Morning All,

Having an absolute blast with Rocky and Silvia, despite only getting the results I want on average 3 of 5 times in pulling shots, and 1-4 times in frothing milk. Live and learn, even a bad shot is fun to pull...would just rather be able to drink it!

In any event, as I was cleaning my machine this morning, a couple of things struck me that I don't know about this machine, mechanically speaking. Thought you all might know...

1. There are two tubes that come from the inside of the stainless casing and sit inside the water chamber. It's obvious that the longer of the two is the one responsible for transporting water to the boiler, what does the other one do? I thought it might be some sort of pressure relief tube, but other than that, I haen't a clue.

2. How does water get pulled into the boiler from water chamber? Is it via a pump of sorts, whenever you turn on the coffee button or the hot water button?

3. Lastly, what happens in the machine whence you steam, that you then have to refill the boiler? How is the steam function different from filling the boiler, than flipping the hot water switch to fill the boiler?

Some of lifes great conundrums...to me anyway!

Thanks for the help as always...

Regards,

Mark

Mark,

Glad you're having fun. I'm ready to kick mine (need to, the low thermostat is failing, need to bang on the machine to get it to engage, waiting for replacement).

1. The shorter tube is the return line from the OPV. When pressure hits the limit, the OPV opens a passes water back to the res.

2. There's a vibratory pump in the bottom of the machine. It get's turned on by either the brew or hot water switches. When you turn on the brew switch it also engages the solenoid that allows water to go to the group head.

3. When you steam, you are switching the thermostat circuit to the 140c thermostat but no pump to fill the boiler with water, which allows the boiler to get hotter to generate steam. You bleed the boiler down to get dryer steam. When you are done steaming you need to refill the boiler . As the boiler is still very hot, if you run it through the group, you've probably already discovered that it sprays all over. So put your steaming pitcher under the steam wand, open the valve, and turn on the hot water switch. Run it until you get a steady stream of water. Then the boiler is refilled, and you're safe to rinse the grouphead.

Enjoy

Morning Eric,

Brilliant! Thanks a heap for the response...all makes sense now...Good to know that I have been doing everything correctly...well, insofar as refilling the boiler at least.

On a side note, sorry to hear that Silvia is acting up, hopefully with a few new parts, she'll be back up and running for you.

Thanks again, I appreciate the direction...

Regards,

Mark