Count me in on Lelit Elizabeth leaking steam valve

dndrich

Love my Elizabeth, but my steam valve leaks. I have taken great care per Dave Corby instructions on the compression style of valve, and do not crank it down. It will leak a bit and then I close it the rest of the way. Well, I have had my Elizabeth for almost two years now, and although I am able to get it closed, it is still an issue. So, I have contacted Clive Coffee in the USA where I bought it, and they will send me a new valve when they get it. In the meantime, I have gone to turning off the steam boiler until needed. That works fine, but I do have to wait the 3-4 minutes for it to heat up before starting my daily latte routine. Bummer!

MediumRoastSteam

That is annoying, specially if you’ve taken extra care not to overdo it.

Sometimes I wonder if I’ve been very lucky after over three years of ownership, wrap the steam knob in cotton wool or it’s just a matter of time until it happens.

delta76

MediumRoastSteam bianca, bianca, bianca

After almost two years of ownership the deformed tip of the teflon tube is the only issue I had. Now I got a drop at the tip from time to time but it is usually i don’t close the valve fully in the previous session. I can still turn it around 10° to fully lock

dndrich

MediumRoastSteam yeah definitely. I have been very careful so it is surprising. Not that big a deal…first world problem…but I will repair it.

MediumRoastSteam

dndrich - did you have the opportunity to remove the steam tap to see if there’s any damage on the tip of the spindle or at the end of the shaft?

(Excuse the very basic usage of technical terms 😬)

dndrich

MediumRoastSteam o I have not taken it apart yet. I will when the new part comes.

DavecUK

I’d be very tempted to find some Teflon rod very slightly larger…remove the old and jam new Teflon rod in (trim it slightly if you have to. Ebay is a good source of Teflon rod!

you could even use Viton/FKM rod if you can find any, or cut a bit from the correct thickness Viton O’ring.

In fact if you want to use Viton, this might be ideal as it’s slightly easier to squich an oversize diameter piece in

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/124351963431?hash=item1cf3f46127:g:HvcAAOSwiGJfaa\~f&amdata=enc%3AAQAIAAAAwDeI%2FZ2tijGHZLFH7YCSmBm3irTt7hqHc8m97sodEFFexV0Jo8lMZPWQjsb19Lx1NPyf4XsgP%2BonmY68%2BJdjQsxWLIUpJ1yAacYZ8%2B3gUdUmwTaPoG5XChYkmqZ2lJiHDdenIM4RvX3q%2BEy1Qi3BwZe6F8y1%2FEfIbU1sQGwOHIfIcxVj%2F3GQdRXCVfaMsYQWIejyb%2BKtfZXTw9y2obGZAr4P3hPVjEDW5%2B3V4j%2B4quGK7Tb2%2BMZGb%2Fv1hf7FdG6pOg%3D%3D%7Ctkp%3ABk9SR9yWuabMYg

dndrich

DavecUK very interesting. I have not taken the thing apart. If I want to put in some new rod, would this be fairly self evident? What diameter rod?

Spookym

DavecUK Interesting I will try this next time. I replaced my original valve but that one started dripping also after not very long. Went to buy another one but they had doubled in price which seemed crazy. Instead I tried replacing the Teflon tip with ‘Sugru’. Works really well with no drips at all but only lasts around 3 months before needing re doing. Not sure if it is appropriate stuff to use but guessed it was low risk and probably no worse than Teflon!. Would love to try changing to a non compression (not sure if hat is the right terminology) but haven’t got round to researching if this would be feasible.

And as to the OP finding cleaning helped, my experience was that it did, but not for very long, so my prediction is it will need sorting again pretty soon.

MediumRoastSteam

dndrich o I have not taken it apart yet

I’m confused. If you have not taken it apart, how do you know what’s broken? It might be a simple matter to something which got lodged in and just needs cleaning?

DavecUK

dndrich very interesting. I have not taken the thing apart. If I want to put in some new rod, would this be fairly self evident? What diameter rod?

I have no idea, take it apart and measure it.

dndrich

MediumRoastSteam Since I have a new part coming, I figured I would wait until it came before taking this one apart. For now at least I can function. If I break it, then no lattes for me!

MediumRoastSteam

dndrich OK, even more interesting. The mere taking it apart and putting it back together seems to perhaps have solved the problem

I shall quote my own self 😉:

MediumRoastSteam It might be a simple matter to something which got lodged in and just needs cleaning

dndrich

DavecUK Sure. I just figured you might know! Once I have it apart, I will report back.

MediumRoastSteam

dndrich - ha. You needn’t worry about it. It’s very easy to remove the spindle from the tap. You can’t break it. But fair enough, keep us posted. If you could send pictures of them comparing side by side when you do get to it, that would be great, thanks! I’d be interested on the sort of damage (if any) that has been done.

dndrich

MediumRoastSteam Gotcha. It looks straightforward I think. Looks like all I have to do is open the nut on the end close to the stem and I suspect the whole assembly will just come out. We shall see!

MediumRoastSteam

dndrich - yes. That will allow for the tap spindle to come out.

dndrich

OK I took it apart, and it was very easy to do. All I had to do was remove that 16 mm brass nut, and the spindle screws right out. Now that I have inspected it I see it is a very simple system. I’m not sure how the little piece of teflon is wedged into the spindle, so it will be interesting to receive the new spindle to compare. Once I see how that works I will repair this one to have a spare. The system is such a simple compression valve, that it should really last just fine once I figure out how to replace the compression piece. So this looks like a very solvable problem.

dndrich

OK, even more interesting. The mere taking it apart and putting it back together seems to perhaps have solved the problem. I have no leakage right now. We shall see what the new part looks like, but I may be back in the saddle here.

DavecUK

dndrich The mere taking it apart and putting it back together seems to perhaps have solved the problem. I have no leakage right now. We shall see what the new part looks like, but I may be back in the saddle here.

Sometimes a clean can help, especially if something got caught under the seat.

dndrich

DavecUK time will tell!!