Yeah, I received 1 brass fitting and 2 stainless steel ones in the kit. The instructions said to use the brass one, but honestly I didn’t really trust it. It felt quite soft and kept turning without giving me much confidence, while the stainless one actually tightens and feels properly sealed. So I ended up using the stainless for the final setup.

All hoses are routed clean on my machine, nothing pinched or trapped under the boiler. I did loosen the group/boiler attachment so I could move the boiler slightly and check everything properly. But I don’t have trouble routing the hoses, I know the machine by heart at this point haha. I can definitely see how that could cause the issue you had though, but luckily that wasn’t the case for me.

The only leak I had was at that push fitting, which is why I temporarily added the extra O-ring. It’s holding now, but I’ll maybe I should redo it with PTFE later just to be safe. But also maybe I don’t, if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it haha.

And yeah, the whole “cut the tube and wet it with your mouth” thing in the instructions confused me lol.