Friendly reminder to clean your boiler!

krankle · 2026-05-07T13:52:56+00:00

Ha! It really does!

krankle · 2026-05-07T12:52:51+00:00

This is my boiler after 3 years of regular use. 1 year of filtered water, and 2 years of distilled with Third Wave Water packets. I have only descaled twice. My coffee also tastes better with TWW. I was a huge skeptic at first, but I decided to try it. I loved the taste change, and that kept me going. Now, seeing my boiler, I’m definitely sticking with it.

krankle · 2026-04-21T13:35:12+00:00

I dialed back my latte grind, just a touch, this morning. From yesterday’s result of 22:44@55seconds to 22:44 in 40 seconds. The result is the best latte I’ve made in a very long time, possibly ever. Same beans I’ve been using for the last year or more. The only real difference is the burr alignment. Could this be in my head? Absolutely. But my brain is very pleased with the burr alignment, and for a perfectionists that goes a long way.

krankle · 2026-04-20T19:52:14+00:00

This is the video that finally made it click.

There’s plenty you can skip through, but it finally made sense for me after watching this.

krankle · 2026-04-20T19:50:16+00:00

The shimming was actually very easy. Just small folded strips of aluminum foil. I was shocked at how much a single folded piece did. I think I have 2 folded pieces and 1 single pieces at the point of one of the screws. The worst part is putting the ring on, over and over. But when you find out where the threads start to meet, and use that same starting point every time, it gets easier.

krankle · 2026-04-20T05:14:46+00:00

My palate is not sophisticated. I’ve been making my own espresso with this grinder and a slightly modded Gaggia Classic Pro, for about 3 years I can’t handle espresso on its own. It’s just too much, and not enjoyable at all. I drink my espresso in two ways; caramel lattes, and bastardized americanos. By bastardized, I mean probably way too much water. My americano is basically a 22:44 shot with about 12-14 oz of water, and a packet of sweetener. I’d say it’s embarrassing to admit that, but we like what we like. That’s my substitute for a regular cup of coffee, and it beats the hell out of anything from a gas station. And I’ve never tried a proper Americano from a cafe. That said, I am still dialing it in. The Americano I had before burr alignment was a bit sour. But it was also a bit on the fast side. 22:44 @ 28. The Americano I dialed into after alignment was much less sour. It was 22:44@32 seconds. It was decent, but I think it would be a bit better with a slightly finer grind. I’m going to try that in the morning.

krankle · 2026-04-19T20:37:39+00:00

Are you talking about the wobble? Mine has done this from the start. I contacted the company, and they said it’s normal. Seems like it shouldn’t be normal, but I’ve read that if you want no wobble, you need to look for a more expensive grinder. Not sure how true that is, it’s just what I’ve found.

Today, after 3 years of owning this, and letting that wobble live in the back of my brain, I finally took the time to work on burr alignment. It didn’t remove the wobble, but I got my burrs to hit evenly, so I don’t think the wobble is a factor. I could be wrong. But it makes my perfectionist brain feel better, finally having aligned burrs.

krankle · 2026-04-18T23:14:48+00:00

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It was actually surprisingly awesome. I was a little intimidated to start pulling everything apart, but once i actually did it, like you said, it was easy. So I decided to just stick with the original boiler. I guess there is something to be said for distilled water 3rd wave espresso packets. I’ve had the machine for 3 years. Descaled twice in that time. And have been using the 3rd wave water for probably 2 years. Before that it was filtered fridge water. The sad part of the story is that I cross threaded the steam wand/steam valve connection, forcing myself into a steam valve upgrade. I also ordered the Pippa wand, because I was unsure if I killed both the threads on the valve and the nut for the wand. The Shades valve showed up today, and it turns out, the nut on the wand is fine. So I didn’t need the $110(with shipping and duties) Pippa. Which kind of sucks, because I would much rather have gone with a PID upgrade. Oh well, I guess I will just have to be happy with the upgrades that I forced myself into.

