So I've been doing the farmer's market espresso bar thing for a while now. A nice gentleman has been around several times for espressos and says he has a couple of machines he no longer uses and wonders if I'm interested in them. He says they work fine, just that they weren't steaming milk well so he put them in his basement and moved on to another one. I say I'll have a look at them so he brings them to the market and I bring them home. They both look brand new. The Andreja is from 2007. I want to check the condition of the seals and check for scale so I pull it apart and have a look around. I didn't try to use it. I dismantle the E-61 group and give it a good cleaning all the way through. Not much scale at all. A little scale in the steam and water valves and the pipes that feed them so I give them a citric acid bath and clean them up. I also drain the boiler. I make double sure it all goes back together properly.

I wanted to see if it works, so I fill the water reservoir and plug it in and follow the instructions for first time use (since the boiler was drained). I put the brew lever down, flip the switch to on, the green light comes on and after a couple of seconds a high pitched alarm sounds continuously and nothing happens, just the alarm sound. Any ideas?

There is an electrical diagram on my crude FTP site below my sig - http://users.rcn.com/erics/Illustrations/QM_ELEC_1.jpg. For sure, disconnect one heating element lead and leave it disconnected for the time being. Loosen and remove the hot water wand connection at the boiler so you can measure water level with a small wooden dowel as necessary.

Disconnect the water level probe connection at the Gicar box - turn the machine on - does the pump now start after a few seconds? Will the pump operate with the brew lever raised?

Thanks Eric, I saw your wiring diagram. I disconnected the water level probe at the gicar box and turned the machine on. Same alarm sound. If I raise the brew lever, the pump turns on and it pulls water from the reservoir up the rubber hose that has the filter on the end of it. I assume that is the HX fill and not the boiler fill? There is no water going into the other rubber tube that feeds out of the reservoir.

Is the alarm I hear a boiler low water level alarm?

Is the alarm I hear a boiler low water level alarm?

I am unsure because Andreja has, even with current models, an alarm feature that is not present with Anita. I BELIEVE it is a reservoir level alarm. An easy test would be to temporarily ground the boiler level probe wire and see what the alarm does.

The reservoir has a magnetic float switch. First, make sure the reservoir is installed correctly such that the float and the switch are lined up. If that's OK, then jumper the wires leading to the switch.

I checked that the floats and the switches were lined up. I even moved the reservoir side to side a little in case the alignment was a little off, but the alarm still sounds. I don't understand what "jumper the wires leading to the switch" means.

By grounding the boiler level probe wire, do you mean unplug it from the boiler end of the wire and just touch it to the frame somewhere? Sorry I'm a little unfamiliar with the electronics on these machines as my Astoria has no electronics.

If you have two switches and two floats, the high set likely triggers the alarm, the lower group sets the heating element off by cutting power to the pstat.

Each switch probably has two ~6" lengths of wire with male spades. Working with the "high" switch, connect the machine's wires leading to it to each other with a homemade "jumper" - 6" of wire and two male spades. This SHOULD silence the alarm and we can go from there.

By grounding the boiler level probe wire, do you mean unplug it from the boiler end of the wire and just touch it to the frame somewhere?

Yes - note that the boiler end of that wire is a female spade. In order to keep it grounded, you would need to make a jumper wire with one end attached to the machine ground and the other end having a male spade. But I think we are beyond that now, especially if your water reservoir has two floats and your reservoir support has two switches.

Clint Orchuk wrote:By grounding the boiler level probe wire, do you mean unplug it from the boiler end of the wire and just touch it to the frame somewhere? Sorry I'm a little unfamiliar with the electronics on these machines as my Astoria has no electronics.

Sometimes a Gicar is just a Gicar.
(sorry, couldn't resist)

An easy test would be to temporarily ground the boiler level probe wire and see what the alarm does.

What I'm writing here is NOT related to your machine at all - just general info. SOME machines (some Bezzera models) have two water level probes for the boiler. One functions normally and serves to maintain design boiler water level. The other, a slightly longer probe, serves as a safety device to cut power (either 100% power or heating element power alone) should the water level reach that point.

It has two switches and two floats. The lower one cuts power to the heating element. The instructions say that the high float triggers an audible alarm, a low pitched beep beep beep. The alarm that is sounding now is a continuous high pitched alarm. I connected the machines wires together like you described but the alarm still sounds.

One other quickie would be to disconnect both switches and NOT apply any jumper and see the results.

Do you have the outer shell removed? Do the leads from the "upper" switch go straight to the Gicar?