maxmonty wrote:I have what seems to be the same issue. I turn Silvia on and the power light comes on and never turns off. the safety thermo eventually pops and needs reseting to start all over again. I have replaced all three thermos but still no luck. Could it be the switch? Or is there something else I can check for?

I'm assuming the "power light" is the big orange light, just to the right of the main switch.

Based on your description of the problem, I think you probably have a fairly dangerous situation right now. I'd suggest ONLY running it off of a circuit with ground fault protection.

I think that your heating element is shorting to the boiler shell. When this occurs, the ground wire, instead of the neutral wire, becomes the "return" on the low side of the circuit. If you have current flowing through the ground wire (I think you do), then a GFCI should trip immediately and you'll know for sure.

The reason this is dangerous is because the entire machine becomes live at 120VAC. Your ground wire will protect you from being shocked only as long as it is well connected, and only to the extent that you don't provide a good alternate path to ground.

Jim

Well, I plugged it into gfci plug and sure enough it tripped as soon as I powered it on. Sigh. What to do now? At this point I think I'd rather upgrade to a bigger better machine than fork more money out to repair her. I've had lots of trouble with her over the last year and I've about had it.

Very sorry to hear that.

You need to replace the heating element. On newer machines, this unfortunately also means replacing the top half of the boiler (the heater/boiler shell is brazed together). On older machines, the element can be removed and replaced --> fewer dollars.

Remove the wires from the heater terminals on the top of the boiler, and post a picture. Someone here will be able to tell if you have the new style or old style heater.

In working condition, your used Silvia will probably be worth $400USD to someone. So don't do anything rash

Jim

JimG wrote:Based on your description of the problem, I think you probably have a fairly dangerous situation right now. I'd suggest ONLY running it off of a circuit with ground fault protection.

I think that your heating element is shorting to the boiler shell. When this occurs, the ground wire, instead of the neutral wire, becomes the "return" on the low side of the circuit.

Excellent catch, Jim. You may have just actually saved a life.. very easy to be dealing with a kitchen appliance like that, and then touch a kitchen faucet or the metal edge of a dishwasher that is grounded.