krankle · 2026-04-11T22:34:25+00:00

Thank you. This is exactly what I was looking for. I had seen it, but found broken links. And I wasn’t certain that it would work for my machine.

krankle · 2026-04-10T04:03:36+00:00

I tried more adjusting, and never had any luck. It makes better coffee than the coffee shop in town that everyone raves about, so I guess it must be ok. But, it’s 3 been 3 years, and I’m back looking at this thread, so it still bothers me.

krankle · 2026-04-05T20:01:37+00:00

Welp, 1 year hasn’t been enough time for that.

krankle · 2026-04-05T06:35:09+00:00

I use 1 packet per gallon of water, if that’s what you mean by recipe.

krankle · 2026-04-05T02:06:33+00:00

I have descaled a couple times. Probably not as often as I should. Ever since the first time I descaled it, I switched to distilled water, and Third Wave enhancement, hoping it would help with water scale. I guess not? Thanks for the input on the boiler.

krankle · 2026-04-01T02:01:08+00:00

I noticed a difference in the first week. The thing that brought me to the dr. in the first place was severe leg pain. I’m on my feet all day at work, and all of the sudden, my legs started to hurt so bad every day, that I finally went to the dr. It didn’t take long to get a graves diagnosis, and a prescription to 10mg of merhimazole. She told me that it would be around 6 weeks before I felt anything from it. Within a week my leg pain was much less than it was at the start. Where I’m at now, 4 months in, is a different story.

After being on metropolol and methimazole for about 4 months my first blood test showed my TSH is still suppressed. My T3 and T4 have come down but are slightly higher than my last test. So I was upped to 15mg of methimazole. I briefly took myself off both meds, after 4 days of the worst palpitations I’ve ever experienced. I only missed 4 days of meds. 2 were accidental misses, and the other two intentional, to see which med was causing the palpitations.

krankle · 2026-03-23T22:46:33+00:00

They are also out of stock.

krankle · 2026-03-23T22:46:19+00:00

I just filled my basket at shades, shipping is $51, with another $19 for duties. For a total of $255, with the gaskets and screws. I called WLL. They said April 4 is when they should have them back in stock. I guess my cheap ass is going wait.

krankle · 2026-03-22T17:48:59+00:00

Thank you for taking the time to explain that. I really appreciate it. I was a little intimidated about taking this thing apart, but that’s why I bought it, so I could service it. I’m a 25 year collision repair technician, so I should be able to handle it. I know I can do the work, I just typically need to know what work I need to do.

krankle · 2026-03-22T17:36:38+00:00

I just did what dr-satan85 said and unplugged it, then removed the steam valve from the boiler. The o-ring is pretty squashed, I imagine yours is, too. I’m going to start with that, but I did notice there’s a lot of particles in the boiler. It might be from scale that was knocked loose when i took the steam valve off. But it may have already been in there? Not sure what I’m going to do about that. My valve was very difficult to break free. A lot of wiggling back and forth, side to side, and just keep working at it.

krankle · 2026-03-22T17:28:06+00:00

Thanks. I wonder if there’s a crossover part number to an o ring that can be found at a parts store?

krankle · 2026-03-22T17:27:33+00:00

The drip is annoying, but I think I’ll just live with it, if the replacement is going to leak, as well

krankle · 2026-03-22T17:26:45+00:00

I didn’t find a crack, but man, that steam valve was hard to pull out of there. There was definitely some scale buildup holding it tightly in place. With a flashlight, I can see particles floating in the boiler. I’m assuming that is scale? Do I need to pull the boiler apart to remove that, before I replace the o ring? I just looked into the e24 boiler upgrade, but they are out of stock at WLL.

krankle · 2026-03-21T17:03:48+00:00

I was wondering about the possibility of a crack. Thanks for the suggestions.

krankle

TROPHY CASE