I seem to remember someone else running a HX machine when one of the groups had a leak in the HX circuit inside the boiler, (using the other group of course). I'm guessing you'd just seal off the unused one with plugs.

Mark

Yup, guess who that was. Been there done that. My Faema had a ruptured HX tube on one of the groups. I almost gave up but in the end I just capped the heat exchanger for that group. I have a 12 liter single group 220V machine. The boiler will probably be more than you want to pay. I looked into it for my machine and it was a shocking amount. You could try to find a trashed Ebay machine and salvage the boiler from it but again, it is not a cheap option. Chances are you would have never used both groups anyway. I never had a need for both.

You can read my saga and see what I went through, and how I diagnosed and fixed the issue in The Faema Rebuild Project

Well, since you come this far, me thinks it would be prudent to contact these guys: http://www.faemasource.com/index.html and at least inquire as to the availability/price of a heat exchanger.

Earlier you talked about a metalworking shop you worked with - I'm kinda thinking they would look at hx replacement in this boiler as a "piece of cake" or as perhaps the challenge to end the year. Typical lifelong repairs done to industrial machinery, like SEWING locomotive engine blocks together with screw threads, would be mind-boogling to some.

erics wrote:Earlier you talked about a metalworking shop you worked with - I'm kinda thinking they would look at hx replacement in this boiler as a "piece of cake...."

And I thought exactly the same thing when I read that. They would just cut/grind off the existing welds/brazing, pull out the HX tubes, and just fabricate a replacement of the same OD/ID and material, and just weld/braze it all back together.

AND.. if it were me, and the rest of the machine is sound, you might even have them do both of the HX's while they are at it. Bring some fresh-roasted coffee with you as well as a six pack or three, and tell them to take their time and do it when things are slow might help. You can just about guarantee it will cost a small percentage of what an entire boiler would cost.

The fab. shop might have troubles with it since brazing copper that's supposed to hold up to 15 bars of pressure isn't a walk in the park. Keeping that in mind, it can't be very hard for them to find someone who knows how to do it, these type of guys usually keep good track of people which can do high-skill stuff.
Or it might be a piece of cake for them, I just come from a family of professional engineers and welders so I'm a bit pessimistic (my middle name should be "overkill")...

replacement boilers (like most other parts) are available for the original e61's. An ex-works list price from one supplier I use is 330 euro for a 2gr one. PM me if you would like more info.

Well thanks for all your replies!

I have thought about the idea of re-working the boiler, and while one of my metal guys does tanks, they are the kind you can stand inside comfortably. And his character, hands and welds are the same (size). I thinks this might be a wee bit pansy ass for his interests. Indeed he only obliged me with his 16" adjustable 'cause he thought I was having a spot 'o trouble with my 'urinal flush valve'. when I told him what it was for he peed himself laughing at my expense - one of those $10 coffee-sucker boys. I like him.

Right now I am chuffed just working the old pile back from the brink. Good therapy stuff. Don't have space for it on any counter (yet) anyhow. So I'm happy to consider options and wait for a bit of serendippidy to weigh in. I have collected 2 tanks (other models) now and a load of other old parts to work with and I have found that the E61 was by far, and by a ridiculous margin, the hardest to 'break down' into the constituent parts. If I have to open her up again in a year it should be easy by comparison. So with that I think the wise route would be to seal one HX and re-build. See how it works out and if all other things go well, then I might consider a new tank (or risk the humiliation to bring it to my metal man at Auged Eng.). But original tank is not as straight forward as the typical HX boiler - it has a coil tube about 1" OD with an 1/8" injector - not the more typical 2 1/2" fatboy straight through tube with 1/4" injector. and the two ends of the tank are welded on - so no access to the inside unless you were to cut it down the middle first!

So.. back to the question of using the tank from the other Faema 2 group. It seems the same size overall but with a few more inlets for sensors etc. that I could plug. And it is a great big honking lump of copper!

I can't think of a good reason why not to use a newer faema boiler if available. If you're lucky, Paul Pratt will come back and give his opinion on whether you'd need to play with a thermosyphon restricting valve. Some machines had these, some (like my '67) did not.

The good thing about having extra fittings available is that it makes for an easy autofill project later on.

I put a brand new off the shelf boiler into my 1 group E61. It was a very good fit - not perfect but decent enough, all the HX pipes lined up as they should with the very minimum of fuss. The only adjustments I had to make were brazing on some brass tabs onto the tops of the boilers to hold thinge like the p-stat in place and the cup warmer tray drain collection tub thing.

Your original boiler does not have the same connections as a newly standard faema boiler. Newer types all have the same boiler (due, express, stylema E91 and the new-E61 legend) If you want to insert a new boiler, which is in my opinion the only option if one of the heat exchangers is perforated, you need to remake a few copper tubings to the steam wands and hotwater tap. The tubings from the groupheads to heat exchanger might fit ok with a little fiddling. Making new tubings is far more easy than repairing a boiler. I didn't follow all of the thread ... but in my opinion, just get your hands on a second hand scratch faema-express/due machine, take the boiler and tubings out, recover the heat element also as i seen you put yours in acid (the element is dead after you put the elektr attachments in acid isolation is gone, always use a MEGGER high voltage insulation tester to test element) and you just have to bend and cut some extra tubings. The E61 you have is a very wanted machine. A few weeks ago i almost got my hands on a original 1 group, which are very rare. All parts are still available from the new E61-legend which has for a great part the same pieces of body, but attention, steam wand and water tap are different! you can't use those parts in a original E61. Grouphead is 100% the same. drip tray is same. Electrical wiring is very very simple. No electronics involved, thats why it lasts so long. Most faema dealers in europe still have their E61 stock, i don't know about that in America. Parts are not too hard to get, and costs are ok if you use donor machines. Do you still have the old mercury-pressostate? Recover it, they work great, if not, a regular membrane pressostate will do fine also. The pressure meters are also still available. Try "nuova ricambi" in italy, they sell spare parts for E61. Most dealers have access to nuova ricambi catalog. Good luck with your nice project, there's no machine like a original E61. It's a very satisfying machine