I've been helping a friend, who runs two small but great cafes in small town Saskatchewan, learn about espresso and latte art. Although I've never worked in a coffee house, he's had me out twice to share what I've learned with his employees and to teach them the basics of espresso, latte art, and machine maintenance. For this he's paid me handsomely.

Today, as an advance payment for an upcoming training session and a small concert at his shop, he dropped off his 3 year old Single group Rancilio Epoca. Yup! Just like that.

He recently replaced it with an Appia, saying he wasn't happy with it anymore, and that it lacked steam power. I spent all afternoon cleaning, descaling, and making adjustments. Only to find out it's not nearly the lemon he thought it was. Although it smells of cinnamon buns, the internals appear to be clean and in good order. He's only ever run R.O. water through it, although it's never been descaled until I did it today.

So here's where I am:

1.) Reset the pressurestat to 1.2. Can any other Epoca users comment? Seems good to me. Steam power is alright, and group flush is relatively short.

2.) I think the valve is gone, or is going on the Clever (Steam knob). Some folks have suggested that this is just a simple seal. Haven't pulled it apart to look, but I imagine a hardware store or plumbing shop might have what I need. It also needs a new group gasket, and someone suggested I change the gicleur when I change that.

3.) While I had to shell off to make adjustments, I fired it up, and noticed a small amount of water and then steam (and then nothing) coming from beneath the blue wire on top of the boiler (see photo below). Any idea what that might be, and what I should do about it, if anything?



4.) It's taking a while to dial in. I'm using fresh "Epic Espresso" from 49th Parallel. The shots look good, and seem to be within all the appropriate parameters, but are unpleasantly bright. Perhaps it's an issue of brew temp.

That's all for now.

brokemusician77 wrote:3.) While I had to shell off to make adjustments, I fired it up, and noticed a small amount of water and then steam (and then nothing) coming from beneath the blue wire on top of the boiler (see photo below). Any idea what that might be, and what I should do about it, if anything?

Perfectly normal.
The fitting with the circlip on it is an anti-siphon valve.
When the machine is cold, it allows air to enter the boiler (preventing a vacuum - this is required for sanitary reasons, to prevent stale milk/cleaning solution from being drawn into the boiler if a steaming wand is left in cleaning solution and the valve leaks).
As the machine heats up, it allows air to escape; as the water starts boiling, you might see a little water hissing out of the valve, then steam until enough pressure is generated that the valve pops closed.

Enjoy your new baby!
Sounds like a winner!

Thanks for your reply.

The leak is coming from where the blue wire is attached, not the valve with the circlip. You can see a small blueish pool around it if you look closely. I thought perhaps it was a low water sensor or something. I wonder, should I just tighten it?

I think the red wire is the water level sensor;
It looks like the blue and brown wires may be for the heating element. note how thick these wires seem to be - thick = lots of current handling ability = probably heating element.

In fact, that is what it appears to be.

http://www.espressoparts.com/epocaonegroupboiler
has a nice exploded diagram.

Nice! I was just hunting for such a diagram. Doesn't look like there's supposed to be a washer or anything in there. Maybe tightening would do the trick....?

** BE CAREFUL **

Overtightening can crack things you don't wanna crack.

And don't do such operations on a hot machine - if you DO crack something, you can end up with a face full of steam.

Very nice! Congrats! Doess me good to hear for such kindness! I have a 2 head group epoca. It works well for me. (Home use, 220v. power from the stove, plumbed in, (And I rent!!!

Some teflon tape might do the trick for that small leak.

Good idea! Hopefully this weekend, I'll get a chance to pull the cover off again and look at things. I don't think it's a very substantial leak, and it seems to stop once everything's warmed-up.

although are not showed on the ascaso drawing that EPNW uses or even on the original rancilio( I just check on my part book)
yet another one of my supplier shows them,

sound strange that HE terminals will not have ether an O-ring or a flat teflon gasket
accessible from the inside of the boiler
I will send an email to my contact at rancilio and ask