This week, I ended up picking up a Rancilio Z11 Omicron 2-group machine off of craigslist for a whopping $450. It showed some signs of use and wear, but was clean in general and more important, functioning. The goal of this purchase was to get something that I could use in a start up coffee operation and keep initial capital investment low. Seemed like a pretty good find . . .



Everything works except for the left hot water outlet which I need to troubleshoot. The seller mentioned that there was a vapor lock issue when the machine sits inactive for a few hours, but that flushing water through the group head prevented that from occurring. I will try and cause that to happen and get some detail up of what is going on.

The first steps will be to flush the boiler and descale. I do not fully understand the flow paths yet, but the water coming through the groups is clear and the hot water and steam is cloudy/greenish in tint. Any other recommendations for tune up steps to get the machine ready for daily use?



Overall this machine appears to be in better shape than the Astoria Argenta 2-group I picked up last year. Along with the Rancilio MD50-AT I bought a couple months ago (impulse buy, just because it was $100) I should have a fairly good start for getting the shop set up. As I dig into the machine more, I'm sure I'll have plenty of questions.

Hey sar,
I have a Z11 3 group in my shop and it's a great machine....

If you are pulling green water out of the boiler you should probably open the boiler (and get a fresh gasket while you are at it) and clean it right out. It's probably really skanky in there. Be sure to check all the wiring connections for all the valves, our switches started acting up but we traced the wires and simply found a loose connection. But as far as the vapor lock issue, I couldn't tell you what that could be all about unless the heat exchanger had some sort of slow leak and managed to empty out while the machine sat idle. Otherwise, parts are readily available online for these machines. I'd love to have a second Z and redo both.

Good luck,
Tom

There was definitely some boiler funk.



Having seen some of the pictures, I had the fear of opening things up and seeing something along the lines of an uncleaned cement mixer, but all things considered, not too bad especially given the price.



The water came out looking like above for about three flushes. Now the machine is all back together and ready for a test shot or two. Tom, I checked the wiring and found that what looked like a solid connection at the switch was actually the connector wedged in, but not touching the terminal. Problem solved.

The panels for the machine should be back from powder coating first part of next week and then I'll get it set up at the shop location.