I'm about to pull the trigger on a used Rituale, and would like to understand some of the possible issues that may be present. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Here's what I know so far:

• Current owner purchased used from eBay approximately 2 years ago, ran Brita-ed water. I have no idea about how often the filter was replaced, and am trying not to assume anything.
• I inspected the boiler connections, and found a little scale buildup on the copper tubing connections on both "ends" of the boiler.
• Confirmed that the current owner had backflushed, but never descaled. Don't know if the previous owner did, either.
• Power comes on, pump engages, flipping the lever brings hot water through the grouphead.

I suspect that I would need to descale the machine, but beyond that I'm not sure of what regular maintenance would be suggested. I'm confident enough in my basic mechanical and electrical skills, and would expect to be able to perform the maintenance.

Thanks,
-s.

Dan retitled the thread to be less specific - my original post was asking about HX. I agree with his intention, and would really like to see this thread approached in a similar fashion to Jim's profile brainstorming session.

To that end, I purchased my Silvia used from a CG member a couple of years ago, and started diving in to get a feel for what needed to be done. Here are some questions that I asked that may be relevant to anyone in the used market:

First, let's assume that this thing is in working order. That means you plug it in, boiler heats up, and you can run water through both the grouphead and steam wand.

• What is the lineage/ownership history of this machine?
• With what frequency was the machine backflushed and/or descaled?
• How often was the machine used? How many shots per day/week?
• What water source was used? What, if any, filtering system was used? If filtered, how often was the filter changed/recharged?
• What are the user replaceable parts, and when were they last replaced?
• What, if any, upgrades or modifications have been performed? (e.g. PID, uprgraded pstat, DIY plumb-in, etc.)
• If you have the ability to peek inside, what is the condition of the wiring? Are there any crispy connector shields? Is there any scale buildup on the boiler(s)?
• What parts are used in the maintenance of this machine? Can they be easily sourced?

Given the tone and tenor of this board, I'd expect that this is barely scratching the surface...
Thoughts?
-s.