Hi
Does any body know if you can zero the thermometer gauge on an Elektra semi automatica and how you would go about that. Mine is reading 0.4 when cool although the machine seems to be working correctly any

Help is much appreciated.
Chris

More than likely, the boiler was under vacuum and pulled the gauge's needle against the zero pin, thereby changing its rest position. How to zero boiler pressure gauge? offers some suggestions (basically replace the gauge, reset the needle, or just ignore it). I'd consider attaching a pressure gauge to the steam arm and confirming the onboard-to-external pressure delta when the boiler is fully heated. If the gauge is otherwise accurate in the relative sense, it's really a matter of whether the non-zeroness bothers you enough to replace the gauge or risk breaking it.

Mine broke within a month of getting the machine and the one reviewed on Coffee Geek broke, too, so this is not an uncommon problem. That said, as Dan points out it never seemed like an issue worth replacing since it worked in a relative sense and it had no effect on the coffee. I finally did have it replaced when I sold it and it wasn't too expensive, but I never did find a way to fix it without replacing it (but I didn't look too hard since it wasn't affecting the coffee).

My fix was to remove the press fit bezel and glass and gently pull off the needle then refit with it resting on the peg.

When shutting down, open the steam valve.

If you can successfully remove the bezel as Don relates, I would take the gage to a jewelry store that does watch/clock repair and see if they won't pop the needle off gratis using a gage needle puller as below:
http://www.amazon.com/s/?ie=UTF8&keywords=hand+remover
This brings back pleasant memories as we had to make one as part of a machine shop course long ago.

I would also machine that "zero resting" pin such that this could not happen again if/when the vacuum breaker sticks closed.

All of this said, I would also price out a new gage, preferably one with no zero resting pin.

Thanks for all the help.

I removed the chrome bezel and glass by sliding off as suggested. Then placed a thin piece of card I had cut into a circle with a notch from the side to the centre behind the indictor to protect the bezel. I removed the indicator by placing the blades of two dinner knives behind and twisting them slightly, the indictor fell off without hardly any force. I then pushed it back on with my fingers in the zero position which again hardly needed any force cleaned the bezel glass and pushed back on, its now like new!