belegnole wrote:Alf,
While this can be true after the first cleaning, it is not true for many people with new machines. And to be honest, taking the group apart only means removing an additional 4 nuts and bolts.

Rui,
You shouldn't have to worry about the springs. As you'll see whenever you take yours apart. Or if you can see it on the pictures here or on the web. The springs are held by a nut and washer that is not removed when you clean and lube.

As Alf/espressotime said, the nice thing about the LSM group is that you can do a quick and easy cleaning and lubrication.

While the machine is cold. You can look at the bottom of the group and see that the screen is held in place by a circlip/snap ring. You'll need a pair of snap ring pliers to get it off. Then you can just remove the screen (it's just a perforated disk). Directly above that is the brass piston that is screwed onto the piston rod. It is remove using the socket with the 4 teeth. Either the pvc one that people have made or the metal one. Once that is of you can get the gaskets out clean them lube them and reassemble.

Unfortunately, I and others have not been able to the "easy" method the first time we cleaned the group as the brass piston would not come off without quite a bit of effort. Please try it yourself. Hopefully you won't just end up spinning your machine around on the counter like I did.

def wrote:I have had my Leva for a year, and I have not taken it apart for thorough cleaning. I take the screen out every now and then, and I wipe off the top of the piston and the sleeve as much as I can, but since the machine works well and the espresso tastes great, why bother taking the piston out?

espressotime wrote:I have disassembled that group to the last bolt about 5 times the last 3 months. Going to install three new bearings tomorrow.
But to just clean I don't see any need to take out the upper part.

def wrote:@belegnole

Thanks. Good to know, and I probably will not take mine apart any time soon because I don't really mind a little coffee residue on the piston.

My understanding is that removing the piston/spring assembly from the group is easy and requires no special tools, but putting the piston/spring assembly back into the cylinder sleeve is not possible because the white (ptfe?) seal is compressed and the diameter is too big to slide back into the sleeve; The piston must be loosened to take tension away from the seal, and then tightened after the piston assembly is inserted back into the sleeve/group head. Is this correct?

Parkeralto wrote:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pVa-u5Qgl-w

I ran across this video of servicing an Izzo two group LSM lever machine in Korea. No translation, but none necessary. Interesting that the shower screen retainer is a ss spring clip instead of the factory circlip.