# Strong plastic smell in water from Elizabeth



## Manc087 (Jun 8, 2020)

A few weeks back I posted about my new Elizabeth having a strong smell and taste in the water that comes from the hot water spout. I followed suggestions of draining the boiler a few times, and it worked! Only temporarily, a day or so later it returned.

I cleaned out the water tank, am using pretty good water to begin with (Ashbeck / Waitrose) and it's still managing to ruin my Americano's if I add water from the spout. In the last couple of days, I also realised that it isn't exclusively from the hot tap - the water from the group head also has that plastic smell, though it isn't noticeable in the espresso.

One thing I did narrow it down to - the tubing from the water tank. Whenever the machine is up to temp, if I take the lid off the water tank and get closer, the smell really hits me. When smelling the actually tubing, it has that same very strong smell - so this seems to be the source of it.

I was just wondering if this is somewhat common with new machines, and it dies down over time. Or is this not so common and requires me to clean it somehow?


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

It is not uncommon for new Mch's to have"plastic" smells/ taste, they can take a while to completely clear.
If you can locate which pipe is causing the smell/taste , try removing it and place it in a container of water with some Milton or Starsan (used for cleaning / sterilising brewing equipment) Leave overnight then rinse in fresh water.


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## Jonathon White (Dec 7, 2021)

It seems to be common within the latest Elizabeth machine as I said when you first did the post, it was was coming from the tubing with my machine. 
It soon goes I found. Within a week with being used 3-4 times a day.


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## Manc087 (Jun 8, 2020)

Ah - hopefully it does eventually die down a bit over time. Good to hear that was the case with yours. We use it pretty heavily and have done every day for the last couple months and it doesn't seem to have gotten any better. It could just be that I'm 'looking' for it now though, anyway we'll see.


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