Well I hit my first mini-snag, more of a delay really. All of the local brew supply stores seem to be out of citric acid in anything other than 2 oz sizes. I ordered 5 lbs and it should be here in a few days, but at this point the boiler and tubing is disassembled and awaiting descaling. I've also stripped and scrubbed the frame...

I was really hoping to start reassembling this weekend, but looks like it will have to wait a bit.

Thankfully, Shannon gave me about a pound of CAcid! I didn't even know what it was at first, thought it was the normal espresso cleaner solution - thankfully I asked.

I received all of my espressoparts.com stuff last night from DHL! I will do a full report on my blog and bring it to your attention here a bit later.

Right now, the electrician is coming over soon to "survey" what he needs!

Well I put about 4 lbs of citric acid in with 10 gals of water and it did a great job of getting the surface scale & lime deposits off the outside and all the tubing. There's still some black scale on the inside that didn't come off, so it's off to the home depot to get some muriatic acid...

fflewddur wrote:Well I put about 4 lbs of citric acid in with 10 gals of water and it did a great job of getting the surface scale & lime deposits off the outside and all the tubing. There's still some black scale on the inside that didn't come off, so it's off to the home depot to get some muriatic acid...

I don't even know what muriatic acid is! LOL.

I am going to Lowe's here in a few minutes and I will try to find something to the effect of what Chris Coffee Service is selling. I would buy from Chris Coffee {click to see it), but my parents are buying some of these parts as part of Christmas and trust me, it is just better to get everything where they can see it when we go to the store.

I guess, with not unforeseen problems, I will be making espresso and caps tonight.

WilsonHines wrote:I don't even know what muriatic acid is! LOL.

Hydrochloric acid.

Using it to descale is a tricky task.


My current fave descaler (for completely dismantled machines) is Rydlyme. It's way more effective than ScaleKleen for heavy deposits.

I'm being quite careful... but the black scale inside the boiler is going away. It's been soaking for about 1/2 hour and its about 1/2 gone.

parents are buying some of these parts as part of Christmas and trust me, it is just better to get everything where they can see it when we go to the store.

My parents are like that too... I sure hope I'm not like that when my little ones are older.

Power Problem.

The power cord on my machine didn't have an plug on the end of the cord. Thus, I had the naked wires, some twisted and others not. The manual is about as criptic as it can get. fflewddur I need your help bad! Since your machine isn't a "working" machine, do you mind taking your plug off and tell me the wiring order?

Thanks again,

WilsonHines wrote:Power Problem.

The power cord on my machine didn't have an plug on the end of the cord. Thus, I had the naked wires, some twisted and others not. The manual is about as criptic as it can get. fflewddur I need your help bad! Since your machine isn't a "working" machine, do you mind taking your plug off and tell me the wiring order?

Is it 220v? You should be able to discern the wiring by working back from the power switch/terminal block. Green (or yellow/green), should be ground. The other two wires are hot & hot (for 220v).

Man, I have four wires:
2 Black
1 Blue
1 Brown
1 Yellow/Green

Currently, it is wired Black and Black to the hot. Brown and Blue are twisted together and on the ground and the yellow/green is cut off and not attached.

This Faema looks almost identical to a Futurmat Rimini II that I'd purchased off of Craigslist (Seattle) and then ended up re-selling through Pierre Espresso Repair. It is a hulking beast of an espresso machine but there was just no way to fit it into my kitchen. The Silvia works fine, but its lacking the style of a big, red, 2 group.

good luck!

hal