Hi Guys

I just bought a Cimbali Junior D. The Machine appears to be in a bad shape and I felt sorry for it. Lucky I only payed about $62.00 for it.
It almost looks like it was standing next to a deep fryer for a couple of years. It was terribly sticky. I have given it a good bath and now I feel a bit better.





Upon testing it seems that the element works the pressure stat is fine, but water/steam constantly leaks through the shower screen. When pressing the button to engage the brew pump nothing happens.

Does anyone have any suggestions as to where I should start?

Thanks
Renier

great find! Is it a rotary pump or vibe pump version? If it is vibe, replacing the pump would be a pretty cheap place to start. Personally, I would take it to a Cimbali dealer and get it fixed. But I realize that you might not have access to one.

I'd personally try to take as much of it apart as possible to descale the water paths and boiler, but if not, at least a good descaling would be a good start. I had a few minor issues with mine that were solved by tightening or cleaning some of the parts. Luckily it worked perfectly after just replacing the element gasket (I wanted to open it up to get as much scale out as possible). What a deal...if you decide you don't want it, I'm sure you could sell it pretty easily but it's a great machine that's built very well.

hello renier,

group - sounds like the group solenoid is leaking and needing replacement. note that these are usually 24v DC but can be 240v AC, so check before ordering.

pump - also probably 24vdc. before replacing, check that they are getting power. If they are getting power, I would have a quick play/disassemble and clean/reassemble before shelling out any cash. If machine has been unused for a long period of time they could just be stuck.

hope your big hydraulic project is also going well.

Thanks a million guys.

It's a vibe pump version.
I will start by checking if all the components receive power. I will also disassemble some of the parts just to get an idea of what the scaling looks like.

Paul, I also suspect the group solenoid and will start here.

The big old hydraulic M15 is still in my garage, I can get all the parts I need but it is terribly expensive. If you look at the individual parts thy are not that expensive but this machine has 12 seals per group, and its a 3group. Then there is still the shipping costs and tax. I love this machine and have got a lot of respect for the engineers that designed it. Its amazing to think that it is a automatic volume-metric machine and the only electric part is the element, but I am still planing on finishing it.

I have taken the group solenoid valve apart and could see there was some buildup that was responsible for the leak. I did clean it an I am sure it would work but I have anyway gone ahead an bought a new one. The machine is now working perfectly.

I will still do a proper descale this week.

Thanks again
Renier