Well the real question is whether or not its worth it to pay to have the P-Stat replaced, full servicing and cleaning will come to 1/2 the price of a new machine.

My last machine was a Rancilio a large professional with red sides and it cost me 350 euros everytime it went in for a servicing. When I bought this one it was to avoid the huge amounts paid to the servicing crooks.

Now I'm presented with either do it yourself and see how it goes, worst case scenario something doesn't work and I will have to get a new machine or it works and voila all is OK.

I spoke again with the technical guy at the factory (in italiano) and he reassured me that the p-stat was a 1 2 3 operation.

Here a new Oscar is 595 euros, but if the cost of the p-stat and installation is 250-300 euros is it worth it.

My wife made me promise that this would be the last in a long line of high end machine (the Rancilio was 3k€) and expensive repairs for machines that only last a couple of years most. She wants me to buy a Nespresso machine and be done with it.

I personally have my eye on a Vibieme Domobar Super and would love to learn how to do everything myself for it. If there was a video showing you step by step "how to" clean calcaire and maintain your machine optimum.

I second Eric's advice to get your espresso machine professionally serviced.

Sound advice when dealing with water, steam and electricity, but if it was me I would look on it as a project and have a go at repairing it myself.

Well the real question is whether or not its worth it to pay to have the P-Stat replaced

I still feel the problem started as a autofill issue.
How's your German(I use Babelfish) www.kaffee-netz.de has a active group of Oscar users, also a active Repair and Maintenance Forum.

I would additionally advise the following:

Visit several service facilities if at all possible. DO NOT go there with the attitude that these guys are probably crooks and are out to find some reason to overcharge me. True, there are "bad apples in every barrel" but service technicians are just like you and me and most other people - we desire quality service at a fair price. One of the questions you might or should be asked is "how do you treat your water supply?"

I agree with the NS technician who told you that replacing the pstat is 1-2-3. And IF that was your only problem, the solution (to me) is pretty clear - buy the replacement part and install it yourself. However, I am leaning with Ted who said that your "problem" was caused by an autofill problem. As the level probe scales up, boiler water level continues to rise until a low resistance path to ground is found.

A lot also depends on exactly what "full servicing and cleaning" comprises.

Unfortunately my repair guy or the one I have for Nuova Simonelli "is" a crook and everytime I had him touch anything of mine, ie: my Rancilio it always cost me about 300 Euros.

So I am giving a serious thought to not even repairing the thing and just buying another beast like the Vibiemme Domobar. This time I will try to keep it cleaner and flush with some products.

Or have a contract with someone to do the work.

I would love to take a stab at working on these machines, wish there was a "Coffee Machine repair 101" near me and I could sign up...