Over the weekend I tried to descale my Fiorenzato Bricoletta (reservoir version) by following the guide here: Simplified HX Descale [PourOver]. It didn't go that well.

First, when I emptied the boiler I could only get about 0.7L of water out, even when tilting the machine toward the hot water spout. The Bricoletta boiler has an advertised 1.5L capacity, is this normal? Later, I was unable to trick the machine into overfilling the boiler no matter which direction I tilted it. I took apart the machine in an attempt to locate the water sensor. I thought that if I pulled off the wire to the sensor (and thus ungrounded it) the machine would be tricked into to overfill the boiler if the steam valve were slightly open. I tried pulling off what I thought was the water level sensor, but all it did was trip the circuit breaker...

How do I overfill the boiler on this machine?

Eventually I called it quits and just completed the descaling procedures without overfilling the machine. When I was flushing out the descale liquid, I also noticed that there were tiny bits of copper/silver material mixed into the solution. I followed the Dezcal instructions for the amount of water quite explicitly and left the solution inside the boiler for about 4-5 hours total. Is this normal also?

Here are some pictures of the back of the machine.






There are a few possibly relevant pictures located here:
http://ktzero3.tumblr.com/post/10134185 ... bricoletta

Thanks in advance!

The boiler volume specs are probably calculated as the total volume of the cylinder (boiler), which you can check by measuring the diameter of the boiler and its' length. This does not account for boiler wall thickness, but will get you in the ballpark. However, a lot of that volume is not water, it is for water and steam, so you have a large space on top for steam. In addition, you have the volume of the HX unit, which goes through the boiler, which may not be subtracted from the mfg specs. So your 700 ml may be the bulk of the liquid in the boiler. I doubt you are going to get all the water out this way, but it should be enough. You'll need to do several fill-empty-refill cycles to get the descaler out when you are done descaling.

As for overfilling the boiler by tipping the unit, note that your sensor is almost smack in the middle of the boiler, which will make things difficult in this regard. Determine which end of the boiler is closest to the sensor, and tip that side up as high as you can without spilling stuff. That may get you a bit of an overfill. From the perspective of your second photograph, it looks like the shortest side (the side to lift) is on the right - the side which appears to have the pressurestat located above it. By the look of it, you should be able to get a sufficient amount of overfill to well cover the normal waterline.

Hope that helps you a little.

Regards,

Martin

Nice pics - nice machine.

See this post for some supplemental info on descaling: Checking an E61 Espresso Machine for Scale

What made you think it was time for a descale operation?

That silver fitting in the middle of the machine is the level sensor. Turn the machine off and unplug it. Open your water and steam wand, disconnect the wire going to that probe, plug it in and turn it on. It will overfill the boiler. Once water starts spurting out the steam valve turn the power off. Unplug the machine, close the steam/water valves, hook the level probe back up, plug it back in and turn it on. Let it heat to temp, turn it off and let it soak for a couple hours then flush everything out. Dont forget to fill the thermosyphon with descaler as well, otherwise you will just clean the boiler not the brew path.

The light blue arrow is the water level sensor wire. Removing that from the silver rod will allow you to completely fill the boiler. WARNING: The red arrow points to the pressure safety valve. With the level sensor out of the circuit the machine has no way of knowing when to stop filling the machine. YOU MUST have an outlet for the descaler to go when filling the boiler. The steam valve should be opened any time the pump is running when the autofill is disconnected. If you forget, the safety valve will open and spray the acidic solution all over the inside of the machine. That can play havoc with the electrical connections.

The metallic bits are likely chrome from the group mushroom (discussed in the link in Eric's post above).