I purchased an Elektra Microcasa Semi Automatica in January 08. The machine is amazing. However, it occasionally has problems with excess pressure. From time-to-time, the machine will open a valve to release excess pressure from the boiler. The gauge will read very hot. This condition will last a few minutes, with water from the boiler essentially "boiling over." All the while, the red light indicating that the element is working will be on, suggesting that the machine is ignoring the pressure reading and is heating up anyway. This used to happen more when I would fill the boiler 3/4 full in the sight glass. I now only fill halfway, but still experience the problem occasionally. I asked 1st Cup about this and they suggested it was limescale buildup. I have difficulty believing this, as it started happening a couple weeks after I purchased the machine, and I live in a town in Oregon where the tap water is very soft. The machine works perfectly otherwise. Has anyone else experienced this issue or have ideas as to what may be wrong?

There are other threads reporting the same problem; Jim noted it in the Article Feedback for the Buyer's Guide to the Elektra Microcasa Semiautomatica:

another_jim wrote:A couple of follow up notes; first the good news, then the bad:

Doubles: In the review I said that the singles were spectacular, while the doubles were roughly the same as E61 machines. In the meantime, I've gotten better with doubles too. The trick is to dose the E61 style basket it comes with with only 14 grams, rather than the 18 or so one gets using normal dosing methods. At first, you'll need a 1/10 gram scale to get it right, since theirs no real landmark on the basket for dosing.

Pstat Woes Many recent buyers, perhaps even most, have experienced sticky pstats which fail to turn off properly (or sometimes at all). The Mater brand pstats have a prior history of having this problem en masse; possibly due to a production defect in their plant. My advice is to replace these with Ceme pstats. I've done this, and it works better. If you do get the sticky mater, you can turn the stat off by rapping the machine's base with your fist on the left side, close to where the pipe with the HX water enters the boiler. Obviously, this is just to get the heat off, it's not a fix. I've posted instructions on how to make the switch in this thread.

For now, I have followed his advice from the article and use distilled water for the boiler.

I have had my Elektra Semiautomatica for over 1 1/2 years and experience those pressure build ups - 'into the red zone' frequently. I replaced the first pressure stat, myself, about 10 months ago. The machine, at that point, would stick at too high pressure, and would not come down. The newer stat (still a Mater - like the original) sometimes goes into the red - but eventually will come down, and then seems to behave itself for a while.

I should mention that I often took off the Elektra's bottom plate and tweaked the original pressurestat screw up and down, when I first got the Elektra - experimenting with different pressures for making espresso. This may have led to a pre-mature weakening of the stat. I have not tweaked the new stat more than twice in the past 10 months.

I do use distilled water for the boiler (steamer). I have de-scaled the machine (but not the boiler) several times since I have owned it.

Good luck.

Howard

I had the same problem with my Elektra Semi purchased in March 2008. The pressurestat started sticking briefly after two weeks of use. Last week, after barely two months, the pressurestat stuck while I was away and boiled all the water out of the boiler. Time to replace the p-stat.

Luckily it was an easy repair. I ordered the Jaeger p-stat from Chris Coffee (http://www.chriscoffee.com/products/home/repairparts/jaegerpressurestat), supposedly a better quality unit than the standard MATER and CEME p-stats. Chris Coffee very helpfully included illustrated instructions with color photos showing the wiring of the original MATER and the Jaeger replacement.

And sure enough, the MATER is gummed up with mineral deposits:



What's surprising to me is that from Day 1 I followed Jim Schulman's advice to use only distilled water in the boiler. How that much gunk got there after two months of using distilled water is a total mystery to me.

Well, IslandAddict, it is good to know that the Jaeger pressurestat fits in the Elektra Semi. I have the feeling I will need to do another stat replacement in the not too distant future. Let us know if the Jaeger fouls up too.

... Was it really so easy, and straightforward, to replace the Mater with a Jaeger?


Howard

Thanks very much for everyone's very helpful feedback.

