Expobar Leva Vent Tube

Expobar Leva Vent Tube

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I came across the following post in a forum and thought I would post my answer here for the benefit of anyone else with this question.

"Today i bought a expobar lever and after unpacking and being thrilled (see other post) i installed the machine and filled the watertank. I was going to use the inline descaler that comes with the package. I have 2 tubes in my machine, and i don't know which is for the inlet. And since i got 2 filters with the package i installed both and hope it will work that way, i don't want to wait another day!"

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In this image (click for larger version), the Expobar designers rather foolishly ran the OPV vent tube (excess brew water is vented through here to keep the pressure set whatever tension the valve spring is under), through the front panel, out a little curved pipe behind the group avent and into the drip tray.. It used to be especially problematic as they used to come (not any more) with an OPV valve that was not very adjustable and when it was adjusted anywhere near 11 bar would vent loads of water into the front tray (meant you had to keep emptying it). A common modification was to remove the short tube and put a longer one back to the tank. it looks like your machine has already had this modification, or mabye expobar have finally decided their previous design wasn't such a great idea.

So obviously only one tube should have the in-line softener attached (the one leading directly to the pump)…..that said, I would strongly advise not using the in-line softeners at all, just leave them and cut the ends of the tubes to a V (prevents them sucking onto the tank and starving the pump). The inline softeners are horrible things. They restrict flow, give priming problems and sometimes the little resin beads jam up the valves of the machine. I know of a few people who have had problems with these things and no longer use them. e.g. I have an Izzo Alex and an in-line softener should NEVER be used on an Alex.

It appears as if some machines are coming with these vent tubes routed differently, if so, I hope this article is helpful.