Hello,
I'm a new HB member. I recently picked up a used VBM Domobar Super. I have a general question regarding descaling. My first try led to an over-filled boiler. Following steps from reseller to the tee but I still had water coming out of a valve on the boiler. I believe it's an overflow valve. Would like to know what is the key to avoiding this mess the next time I descale. If anyone has any tips or can point me to a good site with detailed steps, I'd appreciate it.

Regards,
Javaboost

Here ya go:

Simplified HX Descale [PourOver]

Some more info can be found by entering the term "vibiemme descale" in the forum search feature.

Check your email, I sent you some additional instructions which will prevent that from happening.

javaboost wrote:Hello,
I'm a new HB member. I recently picked up a used VBM Domobar Super. I have a general question regarding descaling. My first try led to an over-filled boiler. Following steps from reseller to the tee but I still had water coming out of a valve on the boiler.

I believe that you either had old instructions or missed a point. The behavior you describe is normal if steps are not taken as discussed below.

The full instructions, updated, are here:
http://www.1st-line.com/cofffact/vibiemme_descaling.htm

When you removed the wire from the level sensor, the machine has no way of knowing when the boiler is full. In that state, if you turn the machine on, the pump will fill the boiler continuously. The air and water in the boiler will have no where to go and pressure will build up. The "valve" that opened on the boiler is a safety pressure relief valve that is included on all sealed boiler systems. The solution is to first open the hot water valve before turning on the machine when descaling any time the level sensor wire is disconnected. This gives the pressure an outlet so that the safety valve does not open.

erics wrote:Here ya go:

Simplified HX Descale [PourOver]

Some more info can be found by entering the term "vibiemme descale" in the forum search feature.

Excellent! Thanks Eric.

stefano65 wrote:Check your email, I sent you some additional instructions which will prevent that from happening.

Hi Stefano. I will re-read all email. One of my concerns was that I couldn't understand how I created the problem. The link that Eric sent me gave me some additional insights that I was missing to understanding the nature of descaling. Perhaps I can answer my own questions in the future (hopefully).

Thanks,
Phillip

Randy G. wrote:I believe that you either had old instructions or missed a point. The behavior you describe is normal if steps are not taken as discussed below.

The full instructions, updated, are here:
http://www.1st-line.com/cofffact/vibiemme_descaling.htm

When you removed the wire from the level sensor, the machine has no way of knowing when the boiler is full. In that state, if you turn the machine on, the pump will fill the boiler continuously. The air and water in the boiler will have no where to go and pressure will build up. The "valve" that opened on the boiler is a safety pressure relief valve that is included on all sealed boiler systems. The solution is to first open the hot water valve before turning on the machine when descaling any time the level sensor wire is disconnected. This gives the pressure an outlet so that the safety valve does not open.

Hi Jim,
Thanks for helping again and your patience. Though I felt I got the instructions correct, I obviously missed that step to create the overflow prob. I believe that I understand the nature of this subject a lot better now. That was part of the problem. I didn't understand the dynamics of it and couldn't figure out how to prevent it from continuously overflowing. I'm pretty sure I got it now so I should be okay at the end of the month when I descale again.

FYI. The microswitch swap went smoothly.

FYI, that's Randy, not Jim. Randy wrote the VBM manual for 1st-line, so maybe that's where you found confusion.

networkcrasher wrote:FYI, that's Randy, not Jim. Randy wrote the VBM manual for 1st-line, so maybe that's where you found confusion.

Oops. My mistake. Thanks for the correction.

Read the one I sent you is much easier and is only regarding that issue