Ed -

Mike hit the nail on the head - yes, there exists two problems but surely they are caused by the same fault.

Firstly, I would disconnect and tape over one of the electrical connections to the heating element. Next would be to try and determine the level of water in the boiler. The easiest "thing" to remove is the vacuum breaker valve. Do this and stick a thin wooden dowel in the hole. Boiler water level should be AROUND 2/3 of the boiler diameter - maybe 3/4. If so, proceed.

Search for the safety thermostat and hopefully you will find it "popped". If so, reset it by pushing the red "button" in.

I'm thinking that the safety thermostat cuts off power to BOTH the heating element and the pump. Some machines do both and some only disable the heating element. By resetting the thermostat you should get a signal that the machine is trying to supply power to the heating element (disconnected) but the pump should hit ~ 9.0 bar during a flush.

Unplug machine and reconnect heating element. Now all that's left is to figure out why the safety thermostat opened up.

Hi Eric,

The water level was a little less than half and the safety thermostat wasn't popped up. I added water to put it back at 2/3 level. BTW adding the water and restarting didn't do anything.

To remove one of the heating element connections I'm assuming its one of the 4 coming out of the boiler does it matter which one to pull? They are just to the right of the red button, no? I disconnected the upper left black wire - no pump action.



Nicholas, the noise you heard I'm afraid was me jostling my little digital still camera that I put in movie mode. The dry Santa Ana winds are blowing and that other sound could have been tortured sinuses.

Ed -

No need to remove connections (in the future, removing the two blacks would cut heating power). This is just a safety precaution in the event the boiler is low on water.

The uppermost terminal on your Mater pstat is the "common" (C) terminal. It gets power from the safety thermostat. With power on, see if the (C) terminal has 110-120V. If so, this would indicate that the safety thermostat is OK.

Try to obtain an electrical wiring diagram for your machine - it may be tough.

edit - can you take a pic of the Gicar controller wiring diagram and post same?

Forgive me for asking as I'm sure you've checked this already. If it's connected to a GFI, perhaps it popped? Does the unit have power?

Mark

Never over look the basics, duh! Good point, confirm power and that it powers up.

Compass Coffee wrote:Never over look the basics, duh! Good point, confirm power and that it powers up.

FWIW, the red light appears to be on in the OP's video...

I wish it were that easy, power is on and flipping the Volante's power switch lights up the red but the green light doesn't click on like it does when you hear the click of the relay.

Will check the pstat with a Multimeter as soon as I learn how not to electrocute myself:

Leads plugged into COM and V_mA (fused) ...can't type the Ohm symbol
Dial turned to V~ and at 200

Eric said the upper connection of the pstat is the common but where do I place the probe tips to check for 110V?

BTW, I have continuity when I put the probes on the top and bottom left contacts OR the top and bottom right contacts. I guess I still need to put a probe on the boiler wall and then on each of the leads to determine that the heating element is good?

Ed, I'm sorry I inadvertently put a hex on you by mentioning how your machine was doing fine while mine was having trouble! I wish I weren't so busy or I'd come down there with some tools to help out.

edwa wrote:BTW, I have continuity when I put the probes on the top and bottom left contacts OR the top and bottom right contacts. I guess I still need to put a probe on the boiler wall and then on each of the leads to determine that the heating element is good?

Do you know what the resistance is (ohms) across the heating elements? You should be able to check by putting a lead on one white and one black one. pairs of blacks (and whites) should not have continuity. It appears from your picture (and the 4 leads into the element) that the Volante has 2 resistors in the element (which would allow it to heat at 2-3 settings).

Are you checking the elements with the wires connected or not? If the wires are connected, you may find it difficult to isolate what you are checking... if the element is broken and nothing else, then you should get continuity between the white and black (through the power side of the circuit). If the element works, you will get continuity from that. If you unplug the wires, you can check the heating elements by themselves. There should be 2 pairs that have continuity--not every combination will yield continuity of course. If those work, I think you may need to check the black and white wires, unfortunately while the machine is on. Don't let them touch, and use extreme caution. I would suggest a second opinion from someone with more experience than me before doing this....