I've been lurking for a long time, and now finally decided to create an account. The forums have been a fantastic resource for me, but I could not find an answer to these questions:

I recently had the chance to purchase a (gently) used Bricoletta. Tested it; everything works well, and it makes great shots. But I have two (ok, maybe 3) questions I'm curious about.

1) The boiler has all sorts of discoloration, sort of what you see when you get hard-ish water drying on metal surfaces, but also blue-ish colors. Part of it is likely from the little amount of water that spouts for a few seconds from the vacuum valve during heat-up (I put a short section of copper pipe with a cap on top of it to contain the spraying), but part of it may be from when the previous owner decalcified the boiler and had some of that solution drip over the boiler. My question is: could that be an issue in the long term? The discoloration isn't 'deep' (in the sense that I can run a green scrubby pad over it and buff/scratch it out), and I doubt that whatever cleaning solution once got onto the boiler could continue eating into it ... but I just don't know for sure.

2a) I'm confused about the electrical cord on the machine. I have a dedicated 20 amp circuit (correct gauge wires, breaker) running to the espresso nook, but like all 20 amp circuits in/around the kitchen, the receptacle and faceplate are the regular three-pronged ones with the two vertical slots + neutral (like this: http://www.randyselectric.com/blog/bid/71889/4-Electrical-Outlet-Replacement-Repair-Frequently-Asked-Questions), not the one with the small horizontal notch added on one of the slots. This seems to be in accordance with code here, as most kitchen appliances draw only 15 amps; the electrician told me that appliances that draw 20 amps would need to have the horizontal prong that only fits proper 20 amp outlets. The rub, of course, is that the Bric draws 20 amps but has regular prongs that fit in my regular outlets. So is the Bric's cord, technically, not up to code?

2b, related) The machine is right now connected through a run-of-the-mill Belkin surge protector strip (6 outlets) rated for 120v/15amps. Is that a problem; i.e., does a 15 amp surge strip create a 'bottleneck' of sorts for the current, allowing the machine to only draw 15 amps? Or can the machine still draw its full 20 amps through a 15 amp surge protector?

Apologies for the length of my questions.

The two "slots" on your receptacle are the hot (the narrower one) and the neutral. The "U" shaped prong is the ground, only and everywhere. Your espresso machine does not draw 20 amps, in all probability (I see that machine rated at 1900 watts that would be just short of 16 amps). Another factor in determining what circuit a machine needs is the percent of time it draws it's full power. Once fully warmed up the heater cycles on and off and the pump runs only when called for so the full current draw is not constant. The usual time frame is 3 hours: if it drew 16 amps for more then three hours it would require a 20 amp circuit, to go by the rules. Look to the wattage and divide that by the voltage to get the approx. amperage. When a circuit has only one outlet that receptacle much match the breaker amperage. Inexpensive "surge protectors" are next to worthless. They can not "bottleneck" the power as you asked, but if they have a thermal breaker they will trip a some point. An overload trips a breaker by thermal action, the current goes through a bimetal strip that bends when heated and opens a set of contacts. So pulling twenty amps through a fifteen amp breaker will, in time, trip it, the more the overload the quicker the trip.
Hope this helps, Duke Masters

This very much helps, thanks. For some reason, I thought of the 15 amp/20 amp distinction as binary: it's either drawing one or the other. Your explanation makes much more sense though, as does the one about the surge protector. It hasn't tripped yet (likely because the machine draws a full 16 amps only for relatively short bursts of time), but I should probably look around for a proper 20 amp surge protector. Those things seem hard to find though ...

I looked around the web for 20 amp surge strips, there are not many and they are pricy. Most, even rated at 20a don't have 5-20R outlets. Here is one that has both 15 & 20 amp outlets:
http://www.cdw.com/shop/products/Tripp-...96737.aspx

That's been my experience too: expensive stuff. But I guess there's no market for 20amp surge boxes with only 2-3 outlets for somewhere under $50.

I've been considering offering custom electrical work such as heavy duty timers, plug strips, industrial quality surge protection or any combination of these. This presents several problems; liability, no U.L. listing, good quality parts are expensive even if bought on EBay, lots of time to build it and I'd have to make something for my time. I had a 15 outlet plug strip for my home theater where a few of the receptacles were intermittent. To replace it I built my own 20 outlet one from all industrial grade parts mostly bought on EBay, I had the wire and connectors on hand, my own time for labor and it still cost over $150.
KDM