HB Members...need some advice and help here!

I am the new owner of a used Elektra T1 (from 2000) that has a few issues. I've attached pictures of the problems below. I'd appreciate any advice from fellow Elektra owners or anybody if possible!

1.) The steaming wand drips water slowly as the boiler pressure goes up. I've tried tightening the two mutual nuts holding the steaming handle in place to no avail. Do I need to replace some gasket or o-ring?

2.) The pump pressure gauge doesn't work! I am able to run water through the machine and brew shots, but I'm not sure what is wrong with this gauge though!

3.) I don't think the boiler is autofilling for some reason. After a little while, I am unable to pull any water from the hot water arm...only steam/hot air comes out.

4.) The highlighted section in the 1st picture is leaking a little bit of water as well.

jjkan wrote:HB Members...need some advice and help here!

I am the new owner of a used Elektra T1 (from 2000) that has a few issues. I've attached pictures of the problems below. I'd appreciate any advice from fellow Elektra owners or anybody if possible!

1.) The steaming wand drips water slowly as the boiler pressure goes up. I've tried tightening the two mutual nuts holding the steaming handle in place to no avail. Do I need to replace some gasket or o-ring?

There are some parts inside that need replacing. Simple enough, although putting it back together seems to need 3 hands.

jjkan wrote:2.) The pump pressure gauge doesn't work! I am able to run water through the machine and brew shots, but I'm not sure what is wrong with this gauge though!

Could simply be a broken gauge.

jjkan wrote:3.) I don't think the boiler is autofilling for some reason. After a little while, I am unable to pull any water from the hot water arm...only steam/hot air comes out.

Be careful that you are not too low on water. Not sure how to tell. If you run out bad things happen.

jjkan wrote:4.) The highlighted section in the 1st picture is leaking a little bit of water as well.

Can you tell if the leak is from the threads?

How about some history on the unit. Have you ever descaled the unit? Did the previous user use softened water? If not, you probably should start...

I can highly recommend Stefano's for parts from personal experience with my T1 total rebuild.

A couple more threads
Tom's rebuild
Nicholas's rebuild

Mark
BTW: Shoot me a private message and I'll send you out a PDF of the parts in a current Elektra T1/A3.

Hi Jimmy,

1) it's probably some O-ring inside (there's plenty, see Mark rebuild topic)

2) there might be scale build up in the brew gauge pipe which is blocking the water from acting on the indicator. With the machine of you could remove the pipe that connects the brew path with the gauge and check for deposits (disconnect water on the inlet and use towels to catch any water that comes from the insides).

3) the boiler should refill if you drain a cup of water from the boiler via the hot water tap. If it doesn't it might mean the auto-fill is not working, or the level probe is broken (or scaled). It might be a good idea to remove the level probe and check how it looks like.

4) it's probably the thread, have you tried tightening the L-shaped connector?

Regards,
dsc.

FIRST THING
disconnect the wires to the heating element or from the pressurestat while you are figuring out the rest
send me an email if you like

stefano65 wrote:FIRST THING
disconnect the wires to the heating element or from the pressurestat while you are figuring out the rest
send me an email if you like

Unplug the machine, remove the water sensor. See what the water sensor looks like. It should not be covered in scale. Look inside the boiler and see if there is water. If you run it dry, the boiler heater could destroy things.

Mark

The heating element is below the water tap pickup level so you should not expose the heating element when drawing water from the tap, but if it does not refill you could boil that water out and blow out your heater, which is bad. Hopefully you just have a crusted up level sensor. If that is the case, the machine will definitely need descaled, possibly disassembled and acid soaked depending on how bad it is. If you shut down and unplug everything, unscrew the bolt atop the group head and look inside. I bet it is caked with lime scale.

The steam wand is a gasket, Stefano can hook you up, as well the pump gauge. I assume that if you put the pump line in a jug of water the machine does kick on the pump and flow water from the group. They are super machines but it sounds like you may need to do some heavy cleaning on it.

Thanks for all the replies guys...I did unscrew the bolt on top of the grouphead and BOY it was filled with scale. Looks like I'm going to have to disassemble the whole thing and soak it for a while. The links to the rebuild articles are especially useful.

I'll be in touch with stefano soon I suppose regarding the necessary parts.

