First of all, thanks for the input everyone.....

So I removed the brew solenoid and soaked it vinegar as described above and emptied much of the boiler. Put it back together and powered back up. The pump activated and ran until the tank was full so it looks like there are no issues with the auto fill system. Still nothing from the grouphead though. I feel like I am becoming more familiar with everything which is a good thing. The next thing I think I am going to do is figure out the water path from the pump to the grouphead and see if there are any blockages. I am a little doubtful though as everything I have taken apart so far is very, very clean.

I am getting anxious to pull the first shot though and my wife is giving me a hard time b/c this is taking me away from my other "list". This is way more important though, right?

Update:

I am now caffeinated....and realize now that this is one of the more under appreciated tools in the house:



This is all it took to finally get it going. After consulting with the service guy at the Astoria distributor and testing a few things we were pretty confident that the water flow was blocked somewhere. Basically, I started at the water inlet and worked my way forward taking apart all of the connections to make sure water was getting past. The inlet to the Gicar flowmeter was the culprit. I took the top off and from the inside, poked the pictured tool (a quilting pin) through the inlet and that was it...water was flowing. Put it all back together and it is working like a charm. I made a few double caps and they were not too bad for a neophyte. I definitely have to dial everything in and get a routine down but that is the fun part.

What is the "normal" life of the pressurestat membrane? I was thinking of replacing it as a preventative or should I not worry about it? The machine is 4 years old but has hardly been used at all if that matters.

On a Sirai stat that was built in the late 80's my membrane was not worth the trouble of replacing. It was still quite flexible. Though I did descale it's backside, there was a tiny buildup there.

-Cecil

karmacafe wrote:What is the "normal" life of the pressurestat membrane? I was thinking of replacing it as a preventative or should I not worry about it? The machine is 4 years old but has hardly been used at all if that matters.

If I remember correctly from Paul Pratt's site, after 5+ years the membrane has a higher dead band. There are rebuild kits for the membrane. I picked up a new one on Ebay since my used system's Sirai had a melted terminal.

BTW: Now that you have flowing water, you could more easily descale the whole line without a full tear down.

Mark

Thanks guys...I won't worry about the pressurestat right now.

The Astoria came with a water softener and I was planning on installing it but decided not to after consulting with Dan (he lives really close) and finding our water quality reports online. I also ended talking to a technician that works in the area and when I told him I was going to descale the machine his response was "why?". According to the water charts I found in the forum, the water is just about as soft as it can get. We are planning on moving back to Denver in the near future and will definitely hook the softener up there.

I am quite pleased with the Astoria and deal I got. I am very new at this but I am already pulling what I think are great tasting shots. What I am realizing is that it is all about the grind. It is amazing how much just a little adjustment makes. I hope to get to a point where I am consistently pulling the thick velvety shots I see pictured.