Need help with ID'ing this machine. I see its the Italcrem Nera but I cant find any more info than that. It looks like it may have the e61 can anyone confirm this as well as where to purchase possible replacement parts?
Thanks

Upon much more research I think Ive narrowed it down to a heat exchanged e61 machine. It looks like it may be a rebranded Futurmat Areiti, can anyone confirm this?

Italcrem / Futurmat / visacrem / Gaggia are all manufactured by quality espresso, spanish company.lots of re-badging going on, parts shouldn't be a problem, try Cafeparts under futurmat/Ariete

I picked up this machine today got what I think is a good deal thought that will be determined once Im pulling shots from it. Right now I cant seem to get the boiler full of water. Ive got it set up in the garage with the water inlet in a bucket of water as a temporary solution.
The refill light on the keypad doesnt come on and I cant get it to suck water any way I try. The machine seems to work correctly, warming up and the gauge shows the pressure slowly rising though I cant get it to take in any water. What is the process for filling/priming the boiler?

Does it have a pump? If not, it needs a pump to pump water to the boiler and through the grouphead. If it does have a pump, they don't usually like sucking water, especially from a bucket that is lower than the pump.

Yes it appears to have a rotary pump. Im fairly sure Mike is correct in it being a rebadged futurmat/gaggia. I have tried some suggestions I have found by searching including using a turkey baster to 'prime' the pump where the water line would connect to the machine which didnt work, as well as removed and cleaned the water level sensor on the boiler. The light is now flashing on they keypad which the manual suggests says there isnt any water coming into the pump which would be correct. Could it be there is a blockage in the short space between the main water connect and the pump?

The gauge shows two scales one seems to be brew pressure, which will rise when the machine is on and drop if steaming. The other stays at zero, I assume this is the pumps pressure. I tested this by using compressed air in the can form to try and 'prime' the pump with water and a little pressure, the gauge did shoot up and then back down as I lost the pressure. This still did nothing in getting the boiler full. The strange thing is is that upon heating the machine up it will produce a bit of steam/hot water out of the tap but nothing will come out of the group head.
Im looking for help on where to go next, any ideas?

Fussed with the machine some more. I realized a few things. The pump wasnt quite connected to the motor which in turn wouldnt pump anything. I fixed this and got what I think was the boiler filled. The autofill seems to work correctly and it was sucking in water from my bucket. This maybe because I adjusted the water level sensor to try and get it to fill, or it may just be working correctly, but still there is no water coming from the group head.

The current situation, as best as I can tell. The boiler fill light will come on and the pump will pull water towards the boiler. Everything so far seems fine. Pressure according to the gauge fluctuates between 1 and 1.6 bars when steaming/hot water tap. When the machine is at idle the pressure slowly climbs. Once it reaches 1.6bar where the redline is, it seems the boiler safety valve kicks in and the pressure slowly drops back a bit, the pressure kicks on and it increases. Im thinking this cycle is correct?

The problem comes when pressing the brew button. The button is pressed and the pump is kicked on by the motor. The motor spins the pump and the water level in my bucket lowers. The gauge that Im assuming is the pump pressure goes up to the green range right around 8bar, everything seems correct, similar to my vibe pump machine. So the pressure climbs and I would expect to see water start to come off the shower screen, but instead the pressure hovers at 8bar and shoots up to 12bar only to be relieved instantaneous by some sort of valve, Im not sure what it is, pictured here.

This cycle will continue if the brew button is left to go. The pressure shoots up and is relieved with a stream of terrible grey water coming out of the tube shown above. If you leave the machine brewing, this cycle will happen again and again, also no water at the group. There is a drop or two from the bottom of the e61 what Im thinking is the 3 way valve outlet.

The other strange thing is that during this process, the motor seems to stall/stick. Ive verified this by looking in through the motors cooling vanes, and I can seen the motor stop for a half second and spin again.


In my fiddling I also took the top plate off the flow valve to make sure it wasnt frozen. Besides a small amount of scale it seemed fine and spun freely. Im begining to think there is some sort of blockage. Im guessing the pressure gets too great and it is bleed from this valve. Any ideas on this? Im hoping this investment is still worth it.

It is blowing off steam at 1.6 bar and dropping down before rising again? Not a normal cycle - the pressurestat either is misadjusted, has its contacts welded shut or is otherwise broken. The safety release is not a regulation mechanism - judging by the corrosion around that valve, it has been that way for a while.

The machine should cycle at around 0.9 - 1.1 bar or so. No blowing off of steam. If the HX is in good shape, the machine should be very fixable and should shine up very nicely.

More fiddiling and I feel quite dumb. I pulled the two top nuts on the group head thinking the jet could be blocked which was odd. Underneath the nuts it was pretty much empty. I could see the inlet or the return line coming from the boiler and confirmed that this wasnt blocked by getting a huge spray up through it.

I moved onto the shower screen thinking this is the last possible blockage and what do you know. I removed the screen, pressed brew and water went everywhere. Soaked/scrubbed the screen and its now pouring correctly, or so I think.

Im attaching a video of pulling a shot with an empty basket to hopefully get some feedback. Does everything look correct? There seems to be some excess water that still dribbles out of the portafilter spout after ending the shot. At this time water is released out of the bottom of the group/3way solenoid, as well as this other valve that I have routed into this makeshift catch tray, still not sure what that valve is/does.

Thank you Allon, once the gauge reads 1.6bar the valve on the boiler seems to let off some pressure, very small visible steam and it lowers to around 1bar and kicks off, slowly raising again. This process will continue unless you relieve pressure another way be it steam/hot water or brew.

Thank you, I will look into the pressure stat.


Havent gotten to the pstat yet, but here is a video with coffee in the basket.

[youtube]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HFmQ9idoWq4[/youtube]