Hello Everyone, first time poster, long time lurker

Down to business: I recently purchased a second hand Iberital model 1GR (2003) for a steal (sorry for the poor cellphone pic). It looks like it has been in storage for a bit but overall seems to be in working order. The pump was frozen, and after a night descaling, still seems to be quite hard to turn so I contacted Fluid O Tech asking about a rebuild (thanks for the idea!). My question is, where might one find some more information and some reasonable prices on parts for a machine like this? There is the obvious Iberital.com, but I was hoping to find another or a few resources to compare pricing and availability. So far I am going to need to pick up a portafilter, the shower screen, and a new gasket but might end up tearing it down further for a full descale. Any help is greatly appreciated!



Also as a side note, I am doing a full rebuild of a Faema No-Stop 2 Group I recently won on an auction. This is my first full rebuild so I'm taking things slow (alot of research on here) and taking a lot of pictures. I plan on writing the whole process up on here when I get some time to share with everyone. Unfortunately, I live in an apartment so a 220V 2 group is quite over the top for me, but the project is worth it for the experience alone!

Thanks!

That looks like a relatively standard E61 group but closer photos would be needed. Mosst of those groups are made by one or two companies in Italy and they are almost interchangeable. For something as generic as a shower screen, group gasket and portafilter I would bet any generic Faema style E61 group parts would fit. Take the portafilter from your No-Stop and see if it fits, if it does you are in business. The only thing you have to worry about is the group gasket. They make different thickness gaskets so you would need to measure the one off the machine to get the same thickness, or slightly thicker if this one is dried up and compressed from use. Stefano carries the gaskets and probably all the other parts you will need.

Thanks for the reply. I'll definitely be measuring that gasket and was lucky enough to find a local source for some of these e61 parts, unfortunately the portafilter they offer is over $100 so it looks like I will be ordering that online. Here is to hoping its a true fit for an e61 generic, since the Faema doesnt have the portafilters either. Not sure why I ended up with two machines sans portafilters, luck of the draw I guess but for $300 for this Iberital, I think I'm still in good shape.

So here is my next question, where might be the best place to procure these e61 portafilters. I want quality, but knowing I am also replacing the PA104 Fluid-O-Tech pump for $90 (one of the rotor ends is out of spec) I'd like to keep things as low cost as possible.

Pump came in today! Hooked it up and allowed the boiler to autofill from a pitcher after priming. The boiler started to heat like normal so things look decent. I visually inspected the boiler and there is some scale but its not terrible. I am planning to do a rather intense in place descale following another_jim's method. My question is, when I run a preprogrammed shot, the pump kicks in, the solenoid fires and I get water through the grouphead BUT it also is dumping out the drain quite rapidly. Is the pump pressure just too high or is there something else I should be looking for. (Sorry for the newb questions, I am learning as we go on this one )

On a related note, the dual manometer is all sortsa jacked up. The top gauge is stuck and the bottom seems to have fallen free. Is there any hope of repair or will this need to be replaced as well? Any help is appreciated!

Update: Manometer looks to be junk. Each pin is definitely out of calibration and can't be trusted and one has a leak near the end (could be soldered but whats the point)

a really good source for parts is CafeParts.com
don't waste time in there site and just call them!

looks like a nice project!

Descale update. After filling with descale, bringing to operating temp, then overfilling I let the machine sit off for quite a long time (8 hours?). Leaving it to descale this long is debated, but I know this machine has not been operated in awhile so I went with a good hard descale. Here are the results of the first drain, first flush, and second flush. I didnt have time this morning to flush anymore before work, but I overfilled and took a sample and its almost clear so it should be safe to sit for a bit. Also as a side note, I didn't bring the boiler up to operating temp each time I flushed. I just used a bit of tubing over the steam wand and applied some pressure to basically blow the water out the hot water tap manually. Figured it would be faster and quieter since my room mate was sleeping... I am thinking of popping open the top of the boiler at one of the connections and doing a siphon just to get it all out faster.





Looks pretty rough at the start there, but visually the inside of the boiler wasn't too terrible. I am going to borrow a borescope later this week and give the inside a look.

Next step is to look into the group. I checked the lines through the flowmeter and the meter itself and things look ok. I don't have a large enough wrench at my apartment for the grouphead, but I'll remedy that situation soon enough. Any suggestions as to what to look for when diagnosing this water dump to drain problem? Let me know if you'd like any specific pics.

Pulled the grouphead, its decently clean but I figure I might as well give it a good cleaning anyways. As for the boiler, the borescope isnt small enough to fit inside, but its got quite the scale build up, holy crap. Ideas on really giving this thing a blast cleaning? I'm thinking since most of the scale is on the lower half, to just let it auto fill (a little over normal amount) with a much stronger solution. Then let it get up to temp and stay there for awhile. Anyone have any other ideas?

Here are some pics, and unfortunately I can't just open the boiler for this one I tried to get a few shots of inside the boiler, but through the small hole it was a challenge.








Edit: I pulled the hot water tap and found something interesting waiting for me. It looks like scale but just kinda came off a bit in parts, perhaps because its being worked away with the acid?

Water dumping out the drip tray vent?? Hmm, on rotary pump machines there is an emergency pressure release, if the pressure in the hydraulics gets too high it acts as an emergency release so you dont burst any pipes. It is a simple thing, just a spring and ball valve. The valve could be scaled or gunked up and sticking open. You can take it apart and clean it to see if that fixes the problem. A drip now and then is normal but you should not be getting a normal flow of water from it when pulling shots. The broken gauge could be a sign of a bad thing. Those dont normally pop like that. If the machine is dropped the needles could be sprung but often it is a side effect of freeze damage or extreme pressure but it sounds like it is running OK. They are not worth trying to fix, just get a replacement.

So I pulled the grouphead and gave everything a good descale, same with the pressure release at the drain. Hooked everything back up and it seems to be pulling shots like normal. Now I've got a rather intense solution of citric acid in the boiler doing a heavy descale. Wish me luck. If everything comes out alright, I should have a functioning espresso machine by the end of the weekend sans a shower screen and gasket.

So close!

So apparently there is more build up than is possible to clean with even a strong solution??! I've had a solution of about 11 tablespoons citric acid to 1.5ish liters of water in the boiler with the machine at running temp for 4 hours. Cooled down and the only thing with any noticeable difference is the element which is showing nice pink copper in some spots. I rocked the boiler back and forth a few times (once an hour or so) to try and stir it up but it doesnt seem to have worked very well. What are my options here to get it cleaned out? The drain doesnt even seem to do anything bit barely drip when fully open, so its safe to say its pretty caked up.

Thanks in advance!