Sounds like I ought to try the Jaeger pressure stat. With the pressure in the machine not properly controlled, I do get nervous leaving the machine on when I'm not around. I will be interested to see if the pressure stat (once replaced) has the same mineral build-up as IslandAddict's.

With regard to limescale removal on the semiautomatica, does it do any good to descale the machine without descaling the boiler too? I have purchased Durgol, as it appears to be safer for use on a chrome machine (See http://www.1st-cup.com/parts/urnex/index.htm), but have not used it yet. I would appreciate any suggestions.

Yes, replacing the pressurestat really is easy. If you can use a screwdriver and a wrench, you can do it.

You don't need to worry too much about leaving the machine on with an unreliable pressurestat. There is a thermal switch that cuts off power if the boiler overheats. When my pressurestat stuck, I came home to find an empty boiler, but the power was cut off and the machine was already cool. (To reset the switch, pop the yellow cap off the plastic base and stick a pen in to push the reset button.) I don't like the idea of steaming all the water out of the boiler, but apparently there is enough protection to prevent a catastrophic reactor meltdown.

I don't believe the pressurestat brand will change your problem
you will only install a new part that eventually will get the same issue
the way that the machine is design with the copper hose below and in a angle will make it happen again
and can be almost certain that it is scale build in up ( doesn't take much for a small pstat)
we are located in Oregon as well and although I don't know where you are exactly
in 8 years of repairing machines from all over the state I have never seen a soft water around here so far
try to open the pstat blow some air in it,
do the same with the copper hose and see if the issue gets solved
durgol is not a very aggressive descaling agent but better then nothing

I'm mystefied how this happens with distilled water. It obviously does, since the Ceme pstat I used as a replacement also went sticky a week ago. The Ceme is less liable to this then the Mater, but it can still happen. The pstat works under water rather than in steam, and this is the root cause of the gumming problem, whatever the stuff is, it can get there, whereas it can't if the pstat is in the steam.

I've done a TDS measure on my distilled water, and it is below 5 ppm, so there seems to be no way it can develop scale. However, there are preferential scaling spots. The Synesso had a steam boiler fill valve that would scale up in days even with RO water because of some oddity in its design made it a scale magnet; it has since been replaced by a model that doesn't have the problem. If there is some odd EM eddy current in pstats that makes it attract scale, these problems will occur in proportion to the time the machines are turned on. The Ceme is a bit more resistant to this, but still attracts scale and mine lasted only 15 months. I'll be interested to hear if the Yaeger does better.

I wonder if installing some sort of mesh or restrictor trap in the pipe may help?

Right now this is standing and unsolved annoyance that detracts from the ownership experience. Even Elektra doesn't have the goodwill to dodge correcting a problem in 25 years of production.

IslandAddict wrote:the MATER is gummed up with mineral deposits:
<image>

Looking at the <image>, I really seriously doubt that to be mineral deposit.

IslandAddict wrote:What's surprising to me is that from Day 1 I followed Jim Schulman's advice to use only distilled water in the boiler. How that much gunk got there after two months of using distilled water is a total mystery to me.

This raises doubt more, even. Could the gunk be Loctite?

I visited one espresso machine "factory" in Italy. Factory is too big a word. It is like a warehouse where a small area is allotted to assembly - the parts are sourced from specialized sub-contractors. The factory assembles small batches of one model or a few models sharing the same basic structure, put them on a shelf in the warehouse and do another series.
In my case, due to staff turnover, or grown demand, another nephew was added to the staff. He assembled a series of a part of the machine, but put one component in the wrong place. The guy simply did not understand what he was doing and had not been able to oversee consequences. Not enough instruction and inspection - not enough training on the job. The assumption of the very clever uncle was this was so simple it could never go wrong.
This manufacturer does pretty much all seals with food grade Loctite - a bit more expensive than alternatives but saves a lot of time.

My guess is, Elektra hired someone recently that got similar training on the job and was too enthusiastic with the Loctite.

Regards
Peter