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Swap Steam and Hot Water
After my L1 arrived, it became quite apparent I was going to have to swap steam and hot water
I emailed Reiss and explained my situation. After assuring him I was up to the task (it's a bit of work) I bought the two pre-formed pipes.
I'm still surprised at how quickly things go from Reiss to doorstep. In my case, both the L1 as well as the spare parts rivaled Amazon's ship times.
Upon unplugging the L1 and letting it cool down, I was faced with the first challenge: How to drain the tank without making a mess. The method I took was to loosen the main feed line and rotate it into a bucket. It worked quite nicely.
Removing the old pipes is fairly straight forward but make sure you have a set of crow's feet to get to some of the nuts. This is a case of the right tool for the right job. If you try to pull this off with a regular wrench or even a shorty, you'll more than likely strip the nut or fly off and thwack something important with your knuckles.
The swap is relatively simple but they are not plug and play. The pipes were very close but required some creative bending to fit just right.
The new Hot water pipe (the longer one) was really close to the reserve water basin and the thermostat assembly. To remedy this, I reworked it to go OVER the thermostat vs behind.
The new steam wand pipe took a bit more doing only because it was just a little off but not long enough to be very forgiving in the angles
Rest assured, it didnt take much to work it into place once you sat and pondered it a little. It would have been a great problem to ponder with a great espresso but...
The exterior handles did not need swapped as they are identical. You only need to swap the steam wand and water head
In my case, the heads worked themselves loose once I removed the copper tubing so I decided to take them off.
The star washer used doesnt really keep the unit from loosening on use as the nut doesnt rest on the stars (for lack of a better description) so I opted for a touch of loctite on re-assembly. A touch - not a drop. A drop is way too much. All you need to do is wet 3mm of one thread and it will hold fine
This was only on the big threads that bolt the unit to the frame. Do not use any thread locker or other thread treatment on the fittings.
In the end, it was a few hours to make the swap. Soft copper tubing will work in your hands but the short pipe would be best done with a block of wood or an actual tub bender. It would be fairly easy to kink the tube when trying to work it into shape.
No matter what, try to avoid (as in, don't do) bending the tubing in place. The tank and everything inside the L1 is built like, well.. it's build like a tank. But you really dont want to run the risk of breaking a brazed fitting while you're working a tube into place. Look at what it needs to do, think about it. remove it from the machine, make a small adjustment and trial fit it again. It doesnt take much tuning but you want to be patient.
Hope this has been helpful. I really enjoyed opening the L1 up and working with the innards. It really is built well.
Powered up with the doors off and leak check OK.
I emailed Reiss and explained my situation. After assuring him I was up to the task (it's a bit of work) I bought the two pre-formed pipes.
I'm still surprised at how quickly things go from Reiss to doorstep. In my case, both the L1 as well as the spare parts rivaled Amazon's ship times.
Upon unplugging the L1 and letting it cool down, I was faced with the first challenge: How to drain the tank without making a mess. The method I took was to loosen the main feed line and rotate it into a bucket. It worked quite nicely.
Removing the old pipes is fairly straight forward but make sure you have a set of crow's feet to get to some of the nuts. This is a case of the right tool for the right job. If you try to pull this off with a regular wrench or even a shorty, you'll more than likely strip the nut or fly off and thwack something important with your knuckles.
The swap is relatively simple but they are not plug and play. The pipes were very close but required some creative bending to fit just right.
The new Hot water pipe (the longer one) was really close to the reserve water basin and the thermostat assembly. To remedy this, I reworked it to go OVER the thermostat vs behind.
The new steam wand pipe took a bit more doing only because it was just a little off but not long enough to be very forgiving in the angles
Rest assured, it didnt take much to work it into place once you sat and pondered it a little. It would have been a great problem to ponder with a great espresso but...
The exterior handles did not need swapped as they are identical. You only need to swap the steam wand and water head
In my case, the heads worked themselves loose once I removed the copper tubing so I decided to take them off.
The star washer used doesnt really keep the unit from loosening on use as the nut doesnt rest on the stars (for lack of a better description) so I opted for a touch of loctite on re-assembly. A touch - not a drop. A drop is way too much. All you need to do is wet 3mm of one thread and it will hold fine
This was only on the big threads that bolt the unit to the frame. Do not use any thread locker or other thread treatment on the fittings.
In the end, it was a few hours to make the swap. Soft copper tubing will work in your hands but the short pipe would be best done with a block of wood or an actual tub bender. It would be fairly easy to kink the tube when trying to work it into shape.
No matter what, try to avoid (as in, don't do) bending the tubing in place. The tank and everything inside the L1 is built like, well.. it's build like a tank. But you really dont want to run the risk of breaking a brazed fitting while you're working a tube into place. Look at what it needs to do, think about it. remove it from the machine, make a small adjustment and trial fit it again. It doesnt take much tuning but you want to be patient.
Hope this has been helpful. I really enjoyed opening the L1 up and working with the innards. It really is built well.
Powered up with the doors off and leak check OK.