I descaled my Quickmill Anita yesterday and everything seemed to go fine, but there was still some sourness from the descaling solution coming through in the flavor of the espresso, so today I flushed the boiler out again. I turned off the machine and used the hot water tap to drain the boiler, tipping the machine up a bit to get as much water out as possible. Then I turned on the machine and let the boiler refill. The machine came up to pressure normally, and the boiler stabilized at about 1.2 bar as usual. But after a couple of minutes the GFI popped and turned the power off.

I took the shell off and checked for obvious problems like leaks or short circuits, but didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Then I tried turning the machine on again, and once again it came up to pressure normally, but then popped the GFI after a couple of minutes. So it appears that something is short circuiting inside the machine. I'm hoping I didn't damage the heating element by draining the boiler too much, but that would probably explain the GFI popping.

Anyone have any suggestions?

Disconnect the machine from power, then disconnect and insulate one lead on the heating element. Start machine again. If it doesn't trip GFI, the heating element most likely needs to be replaced. Being that it only happens after the machine gets hot, the crack or hole in the element may not be very big so the fault may not show with an ohm meter when the machine is cold.

OK, thanks for the tip.

Yes, I suppose a defective GFI outlet is always a possibility. Thanks.

+1 Eric. Most of the time GFCI's fail "safe" meaning when they go bad they do so in the off condition. I have seen 6 or so fail with the power still available at the outlet. There is an inexpensive tester that will test the GFI and also tell if the outlet is properly wired and if the power is on or not. Under $15 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/50957-Tester-Inst..._hi_text_c
For added safety always test the tester on a known "on" outlet.
KDM

duke-one wrote:Under $15 at Amazon:
http://www.amazon.com/50957-Tester-Inst..._hi_text_c

Here's one with a different name, the Triplett 9610 GFCI Receptical Tester (but looks the same) for about $12, shipped, and no minimum purchase required...

I actually have one of those testers in the garage already. Just tested the receptacle, and it checks out fine, so I guess it is a problem with the machine.