Coffetimepals:

I have an exchange Elizabeth that will arrive tomorrow. My tap water tastes delicious here in Sebastopol, CA, but the water hardness is around 120. So, I plan to use the Lelit 35l inline water softener that comes with the machine. There seems to be some conflicting information about how to care for the cartridge. I will get a package of water hardness test strips to test the water, and am wondering how to go about dealing with the cartridge. For example, some places say you should recharge the cartridge with salt every week. Seems like a hassle. Can I just test the water coming out of the machine, and if the hardness is going up, recharge it then? Thoughts here for a low maintenance way to proceed here? I prefer not to buy bottled water, or use some other kind of external filter.

    dndrich Can I just test the water coming out of the machine, and if the hardness is going up, recharge it then

    With the Elizabeth, you can.

    • Machine in Eco mode;
    • Make sure steam boiler temp is below 90C. To be 100% sure steam boiler and brew boiler don’t get mixed, but this might be an unnecessary step. I never checked myself.
    • Flush some water through the group;
    • Open the hot water tap and draw a sample. This should be relatively “fresh” water coming from the brew boiler.

        MediumRoastSteam Okay, so I could do that, and if I see the hardness going up, recharge the filter then. That might make life easier.

          OK, interesting. I pulled some water from the hot water tap and checked it with the test strip. Very soft. So, the inline Lelit filter is doing its job. Over the next few weeks I will check it base on our usage, and see how long the cartridge lasts without a recharge. My water is around 120 out of the tap, and our tap water is delicious, so coffee will do well with that.

            dndrich

            dndrich

            I’m curious what your tests find. I have been recharging my 70l filter every 1 or 2 weeks. The water here is ~135 from Lake Michigan.

                I will let you know. My filter is the 35l one that comes from the company. I will post back. It would be nice not to need to recharge so often.

                2 months later

                2 months now on my Lelit 35L inline filter without recharging it, and water still shows zero hardness on test strip despite daily use. So far so good.

                  DavecUK I think the green tinge adds a certain flavor to the coffee. And, then who needs vegetables?