La Marzocco GS/3 electrical leak

Equipment doesn't work? Troubleshooting? If you're handy, members can help.
micki
Posts: 52
Joined: 16 years ago

#1: Post by micki »

Bummer. Today my GS/3 heated up normally, and a short time after reaching target temp. (after a few minutes heating up), the ground fault circuit interrupter triggered.

Rather quickly I located the GS/3 as the culprit, and set up a measurement of phase at the chassis, removed the ground wire and repowered the machine (taking care that nobody would touch the machine).

I quickly found that phase was on and then went off for a while (more than a couple of seconds), probably because the water heater was off due to temp. overshoot. I could see that the steam heater still was on, indicating that worked as it should. After a while (less than a minute), the phase went into a cyclic pattern, turning on/off with a cycle of 1-2 seconds and a varying duty cycle, indicating that the heater regulation was in effect.

So I *think* that the leak is from the water heater to chassis, and wonders how easy it is to exchange the heater element? I have experience with exchange of the steamer arm and renovation of the steamer valve, but have never replaced parts in the water flow.

The machine is almost 7 years old; don't know if it is normal that the heater element "burns through" at some time.

Any thoughts?
Kim

kize
Posts: 271
Joined: 13 years ago

#2: Post by kize »

To be for sure. Unplug machine. Pull both power leads off element. Measure element leads (across) and each one to chassis or ground point with ohm meter. It is possible to short to ground ( using water as a conductor). Elements can take power hits and prematurely fail. There are many other reasons as well. I'm not familiar with gs3 element replacement but would imagine its buried in that type of design. I'm sure there's a replacement thread if you search.