the lowest resistance scale of your meter, probably around 200 or 300 ohms, for a more accurate reading.

The steam boiler is taking about an hour to fully heat up even after the descaling. Should I...

• Try descaling again? If so, should I use a more concentrated and/or different solution and/or let it sit longer to descale? I didn't want to wait to wait to find the Puly liquid descaler that was recommended by Lelit, so I used what I had on hand, which was Ascaso Coffee Washer Descaler that I bought years ago from 1st Line (https://www.1st-line.com/buy/ascaso-cof ... r-descaler). I only let it sit for 1/2 hour as directed.

• Remove the heating element to inspect and descale directly? If I did, should I buy a new gasket before removing or could I salvage the one that's been there for several years. I think I know the answer, which would involve waiting for shipping.

• Bite the bullet and buy a new heating element for $90, which is likely cheaper than taking it in for repair. https://www.1st-line.com/buy/lelit-mc40 ... g-element/

While I don't think this is related, it was interesting and seems worth sharing. I noticed that the coffee boiler cooled down to 135F while the steam boiler was very slowly heating. I suspect the machine was designed to only fire one boiler at a time, starting with the coffee boiler...which I also noticed overshoots its set point on startup, presumably to reduce startup time as I have heard elsewhere in the forums.

Thanks for any thoughts/advice! -Matt

Just decided to replace the steam boiler heating element. While I had the old one out, I verified that there was no scale in the steam boiler or on the heating element. Both the the old and new heating elements have similar ohms readings too. Put it all back together and it's still taking over an hour to product steam and 15 minutes to recover after steaming 8 ounces of milk. So, what could be left? The brain unit? Thanks for your help!

Hi Glamplero. I also began to suspect the relay last night as my head hit the pillow and I played things over in my head. This morning I decided to swap the coffee boiler and steam boiler relays and the slow heating issue moved to the coffee boiler so I believe I have found the cause. I also now have an extra steam boiler element and will need to buy another solid state relay. I'm a little surprised that thing costs $95 USD but happy that I will get my machine up and running again!

https://www.1st-line.com/buy/lelit-vip- ... ate-relay/