Lelit Elizabeth intake hose diameter small and filter splits hose

dndrich

I looked in my tank, and the Lelit 35L filter was just sitting on the bottom. The hose is just a bit narrow for the gauge of the nipple of the filter, and I split the end of the hose putting it on. I had to shorten the hose a touch to get a fresh edge, and with some effort I did manage to get it on there completely. Any idea what to do to make this easier?

MediumRoastSteam

dndrich - you could put the end of the hose in boiling water to soften a bit and immediately push the filter in. I wouldn’t worry about it too much. Most likely it will get easier second time round.

dndrich

MediumRoastSteam OK, well, we’ll see what happens. I freshened the end and was able to get the thing all the way on to the nipple. Should be secure. We shall see what happens when I take it off later. Hopefully I don’t have to keep shortening the intake line! The exhaust tube is a larger gauge, and the thing would fit fine there. Wrong side of course…

MediumRoastSteam

dndrich - On my machine, both are 6mm I believe. The expansion return hose is slightly thicker, however. The overall hose diameter being 8mm and 8.5mm respectively.

You don’t need to cut the hose to remove the filter. You just use a flat utensil - like a screw driver, or table knife and push the hose away from the filter working your way around it.

dndrich

MediumRoastSteam Gotcha. No, I am not worried about taking it off. The damage to the hose occurs when putting it on. I have it on very securely right now, all the way to the hub, so it should stay. I am hopeful it will permanently mold the hose slightly so that future removals for charging and replacement do not damage the hose. Worst case scenario, I get some more hose!!

gobucks

I had exactly the same thing happen. On mine, the default particle filter was attached when I got the machine, and the hose had a cut out notch (not sure if this is factory default or something the reseller did to differentiate the hoses), when I tried to add the water softener it split, and I had to cut a clean edge to fix it. I gave up on the softener, gonna use 3WW + distilled for the time being until I can make sure my filtered tap water is within range to use in the machine.

Anyway, the hose does seem awfully small diameter to fit the water softener - I could PROBABLY squeeze it into the hose with a flat edge, definitely not with a notch. Either way it’s too tight - they should really use the same diameter insert for both the water softener and particle filter, and use an appropriate guage hose that fits both.

dndrich

gobucks Right. I had the same thing. The hose had a V notch in it. That split immediately. I had to freshen the edge (surgeon speak here…) and I was able to ease it on there without splitting it. I am hopeful that creates some permanent stretch.

DavecUK

The reason, or my guess, there is a v nothch on the hose is to prevent it sucking onto the side of the tank, if a filter wasn’t used.

It’s something I used to do and write about 15 years ago in reviews having experienced the problem a few times.

Or they do it to help get the pipe on?

hornbyben

@gobucks and @dndrich, in case you wondered why they put notches in the inlet pipe, it’s to make sure the pump always gets water. If you didn’t have a notch then the pipe can get sucked onto the base of the tank.

It obviously doesn’t matter while you’re using a filter, but if you ever decide not to it might be worth putting one back in.

dndrich

Okay that all makes sense. Best to trim it flat then or it splits. Too bad they don’t have that in the instructions.

dndrich

I changed out the filter today. I sanded down the nipple on the filter. It has an OD of 7.45 mm per my calipers. I sanded down to below 7 mm, and it fits so much better without wrecking the intake tube. Odd that is is designed that way. Perhaps they have changed the intake tubing ID at some point.

DavecUK

dndrich I don’t use the filters, but I think they are a standard across all machines, whereas the fitting for them is not. The Elizabeth probably being a case in point as there is no filter holder in the tank.

The better route long term for you might be to make a little adapter tube using a short bit of larger diameter tube and a piece of one of the sanded down ends.