Hi all

I was away for about a month and made the mistake of not emptying the steam boiler on my Lelit Bianca (purchased Dec 2020) and unfortunately the water from the boiler is now has a blueish hue on the first jug of water drawn and then a brownish hue on the second jug of water.

For some context I used Volvic for about a year then Tesco Ashbeck for a bout 6 months and for about a year and half have been using RO water re-mineralised with sodium bicarbonate to a TDS of about 70-80.

I recycle the boiler water every month and have done a light descale about twice in the time I have had the machine and again recently after returning from holiday in the hope that would help remedy the issue.

I have flushed plenty of water through the boiler and whilst it helped a little it is still somewhat discoloured.

Do I:

  1. continue flush more water through it?
  2. take off the heating element, drain the water, flushing clean water through it (and descale?) before reassembling?
  3. try something else?

The water was clear before I went on holiday and I’m not sure how best to remedy this if anyone can advise.

Regards

Alpesh


  • MWJB replied to this.

    Personally, I would refill and draw water through a good couple of times. I doubt it will need adescale.I am famous for not having any scientific background! That said, I think it is something in your water reacting against something in the boiler. Initially, draw off as much as you can, refill and repeat a couple of times. If that fixes it it certainly will save you a bigger ball ache. It might take several cycles before it clears

    https://www.suddencardiacarrestuk.org/2024/02/thank-goodness-for-madeira-cake/

      Alpesh for about a year and half have been using RO water re-mineralised with sodium bicarbonate to a TDS of about 70-80.

      The steel boiler should be pretty resistant to basic water, but out of interest, can you describe how you remineralise?

      E.g. what is the TDS of the RO water before & after & how much sodium bicarbonate do you add per litre?

        The RO water has a TDS of about 13.

        I make a concentrate of 100ml of the RO water above and 1g of Sodium Bicarbonate.

        To 1 litre of RO water I then add 8ml of the concentrate above to give me a TDS of about 71.

        Alpesh I would recommend a spanner on the hex nearest the boiler, just to hold it still whilst removing the top of the vacuum breaker, just in case you loosen the boiler fitting (although the breaker fitting shouldn’t be that tight).

        Contact me