gobucks wrote:Yeah felt pads are definitely a must - I don't know what they were thinking with the sticky rubber feet. I was actually wondering if the wood feet for the Mara X work on the elizabeth - somebody sells them on etsy, but i'm not sure if the Elizabeth will accept screw in feet.

Dumb question probably, but did you use a particular felt pad? Did you put the felt pads next to the rubber feet or over the rubber feet? Thanks.

I went to the local hardware store, and for like $3 they had an assortment pack of adhesive felt pads. So no particular felt pad, just generic. These were green, and I wanted black. But it turns out you can't see them so the color does not matter. They seem to be exactly the right size for the feet of the Elizabeth and also the Lelit knock box drawer, which uses the same feet. They look to be about 1 inch in diameter, maybe a touch smaller. In any event, I just stuck them right over the rubber feet. They are just perfect for this. The stuff slides so nicely. Now, when putting in the portafilter, especially when new since it is so tight, you have to stabilize the machine a bit, but that is OK. So I can slide the machine in and out so quickly and fill the tank so easily. Problem solved.

chanty 77 wrote: Sounds great! I got my Elizabeth through Clive also. Great customer service. By the way, I asked about recharging the water softener & they told me not to, just to replace it every 6 months. I'm finding out why not regarding the recharging.

It should be rechargeable. It is just a standard resin filter. There are generics that look identical. They are no cheaper though so I will go with the Lelit brand name ones. I should think that once the water seems to be getting hard again I will recharge with salt. There are methods for doing it that are easy. My guess is I can go a whole year with one of these and then replace it as long as the resin does not leak out and it recharges easily. It was nice to see that it does work by testing the output of the machine!

gobucks wrote:Yeah felt pads are definitely a must - I don't know what they were thinking with the sticky rubber feet. I was actually wondering if the wood feet for the Mara X work on the elizabeth - somebody sells them on etsy, but i'm not sure if the Elizabeth will accept screw in feet.

The machine is pretty light compared with some of the monsters some folks have. So I'm guessing the rubber feet are there to keep the machine from moving. They definitely do that! But for my use case I need to move the machine, so on with the felt.

True, although I think the Mara X is something like 20lb heavier than the Elizabeth, and also has the crappy feet. So I feel like they just didn't put a lot of thought into it at all.

dndrich wrote:I went to the local hardware store, and for like $3 they had an assortment pack of adhesive felt pads. So no particular felt pad, just generic. These were green, and I wanted black. But it turns out you can't see them so the color does not matter. They seem to be exactly the right size for the feet of the Elizabeth and also the Lelit knock box drawer, which uses the same feet. They look to be about 1 inch in diameter, maybe a touch smaller. In any event, I just stuck them right over the rubber feet. They are just perfect for this. The stuff slides so nicely. Now, when putting in the portafilter, especially when new since it is so tight, you have to stabilize the machine a bit, but that is OK. So I can slide the machine in and out so quickly and fill the tank so easily. Problem solved.

Good to know & thanks!

dndrich wrote:It should be rechargeable. It is just a standard resin filter. There are generics that look identical. They are no cheaper though so I will go with the Lelit brand name ones. I should think that once the water seems to be getting hard again I will recharge with salt. There are methods for doing it that are easy. My guess is I can go a whole year with one of these and then replace it as long as the resin does not leak out and it recharges easily. It was nice to see that it does work by testing the output of the machine!

Clive said it's okay to recharge. Wondering if necessary to recharge if I change out the softener every 6 months as directed? I only drink one 4 shot cappa per day for the very most part, so only about 34-38grams of beans a day.

I bought a bottle of test strips for like $10 on Amazon and will test the water coming from the machine once a week to see how long the filter continues to soften the water in my use case. Typically we make 1 coffee drink a day for 3-4 days a week, and two for the other days. Maybe 10-12 a week double shots plus steaming milk. So, if I determine it goes a month, then I will recharge once a month. Once I figure it out, I will test much less frequently. Recharging it is simply a matter of putting it in a glass of water that has a few tablespoons of salt dissolved in it for like 1/2 an hour, and then rinsing it for around 3-5 minutes. Should be very easy.

Thanks!

chanty 77 wrote:Dumb question probably, but did you use a particular felt pad? Did you put the felt pads next to the rubber feet or over the rubber feet? Thanks.

Nothing in particular, just whatever random ones my wife bought off of Amazon awhile back. They were round, and roughly the size of the rubber feet. I just stuck them directly on the rubber feet, seems to work pretty well.