Do you guys know what might be alternative problems with the gauge? I'm assuming at this point that I just need to replace the gauge. I mean...If I plumb the machine in and it pumps water out of the group head, there should be some pressure that reads on the dial?

FWIW, cafeparts.com in CO has an aftermarket 60mm dual gauge that they advertise as compatible with the Elektra. it's only about $50 vs. closer to $100 for an OEM Elektra gauge. I kind of like the look of it. If you want to get stock parts only, though, Stefano almost always has the best deals.

As for other problems with the gauge, I can tell you that my pump was seized, although it made a vaguely convincing noise, and the pump was acting really strange. This ended up being due to line pressure from being plumbed in and solenoids opening and closing, but I first thought it was the gauge being broken. You might want to verify that this stuff is working correctly before thinking it's the gauge. If you're looking to be thrifty with your restoration project, I would suggest disassembling completely, cleaning, and reassembling completely before ordering parts. I would, however, suggest buying a complete set of new gaskets. Odds of breaking the old ones when removing them are high, and it sucks to be ready to reassemble and have to wait 3 days for gaskets. It's also nice to have new gaskets in, since it's relatively cheap, and that much more peace of mind that they're fresh and much less likely to spring a leak on you.

Congratulations on your find, I am looking forward to another Elektra success story. If you want to PID your machine or anything like that in the future, let me know via e-mail (the letter button on the right). I may have some spare parts that you'll need, or at least I can point you in the right direction. Nice pictures, by the way. Are you into photography?

jjkan wrote:Thanks for all the replies guys...I did unscrew the bolt on top of the grouphead and BOY it was filled with scale. Looks like I'm going to have to disassemble the whole thing and soak it for a while. The links to the rebuild articles are especially useful.

I'll be in touch with stefano soon I suppose regarding the necessary parts.

Do you guys know what might be alternative problems with the gauge? I'm assuming at this point that I just need to replace the gauge. I mean...If I plumb the machine in and it pumps water out of the group head, there should be some pressure that reads on the dial?

Mine reads about 4 at rest and 8 1/2 when pushing water through an empty basket.

mark

Regarding the gauge before spending the money for a new one
remove it
blow some compressed air in the fitting side that doesn't work
see if it moves
then use a needle open the hole if clogged and eventually couple of drops of descaling solution in it
I sent you a reply to your email regarding the rest

Thanks for the recommendations!

Yepp, I am quite into photography. My few passions right now are photography and espresso...and restoring this machine!

Check out some of my work at http://www.jkan.net if you guys are interested!

If I DO end up doing the rebuild on the machine, you guys can expect a slurry of nice pictures

-Jimmy

PS. I also have a blog at http://www.jkan.net/blog

Nope! The bezzera is still in service while I troubleshoot this elektra. I am just such a huge gearhead I think...I can't stop upgrading and upgrading

This is an expensive hobby, but thank goodness I'm not a heroine junkie and I'm done with my car phase.

I've got the autofill working! It turns out that i just needed to get rid of some of the grime/scale just that was on there just like you guys said. So in the near future, I will probably be doing a more major descale of the machine. Where might I be able to order a bunch of citric acid from?

Another Quick question though. I'm going to need to replace this part on my machine:

http://www.1st-line.net/cgi-bin/c...1618034&type=store

I can't seem to find the same thing on Stefano's site...but is this equivalent?:

http://espressocare.com/Qstore/Qs...ty+valve+certified

Yes, those 2 pieces are the same--or rather, serve the same purpose and fit in the same spot on the boiler. It is indeed a good idea to replace it, and I suppose it's a toss up which one to get. I think most of the restorations here used the one from Stefano's.

If you tell Stefano it's for your Elektra T1, you'll get the right part. You'll also need the copper crush gasket that goes with it, get extra's they are cheap. I email you a parts list of the stuff I bought to fix up my Elektra.

The best place to get citric acid is at a brew supply store. You'll need 1/4 -3/4 lb of the stuff, depending on how gummed up the system is. Mine took a while to cleanup but looks very nice now.

Mark

Thanks for the help guys, I emailed Stefano and hopefully he'll advise me on what to do. I'm glad that the equivalent part at Stefano's is WAY cheaper than the Elektra "OEM" one.

Glad we could help out. Restored Elektra's seem to be popular.

Mark