Hi all,

I recently purchased an used 2004 Rancilio Classe 10 for my home. I own Rancilio Epoca S1 since 2004 and I'm very happy with the machine. When I saw an ad for the Classe 10 I couldn't resist.
Contacted buyer and asked him few questions and all was ok. He said that the machine was in the restaurant and it was hooked up to reverse osmosis system and it was periodically maintained.

He was located about 4 hours drive from my home, so I asked him if I could stop by on Saturday to pick it up and he said that it's no problem. I sent him deposit and waited till saturday.

When I arrived on Saturday for pick up I realized that this place is a coffee bar and that they would have to make a lot of espressos per day with this machine, but since I was here, I wanted to see it.

Unfortunately the machine was already unhooked from the power and water so I couldn't even try it out. The guy swore that it was working till they unplugged it. It looked pretty beat up and worn, but I already put down the deposit, so I paid the rest loaded up to my car and was on my way home.

After I got home I started to take down the top panels and realized that this was in a worse condition that I thought. Found all kinds of leaks and white calcium build up all around boiler and one of the brew heads.
Whole machine was very dirty and I found rusted parts where the water wasn't draining properly.

Very disappointed I decided that if I'm going to use this machine I will have to completely strip it down and rebuild it to a new condition.




Project started. After looking at the group heads I found particles and lime build up in one of the group head so I decided to check the boiler for the lime build up. I couldn't even move the heating element from the boiler to see how it looks like inside, so I had to unscrew all 8 screws from boiler top and remove it to see the disaster.

There is no way that this machine was working correctly nor was doing great shots of espresso. If someone would tell me that this can happened I would not believe it. The boiler was about 60% filled with lime build up and about 80% pipes were clogged. The only pipes that worked were just on the left side, so I assume that they only used that side to pull shots.

Unbelievable.



As you can see on the pics I removed all the lime and it took me about 6 hours of chiseling the stone out of it, before I submerged it in the lime cleaning solutions and left overnight to clean.



I had to order and replace all water valves with solenoids, preso stat, safety valves on the boiler, completely rebuild the brew heads, water pipes and convert the unit for C-lever steam system.



I had the main frame powder coated as all panels were painted too.



Run into a problem with the C-lever conversion, since the frame was not made for this system. But I managed and I'm more than happy with the steam system. Works amazing.

After complete install of all parts I turned the machine on for the first time and checked for leaks, all was good, manually put the water into the boiler and waited until the machine warmed up. Everything was ok.

I installed the top covers and panels and hooked up electronics. After about 10 minutes machine started to be so noisy that I couldn't stand it. I had to replace the Contactor and the machine quiet down. I adjusted the Procon pump pressure to 8.0 and start testing with the shots.

Finished machine.



And the shots. Still perfecting this.

Now that's a rebuild thread! Wow! Congrats! How long did it take you?

Tom,

Thanks.

If I would have all the parts prior starting rebuild, it would take about 3-5 days top. I replaced 55 parts on this machine. From when I started to finish about 16 days.

But it's all worth it.

That's incredible! So, financially, was it worth it after you added up all your costs minus labor? It certainly looks like a brand new machine now. I hope to hear back how your shots are coming on it. I'd love to have 220v here in my apartment, there's hundreds of machines like this here in the Bay on Craigslist. I've seen units similar to that going for $300 and thats their asking price.

Hey Peter,
That's a first class job you did on your Classe. What kind of descaling solution did you use and what kind of system did you use to dip the boiler?
The machine looks fantastic. Congratulations.

TomC wrote:That's incredible! So, financially, was it worth it after you added up all your costs minus labor? It certainly looks like a brand new machine now. I hope to hear back how your shots are coming on it. I'd love to have 220v here in my apartment, there's hundreds of machines like this here in the Bay on Craigslist. I've seen units similar to that going for $300 and thats their asking price.

Well, when the machine was new the cost was 10k.My cost was around 3k. Plus I had to run 220v to it and had to purchase 7 stage RO system to feed the water to the machine. But I'm confident that the water is 100% pure and the shots taste perfect.
So my opinion, I think it was all worth it. I see already difference in the quality of shots and the lattes. I absolutely love the Clever steam system. It takes about 15 sec to froth the milk with amazing micro foam. It would be very difficult to switch back to home espresso machine now. Everyone who has espresso in my house now is very pleased....very.

skydragondave wrote:Hey Peter,
That's a first class job you did on your Classe. What kind of descaling solution did you use and what kind of system did you use to dip the boiler?
The machine looks fantastic. Congratulations.

Thank you.
First I had to manually remove as much lime build up as I could and then after a good advice from my italian friend I used this product and it's absolutely amazing. I mixed 1 kg with 10 Liters of warm water and poured it to a plastic tub that was big enough to cover the boiler and pipes with the solutions. Once I dipped it the solution reaction with lime was drastic. Make sure that you have a good ventilation. I thought it became alive.



For the pipes I used Muriatic Acid , that I put it into syringe and slowly injected to the pipe to loosened up the lime. Worked great.

What do you mean what kind of system I used to dip the boiler?

That's fine Peter, you described it perfectly. Super job!

Beautiful machine! Isn't it stunning how you can take something so poorly maintained and make it work and look like new! I love rebuild threads.

Thanks Russ... it was definitely challenging, but all worth it.