I was looking at an used Astoria Argenta AEP 1. The outside of the machine looked pretty well polished and thought it was pretty well maintained (see pic)



However, the inside looks pretty awful, especially toward the back of the right side. There is a very thick accumulation of white and greenish power on the boiler, the copper pipes and even on some of the electrical wires and the control boxes. There seemed to be heavy oxidation going on there. (see pic 3). Any theory as what happened?

I have couple of questions that I hope forumites here could help. I know there are few restorations of such or similar machines so there is a huge knowledge of the Astoria machines.

1. There is a plastic tube connected to the bottom of the boiler to the circular drainage, which also catches the water from the drip pan. However, there does not seem to be any way to manually drain the boiler. See picture below:

Is this how it supposed to be connected? I know for sure the Astoria Divina 2 is not like this. I am not sure about the Argenta series. I am wondering if this machine has been damaged before and the original copper pipes for the boiler drainage has been replaced by this plastic one.

2. Will normal de-scaling get rid of the white/greenish build-ups on the boiler and the copper pipes?

Thanks,

Bill

Bill,

I had a Formula like this one http://www.espressosystems.net/EQUIPMEN ... /1grsa.htm
pretty much same as the Astoria Argenta (water cooled rotary pump and all) and that tube was rubber as well.. and the machine was in perfect working condition..
But that tube is the least of your "problems" with that machine.. I'd take it completely apart and give a citric acid bath.

good luck.

Juanjo

Do you know if the machine was operating like this? Does it hold water? The boiler does not seem to be sealed given the parts that are in place.

Normally, that rubber tube comes off of an expansion valve that is part of the inlet valve circuit. I have never seen one routed directly to the boiler drain. It seems like someone must have just stuck it there. You will also need to find the expansion valve outlet or it will dribble on your counter.

Looks like a decent project if you can get it for $400 or less with a pump. Most/all of that green will come off when you descale. It might take a little scrubbing.

WES

here I find the pictures


the rubber tube was from the water drain straight to the boiler..

Juanjo, Thanks for the photos. They look quite similar, except the Argenta AEP 1 is a simpler machine. Have you ever used this valve to manually drain the water from the boiler?


WES:

The machine was already disconnected by then. But the owner swore that it was working. He said he paid someone in town to have it serviced professionally 3 months ago. I moved the machine and did notice there was water in the boiler and there was no apparent trace of leakage. But then, I didn't check too carefully.

>> Normally, that rubber tube comes off of an expansion valve that is part of the inlet valve circuit. I have never seen one routed directly to the boiler drain. It seems like someone must have just stuck it there. You will also need to find the expansion valve outlet or it will dribble on your counter.

That was my impression as well, from seeing the Astoria Divina, hence the query here.

Took possession of the unit. It has been stripped down to pieces (broke the water level glass tube in the process ). Currently the boiler and all copper pipes are taking nice bath in critic acid. I was not too sure about the concentration for best results, so I only added about 1LB of citric acid with enough water to fill up the cooler (not sure about its size) which is just big enough to contain everything. I will let it sit for couple of days.

There has been excessive rust on some parts of the frame so I probably have to clean it out and have them powdercoated.

It seems a parts manual or service guide for Astoria Argenta (or Divina) is really tough to come by. If anyone has a copy, I would love to get a copy of it. I already have the typical general documents for all Astoria machines.

Any place before that feedback valve will be at the same pressure as the valve itself. So this is a ~9 bar takeoff from the rotary pump. I am not sure where it is going but I do know it's pressure.

If that hose comes back to your drain then it is to drain off inlet over pressure.

-Cecil