I used a series of sand paper and steel wool and finished with Mother's mag. I used a tighter range of grit than is ideal (220-1500), but drgary recently achieved much better results on his Conti starting at 100 and going to 2000. I also did dry and wet sanding at 800, 1000, and 1500. The water helps lubricate and give the sandpaper a finer shine.

I had someone wanting me to post about the OPV I installed. I ended up using the Fluid-O-Tech unit since it was a direct replacement for the adapter that was already on the pump and it was a nice compact size (not a lot of space on these guys!). It was cheap at orphanespresso.com. I have the OPV mounted in such a way that it is easily adjusted by removing the case. The pump outlet will twist into the position you want if you get a wrench on there or loosen up the screws on the pump a bit. So tighten down the OPV, twist the pump output until the OPV sits properly, and then screw on the 90 degree elbow tightly but also in the right direction (cross your fingers and hope you get lucky). I just routed the exhaust back to the top of the reservoir and scotch taped it down. Ideally a barbed fitting would be nice to have on the end of the silicone tubing to have some weight to hang freely, or a t fitting to route it back into the pump input. I have experimented between 7 and 9 bar and have settled to about 8 bar and I have really enjoyed the results. I would recommend this modification.

Another nice write-up and a very neat installation. I haven't seen this mounting method before. I need to build up a portafilter pressure gauge to see what pressure the machine ended up at with the new pump first though. As it is, the Livietta does seem to extract at a lower pressure than my E61 machine whose OPV is slowly twisting back to the stock setting due to the twist in the silicone outlet tube. I'll need to open it up as well to readjust the OPV, correctly this time.

Your machine is to pretty to put the covers back on!
Congratulations-
Joe

Orphan currently sells them for $13.50. A cheap investment, worth trying. I'll be placing my order soon. Jonny, thanks for the idea.

Note that the F-o-T OPV is an oddball thread size and will only work with F-o-T pumps.

jonny wrote:I had someone wanting me to post about the OPV I installed. I ended up using the Fluid-O-Tech unit since it was a direct replacement for the adapter that was already on the pump and it was a nice compact size (not a lot of space on these guys!). It was cheap at orphanespresso.com. I have the OPV mounted in such a way that it is easily adjusted by removing the case.

Thanks for the resource Jonny. I finally got a break from work and exploded and descaled my pump and reinstalled it with the OPV. Here's what it looks like:



Since I also insulated the boiler (thanks, RAS!), I didn't have clearance to route the return tube between the reservoir and the case. So I snuck the return line toward the Pstat and up the side of the reservoir to the inside of the machine. Since the hose was too short to drape over the side of the reservoir, I was thinking to myself, "Gee, it sure would be cool if I had something I could hook over the edge."

Then I realized that the cleaning kit I got from OE came with rinse bottles that will squirt around a corner. So I sacrificed the squirt tip on one of these bottles. It fit inside the silicon hose perfectly, and just hangs over the side of the reservoir:



Using a portafilter-mounted pressure gauge, I set the blind pressure (no water flow) of the OPV to ± 9.5 bar—per Jonny's recommendation—which should mean the operating group pressure is in the 8.5-9 bar range. The machine is definitely more user-friendly w/ the OPV in place. I hadn't pulled a shot in about a month, but immediately pulled two of my best shots to date after I put the machine back together.

Because the reservoir/pump mounting bracket is only attached to the main chasis via two hex head screws, this is an easy mod. Just unscrew the screws under the machine, lift out the mounting bracket, and go to town. You will need to pull the pump, but that's not a big deal. About $20 in parts from OE: OPV, 16" of hose (I ordered 12", but you might want a little extra length), and a few more bucks if you want to buy a sacrificial squirt bottle or some other clever reservoir return detail.

I'm also a big fan of the added boiler insulation. This does two things: improve the energy consumption, and reduce the amount that the water in the reservoir gets pre-heated due to proximity to the boiler. The latter should make temperature regulation at the group a bit easier, shorten my cooling flushes, and again improve energy consumption.

Installing the insulation meant pulling off the front plate of the machine. So I replaced the gaskets and seals at the group-to-boiler, HX-to-boiler, sight glass, etc. while I had everything apart. I'm just waiting to make sure that everything I serviced holds water—so far, so good—before I put a piece of boiler insulation on top of the boiler.

(The only bummer in all this was when I discovered that the FOT pump on my machine had been leaking—for years. The outlet cover was pretty rusty, especially on the inside. After the pump overhaul, it still leaks a little. So I'm getting a new pump from Doug and Barb and keeping the existing one for parts. If someone out there needs pump parts, just let me know.)

David, I'm glad it all went together easily for you! I'm sure you will continue to enjoy the results. I guess I got lucky with my 20 year old pump still going strong with no leaks or other issues. Good improvisation on the tubing! That's what these mods are all about. If someone wanted to get really snazzy, a piece of metal tube (copper or stainless) or glass tube hanging off the silicone tube or a barbed fitting screwed into the side of the reservoir or even just hanging in the reservoir could also do the job.

The Livietta I picked up before Christmas works well so I've not done any tear down. The water reservoir has some cracks repaired with silicon so I am a bit nervous about dismantling until I need to.

However I don't think the espresso I make with it is as excellent as it could be.

Why? Let me describe the way the machine delivers espresso: Well dialed in shots spurt a bit then a fabulous crema comes forth until blonding all within 20 seconds. The resulting flavor is not bad using various single origins beans, Redbird and even Illy black label freshly opened preground. With a finer grind instead of slowing down some to the desired 25-30 second range, the extraction slows down alot and is bitter.

Do I need an OPV to resolve this?