Hey guys,


Ive been searching, kinda leisurely, for a Linea or FB70 to do a rebuild, and then modifiy/update. 1grp or 2grp.

I found myself what seems to be a nice deal. Its a 2grp Linea AV. The seller used it before he bought it, so he says. Its been stored in his living room for the past 8 months, so nothing frozen. Sight Glass is clear, which is better then many Ive seen on Ebay. It definitely needs to be cleaned, but the guy who is selling it said it worked the day he bought it. He tells me his intention was to rebuild it for a coffeeshop he wanted to open. He wasn't able to find someone to rebuild it for a price he was willing to pay, so he bought a 2grp aurelia for his shop, and now just wants the Linea out of his hair. He has offered me a very nice price.

With one catch. There is no pump, and no motor. Im figured about 300 if I buy both new, less if I Ebay it. Plus, I dont need it running next week.

I asked him to take pictures of the entire machine, and he provided me with a bunch. From what I can see, there is no cracks, broken welds, fried wiring, thing like that. There isn't even much evidence, on the outside of the boilers, of scale. Im SURE there is plenty of it in the boilers. But it looks like, granted I dont break anything taking it apart, I might be able to get away pretty good, considering Im willing to go the full-mile for a properly done restoration. Clear sight glass. The inside is dirty, but thats to be expected on a machine of its age.

So, no pump and no motor. Machine is nicely under 1K. Bolt on goosenecks/boiler. If nothing needs replacing(HA!), it would get broken down for cleaning anyway.

What do you think? Is the fact that there is no pump and motor not too big a deal? I mean, I dont need it running in any specific time frame. And Im expecting lots of parts to be replaced(plan for the worst). But, its not just owning it, its also doing the restoration. For me, that would be a hell of a lot of fun, and even moreso, when the reward is a rebuilt Linea on my bench (complete with PID and GB5 caps of course, heheh)

Thoughts?

I appreciate it very much guys

Call Fluid-O-Tech directly and price a pump (don't know if they are a motor source, but they may be able to help). In my chats with Shawn about my TMFR Pump, I've realized that rotary pump heads especially are dramatically marked up (30%-40%) from the espresso machine vendors. Getting it direct could save you some good money, on a new one. Synesso's $150 dual-voltage motor may prove to be your best deal on a motor; I haven't seen anything that can beat that, motor-wise, though I haven't asked F-O-T if they sell the RPM motors that usually go with their pumps.

Hope that helps. <$1k may be a pretty good price if the exterior is in good condition and you're prepped for tons of work, but I couldn't gauge that myself. Good luck, man.

Hey Nicholas,

Thanks for your thoughts. I hadn't even thought of calling FOT directly, which, now that you said it, makes total sense. A cheaper price on a pump head wouldn't be bad at all.

The body panels looked surprisingly nice from the pictures. In the event that the pictures dont show it well, and they're not, Id powder coat 'em.

As far as the internals are concerned, Im fully prepared to have my work cut out for me. . but im looking forward to it, IF I do take on this project. When its finished, it would end up being my main machine, but luckily I dont need it working for any specific time period, so I dont have to rush a thing.

The upside of owning a rebuilt and updated linea is that, aside from it running on 110v/15amp, its what Ive been wanting to upgrade to. Saturated group dual boiler, PID controlled.

I made an offer on the machine, "officially" this morning, so Im waiting to here back from the seller, and Ill go from there. Whatever the cost of the machine ends up being, it'll be 100 bucks more, for the price of the Orange Book, which, aside from citric acid and some degreaser, is my first purchase. Luckily, I have access to every tool that I could possibly need, aside from a torque wrench, which recently has gone missing, so, I can dive right in to cleaning everything.

I think this is going to be fun. ill have to wait to hear back from the seller. Ill let you know if and when I buy it.

Technically, I think that a Linea will work on water line pressure if you wanna forego the pump. You will get low-pressure, extremely quiet espresso.

Something to keep in mind--you can do that to make sure the beast is working before you tear it to shreds...

Im with Nicholas here... I have 3 Lineas in various stages of being refurbished and that advice wasn't learned until the 3rd machine. Make sure you know what works and what doesnt and more importantly why whatever is broken is broken before you start taking it apart. The diagnostic exercise will make you a better refurbisher and will also clarify the size of your task.

JmanEspresso wrote:The upside of owning a rebuilt and updated linea is that, aside from it running on 110v/15amp...

Just wondering how you plan to convert a 2-group machine to run on 120V/15A. A normal household 15A circuit will max out at around 1800 Watts but the 2-group Linea uses a 1500W heater for the brew boiler AND a 3000W heater for the (8 Liter) steam boiler. How can you get 4500W from a sub 2kW circuit?

JonR10 wrote:Just wondering how you plan to convert a 2-group machine to run on 120V/15A. A normal household 15A circuit will max out at around 1800 Watts but the 2-group Linea uses a 1500W heater for the brew boiler AND a 3000W heater for the (8 Liter) steam boiler. How can you get 4500W from a sub 2kW circuit?

You'd have to put a bum low-watt heater on the steam boiler that'd make it take 3x longer to heat up, but you could easily power the elements separately from 2 different 20A circuits. Question would be, do the LM elements work at 120V at all? And moreover I'd bet it'd be more sensible to just get the electrical work done to make it work as-is than try to frankenstein it. That kind of thing is probably just as expensive and forces compromise and a modest degree of extra risk.

shadowfax wrote:Technically, I think that a Linea will work on water line pressure if you wanna forego the pump. You will get low-pressure, extremely quiet espresso.

Something to keep in mind--you can do that to make sure the beast is working before you tear it to shreds...

A really great idea^

What if there is a leak somewhere in the machine and to hide it, the seller just gets rid of the pump/motor so you can't test it.

Maybe bring a spare pump/motor with you in order to pressure test the machine and see if it leaks?

Sorry, I mis-typed.

If I buy the machine, it will NOT be running on 110v/15amp. It will get its own 220v line. What I meant was that, while the upside is the machine being what it is, it ISNT a 110v/15amp machine like the GS/3. I fully plan to run it to its fullest potential. Sorry about that.


What Im told about the pump....

He bought the machine used, from someone selling a "setup". The person who I would be buying it from isn't very machine savvy either. When he went to pick up the machine, it was on a "kiosk" type setup. He ran water through the groups and tap, and blew steam through the wands, and was made a cappa. He was sold and bought the machine. He didnt even think about the pump being a separate item. When he realized the pump was a separate thing, he called the seller back, and the seller had sold the actual kiosk/cart, with the pump inside it.

Smartest two people Ive ever heard of.

IDK if there is a way I can test it before I buy it. Of course, I would love too. But, if the machine was working, and then has sat on a living room floor for a couple months, there should be no reason it doesnt "work" right?

And the Linea doesnt "need" a pump to work? This is interesting. How does it work then? I assume you mean, it will fill and feed water, but only at line pressure. . .