I bought an older Giotto(2000?but not used regularly ) from a woman who was having a problem with it and sent it out to be fixed. They ordered a new control board for it but didn't solve the problem. She decided to upgrade to a dbl. boiler. She sold it to me for a cheap price with the old board reinstalled and the new board came with it also. I started the machine,open the steam valve and the pump came on and filled boiler and then the pump shut off as it should. The pressure came up to proper level. Steam came out of properly. Pulled lever and water came out of group to warm cup. Locked in a test shot and pulled lever and everything worked fine. Then the pressure was not coming back up on the gauge and when I tried to pull the lever on again nothing was happening, pump did not come on. Unplugged the machine and about an hour later plug back in and it started working ok again. Pump came on to fill and pump came on when lever pulled. I've cleaned everything(it was pretty clean)level probe is clean. Any thoughts?
thanks,
Ed

We had a Giotto too, and one of the biggest issues was with the water level sensors in the water reservoir - when it lost good contact at the top, it shut off everything. There is a small plastic tab that holds the active sensor in place, and that tab seems to bend, not holding the probe tightly against the outer stainless frame. We took the probes out, sanded all the contacts, fiddled with the mounting tab to make sure it was REALLY tight (I think we had to turn the tab upside down because it warped...been a few years since we had it). I'd check it - it may not solve your problem, but it was the most ghostly, hard to trace to down problem we had...the temptation was to hard wire around the sensor system, but it didn't seem like a great idea...

Doug
Thanks for the reply, this is a 1999 or 2000 Giotto. It doesn't appear to have a sensor in/on the reservoir, just the sensor probe on the top of the boiler. It does everything it should when turned on. Fills boiler, gets to proper pressure and the pressurestat comes on and off to keep pressure for about 10-15mins then the pressure start to drop and the pump will no longer start when the lever is lifted. Once cooled down it will repeat the same way. I'm too stubborn a do it yourselfer to send it in!
Ed

Maybe the techs at Chris' would give you some phone advice. Worth a try.

Talked with Jim at 1st-line. Sent an email and he got me around the front desk (understandable) screening. Thank you Jim! The machine had been at Chris for repair from the past owner but they were unable to fix it and suggested the past owner to send it to 1st-line. Jim asked about the reservoir probes and I replied "what probes"? There are no signs of any or wiring and if there were they never made it with the machine that was shipped from Chris to me when the past owner decided to sell it and upgrade to a dBL. boiler. I guess I need to find a diagram that shows the reservoir probes setup.
Ed

Talked with Jim at 1st-line. Sent an email and he got me around the front desk (understandable) screening. Thank you Jim! The machine had been at Chris for repair from the past owner but they were unable to fix it and suggested the past owner to send it to 1st-line. Jim asked about the reservoir probes and I replied "what probes"? There are no signs of any or wiring and if there were they never made it with the machine that was shipped from Chris to me when the past owner decided to sell it and upgrade to a dBL. boiler. I guess I need to find a diagram that shows the reservoir probes setup.

Ed,

Thanks for the post. Also, thanks for understanding about how we handle tech support calls. As already indicated, we get a 'ton of calls' from non-customers seeking free technical support from our organization. Unfortunately, we do not have the resources to provide free technical support to those who purchased their machines elsewhere (we do have a few exceptions where some resellers purchase from 1st-line and we support their end-user customers).

We have learned that these requests in the past have impacted our technical support department to the detriment of the services we should provide our equipment customers. This is a strong reason why it is important on 'which dealer' equipment is purchased from.

As for parts, we now have over 1,200 listed on http://www.1st-line.NET and more are being added everyday....

G'day Ed,
I had exactly the same problem that you are experiencing with your Giotto, mine is a Giotto premium and is newer, but the theory should be the same.
Inside your machine, there should be a probe (it looks like a gun cleaning brass tip) which pushes up into the reservoir and allows water to flow into the intake pipework. When you take the reservoir out, you can see it at the bottom of the tank holder.
This is the probe that senses if there is water in the tank and shuts off the heating element in the event of low water (or what it perceives as low water ).
A couple of possible causes (apart from those that have been listed) are,
- The level sensing probe in the reservoir gets dirty and it stops 'sensing' the water level, or
- as happened with my machine, I was using bottled water which had a very low mineral content. This caused the water to stop conducting electricity, and made the sensor pass on to the brain box that the tank was empty.
Try some harder water in the tank and see how that goes, otherwise, its time to start checking for other faults. This may have been why the techs couldn't find anything wrong with it.
All the best,
Steve.

Here is a pic of what Steve is talking about:

I do not have a Giotto but happened to have this picture. The probe is inside the white canister at the bottom of the pic. The small white wire goes from the canister to the Gicar box. I am ASSUMING that when this white wire is grounded (reservoir full), all is well. When the white wire does not have an electrical path to ground, the machine shuts down.

Hope this helps.

For some reason there is no reservoir sensor on my Giotto. If the woman that was the past owner had removed it or something and it caused it to stop working, when she sent it in for repair I would think she would have mentioned it. And I don't think it was removed at Chris and then not sent on to me from there. It was manufactured I believe in late 1999. I think one of the first made? If I knew that a 1999 actually had a sensor it would be a start. I've gathered that there were several types of sensors over the years on these machines. Another question is that on a cold start everything goes fine. It fills the boiler, heats to pressure, and the pressurestat will keep the pressure stable for 10 or so mins. Then the pressure starts to drop and the pump will no longer come on when the lever is lifted.
thanks,
Ed