Hello All,

I'm new to home-barista although I've been reading a lot and learned so much on this very cool site. Now I'm asking for a little help..

Sorry in advance for my poor english, I'm from Holland..

There is something wrong with my 12 year old ECM Giotto and I'm trying to fix it myself or otherwise I'm going to invest in another machine. A couple of days ago I was emptying the hot boiler to put some fresh water inside. I did this just after I put the machine off to get as much water out as possible, I noticed that when I kept the machine on and emptied it as the pump starts to put new water in the water outlet stops giving water because of the pressure drop.
After everything was out I switched the machine back on and heard the pump pumping. After 20 seconds I heard a crack which was suspicious I thought. The machine kept on pumping and didn't stop. I switched it of waited for a couple of hours and opened it up. I found out that when I switch on the machine it starts pumping and gives the water back to the outlet, in other words, it is not entering the boiler. So that could be two things either the boiler is full but the pump gets no sign to stop or the boiler is empty but the water is not getting there. OK so I found out the boiler was not full enough.
I thought the solenoid valve was broken and changed it for a new one.
Now everything seems to be ok, the boiler was filling up and it started to heat up. Made a couple of espresso's with it very nice no problem. A day later (6 shots) I blind filtered it (I don't know how to say this different sorry..) and after that try to make an espresso but that didn't work.
The pressure dropped slowly to 0,5 bar and then suddenly climbed up to 2,5 bar and the boiler was spitting water through the valve on top.
I changed the pressure stat for a new one but still the same problem.

So now I think that it must be the hx in the boiler that is leaking its water to the boiler and is the reason why the pressure climbs up after a while and then spits it out.

Do you think my analyze is right? Does this mean I have to replace my boiler with hx or is it a descaling thing? If it is a leak in the hx/boiler do you think I can replace it myself? Or do I have to say goodbye to this machine and start looking for another one? Just 6 months ago the pump was broken and I sent it to a repair service but I don't want to do this now.

Thanks in advance!

Mark

I believe that your analysis is correct.

You should not completely empty a hot boiler. I think what may have happened is that the HX was hot and when the cold water hit it the crack happened. It may have been weak already and ready to crack.

Best way to refresh the water in the boiler is to use the hot water function and remove about 225-250ml at a time and allow the boiler to fill and recover pressure each time. Repeat about four times.

If you can, with the machine cold and unplugged, open the steam valve and apply air pressure at about 4 or 5 atm to the HX inlet and see if air comes out of the hot water spout. If so, the HX is cracked. If it is brazed into the boiler, the boiler will need to be replaced.

Thanks for the reply I will check this as soon as I can!

Cheers