Good morning,

I am new to home-barista and the whole home espresso itself. I have a coworker who recently cleaned out a friend's rental home, he removed a Rocket Giotto V2 (Mid-2012) and a Mazzer Mini grinder. He said the steam function wasn't working when he brought the machine home but he flipped the O-ring around on the vacuum breaker valve and it seemed to work. He asked me to sell it on EBay for him, however my wife has been wanting a machine and I thought this would be a good way to get her one for a little cheaper.

I brought the machine home and decided to plug it up and see if it was working properly. The machine would not hold steam pressure very well. I could turn the steam wand on twice and the pressure would build back up then drop to zero and not come back up. I was not sure of the problem but thought it would not hurt to descale the machine. I descaled the machine using Durgol Espresso Machine Decalcifier. I tilted the machine to 45 degrees to overfill the broiler like I had read in a few places online. After letting it sit for a couple hours I turned the machine on. It seemed like it had a difficult time coming on and was not heating up properly. The machine flipped the breaker in a GFCI outlet I had in my kitchen and seemed to have burnt the tip of one of the wires on top of the broiler. Now when I turn the machine on I can hear a click but nothing seems to some on. I have only let it run for about 5 minutes before turning it back off so I don't mess anything else up.

Does anyone have an opinion on what might have happened? Also, do you have a recommended course of action on how to fix the machine? My coworker told me if I can get the machine working properly he would let both pieces of equipment go for $1,000. To me this seems like a deal even if I have to put in a few hundred dollars to have it working properly. I even think he will take some off the price if I have to put money into it. I appreciate any help that you all can give me. I am located in Eastern NC if anyone knows of a good repair shop around that area.

Thanks,
Brandon

That is a good deal. To my knowledge descaler has to be actively heated for it to work properly. I'm not too knowledgable about this kind of thing, but I've noticed the trend and arguably the best way to go about troubleshooting is to decide what it CAN'T be. The clicking you sound is probably the pressure stat as I I know they make that noise... But I find it unlikely that it's the root of the problems. Since the machine is not holding pressure there is likely a leak. Check the vacuum breaker too, sometimes those can develop a leak where steam will constantly spurt out of the top, and if you have steam flowing out of the steam wand and other leaks the boiler will not be able to keep up as it was not designed that way. Hopefully the element is still in working condition.