Nuova Simonelli Oscar tripping the breaker

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oofnik
Posts: 274
Joined: 17 years ago

#1: Post by oofnik »

Hi all,

Seven years ago this month, I tried my hand at the dark art of espresso machine restoration. It's time for a new project.

I came home today with a Nuova Simonelli Oscar (tank model, black) in fairly bad shape. The previous owner explained that he had it set up at home for the last four years until a couple weeks ago when the brew button started tripping the breaker. He took it to a repair shop that said the boiler needed to be replaced. :?: Instead, he upgraded to a La Cimbali Junior and listed the Oscar for very nice price. And now it's mine!

Our area has exceptionally hard water (194 mg/L avg according to a recent water quality report), so I will assume that something failed due to scale buildup, especially since the seller hesitated when I asked him how often he descaled the machine..



The insides are hideously rusty, the boiler insulation has been reduced to charcoal, and there is crusty scale on the exterior of most of the tubing. I will be doing a thorough tear down / rebuild over the following weeks to get this machine back in business.

Curiously, there is no date stamp on the name plate, only a serial number (173209). Perhaps if I continue digging I will find a date. Any clues on decrypting the serial number to figure out the manufacturing date?

If anyone has suggestions as to what I should begin looking for given the symptoms above, any help would be appreciated. :)

J