Lelit Mara X leak
The best thing you can do is remove the fitting, initially you can cle4an the thread and try PTFE tape (use enough that there is resistance all the way in, stop when it lines up, don’t try and tighten it down hard), but if the thread is too coarse for that to seal….then get a medium strength thread locker, something like Loxeal 18-10 with PTFE, or I think Loctite 243.
Oh man, it’s a very hard to remove fitting due to the many connections and the size of it. If I lower the pressure on the OPV from 9 bars to 6 will it help? The water seems to fizzle away after a bit because the boiler is hot, if I leave it like this with it fizzling away would that be bad?
This is the secondary problem that I encountered when I was diagnosing a puddle under the machine from under the drip tray and I think it’s not the reason for the puddle although it is a problem.
Spectating the machine in action it seems that the discharge tube from the OPV X joint is causing the leak where it connects to the little brass fitting that goes through the body and into the drip tray, the little brass fitting is super loose and the water drips under the tray and inside the body of the machine. I tried doing the OPV mod where I disconnect the OPV discharge from it and reroute it to the water tank (didn’t want to mess with the pump) and that improved the amount of water leaking but there is still making a puddle after a while. Spectating further I noticed that the one of other discharge tubes that go to the drip tray makes steam and that is condensing under the drip tray and into the inside of the machine where the silicone tube connects. I tried cutting the silicone tube, reconnecting to the little brass fitting for a tighter fit and even putting a zip tie but it didn’t help it’s still making a puddle after a while under the drip tray that goes under the machine due to the steam condensing.
Now I’m wondering, of these 3 discharge tubes left after the OPV reroute that connect to the discharge tray, is this water drinkable? Can I just reroute the drip tray discharge to the water tank completely?
The discharge into the driptray should be only from the vacuum breaker, if yours is a lelit MaraX is it a very early one, as those did discharge from the expansion valve into the drip tray and you should reroute that discharge to the tank.
As for the fitting you showed a photo off, yes you should repair that, lowering brew pressure will do nothing because that leak is a product of steam pressure in the HX boiler.