Lelit Bianca lost paddle sensitivity on the lower end

yonika

Hey everyone,

Need some help with my Lelit Bianca paddle.

My machine is 6 months old.

When it was new I calibrated it so that the paddle stops the flow completely when it touches the body of the machine on the left side.

I also tested the paddle flow adjustment with a scale.

Back then, the flow was almost linear from 0.5ml/sec to 6.5ml/sec. And the adjustments were very smooth.

My daily shot making routine includes closing the paddle completely after a few seconds, in order to allow blooming of the puck for about 30 seconds.

Today, I noticed the flow doesn’t stop completely when I close the paddle - pressure continues to build even though it shouldn’t.

I tried recalibrating the paddle, but even if I set it so I can feel the needle stop before it touches the machine’s body, there’s still some dribble .

What concerns me the most though is that in contrast to how it was when the machine was new, now, even with the tiniest adjustment of the paddle, the flow jumps from almost 0ml/sec to 1.5ml/sec.

I did try taking off the mushroom and needle for inspection.

First off - there was a small amount of scale build up on the mushroom - which I wiped.

Secondly - I wasn’t able to take out the gicleur from the mushroom.

Thirdly - I couldn’t see anything wrong with it to cause this.

Attached are 2 videos to illustrate.

I would really appreciate any advice

Mushroom, needle and gicleur inspection

Water flow recording during paddle adjustment

DavecUK

yonika I watched the videos and a few things. Any deposits on the Gicleur will prevent the surfaces mating perfectly and you will get some flow….all you are getting is a drop or so but super slow. It won’t affect anything. Especially not the blooming. In a perfectly closed system e.g. with a blind filter…If you fill the headspace, then 1 more drop, just one, will rase the pressure to 9 bar, or whatever your pump is set to. I would also suggest a 30s bloom is quite a long time and unless you are noticing a radical change in shot quality, one of 15-20s might be just as good.

If you really want to stop it, remove the gicleur and with fine wet and dry, flat down (well more burnish) the end…be careful, because you want to keep it flat, you are not really trying to remove metal so much as clean off any nibs.. This will help the system close completely. The needle isn’t tapered, so logically it has to be smaller than the hole, this means bringing the surfaces together well will help with the sealing.

Just a small thing, I ask people to upload to YouTube as unlisted, because a video will stay there forever if it’s left, same as photos uploaded here directly (because behind the scenes, they are not stored here but on imgur (again probably for ever)

Your video will expire and then the post may not be so helpful after 11 march, I have noticed this on other peoples videos as well, and I keep meaning to mention it but always forget.

Cuprajake

I was going to say build up, water will be the cause, on the tip of the valve so its not closing propper.

What water do you use

yonika

Cuprajake

I use RO water.

Did you look at the video I put the link to ?

You can clearly see the needle is clean.

Cuprajake

you have obs signs of scale there, i missed the vid as i was on my phone,

what do you add to your ro water? if anything? as something isnt right to have that sort of scale,

i took my paddle off s last month, also run on rodi water and it was pristine,

yonika

Cuprajake

First of all - if you take a look at the video - you can see that the needle is clean, the gicleur had a small stain which I cleaned. I don’t see anything that could cause this after the cleaning.

Now for your questions:

I have a re-mineralizer as the last stage of my system.

It stabilizes Ph levels and adds a tiny bit of calcium to the water - ups the TDS from 12ppm to 18ppm.

I previously had a different one that added also magnesium to about 30ppm but both are very low levels.

MediumRoastSteam

There was someone on CFUK with a very similar problem, and when I asked about water and mentioned limescale, then replied saying only used RO - but with a bypass setting to let some minerals in because they are good.

Well, if those minerals are magnesium, calcium, etc… You’ll have limescale.

The only away to prevent limescale is not to have scaling minerals in your water.

yonika

MediumRoastSteam

As I replied to cuprajake - I understand what you say about minerals, but if you take a look at the video and see the needle and gicleur- you can see it’s clean.

And after I took the video I cleaned it even further.

So I don’t know what else can cause this.

Cuprajake

no worries,

take care

yonika

DavecUK"#p8237

Thanks for your reply.

First off, I will try and upload my videos to YouTube for anyone to access in the future. Just not sure how to edit my original post on this platform.

Secondly, did you notice in the video the loss of sensitivity on the lower end of the paddle ? The slightest movement of the paddle makes the flow jump from almost 0 to 1.5ml/sec. When the machine was new - it was really smooth and linear. Starting at 0, then jump to 0.5ml/sec then gradually increasing to 6.5ml/sec.

Thirdly - I’m not sure what you meant here: with fine wet and dry what ?

DavecUK If you really want to stop it, remove the gicleur and with fine wet and dry, flat down (well more burnish) the end

Also, I’m not sure you noticed that I wrote it, but I wasn’t able to take out the gicleur - not by hand and not using a Makita electric screwdriver on its highest torque setting. It’s screwed in really tight.

The hex shape of the gicleur isn’t worn out or anything but I didn’t want to continue trying so it wear.

Thanks again

Jonathan.

yonika

DavecUK

These are the links to YouTube videos:

Cuprajake

this would be my area of concer

DavecUK

yonika The hex shape of the gicleur isn’t worn out or anything but I didn’t want to continue trying so it wear.

Just use a well fitting hex head socket…it should come out…it’s brass, so can’t have siezed on (just don’t round off the flats!

For wet and dry, probably use 400 or 600 grade

Waitforme

Wet and dry is a super smooth Emery paper, you can buy various grades of it.

DavecUK

yonika Now the thread will still make sense in years to come…thanks.

yonika

DavecUK

😊 - pleasure is all mine.

About the gicleur removal - I tried using a 7mm hex (in the photo), and an electric screwdriver on its highest torque (see video) but it would not come out.

I’m afraid of breaking the gicleur by keeping on trying - There’s a thread on home-barista with a few people who broke their’s while trying to take it out.

https://www.home-barista.com/espresso-machines/lelit-bianca-flow-control-hardware-issues-t65065-10.html

Is it possible to purchase only the gicleur itself without the whole kit ? It’s silly that you need to purchase everything just for this small piece of brass.

Thanks.

DavecUK

yonika That I don’t know…I’ve always removed them by hand. Obviously you don’t want to round it off.

yonika

DavecUK

I wasn’t able to remove it by hand.

It is stuck so hard that the whole mushroom came out when I tried rotating it.

Waitforme

Sounds like you need to shock it rather than twist it free.

Do you have a small impact type driver ?

Cuprajake

little soak in wd40, then once free a descale to remove the wd40.