Hello all,

I recently took a gamble on a used expobar office leva DB that was inop and being sold as scrap for parts. I am a pretty handy guy so i went ahead and bought it for $500. My current setup is a gaggia new baby/preciso that I am getting decent results from but I had been eyeballing a real machine.

It arrived last week and visually it is in amazing condition with the exception that it is missing the drip tray and grille. One call to WLL and $165.00 later and the machine is complete. This beast is nearly 70 lbs and is already getting me excited to use it.

But first to find out what caused the previous owner to condemn it to scrap. I removed the rear housing and immediately could tell that someone has been tinkering. There are several wires disconnected, the rotary pump is not bolted to the floor, and a plastic water line is kinked.

A bit intimidated I resorted to the internet to find out what I was looking at. I was able to locate a wiring diagram, and get all of the connectors in their proper places, and un-kinked the water line which I learned was the HX water line from the steam boiler to the brew boiler.

Now to put power to this thing. I plugged it in and flipped the switch. The motor started running. At first I thought that was a bad thing but later learned it was just the auto fill trying to fill the empty steam boiler. I flipped it off and supplied a water source for testing. I flipped the switch back on and the pump pulled in a good amount of water.

I operated the lever and found that the pump kicks on when the lever is in the brew position but the water is not hot and the steam/hot water tap have produce nothing when opened. The lever also would not fully go into brew position without holding it.

After a quick test with my multimeter I found that the limit switch on the steam boiler was tripped. I reset the limit switch and observed that the boilers started heating and the PID readout indicated that the temperature was climbimg. The steam wand and hot water tap began to work as well. I noticed that the vacuum breaker amon the steam boiler was continuously leaking. After disassembling and replacing the o ring its now sealing properly.

I fully heated up the machine and observed that the E61 group was continuously dripping water. Back to the internet for more research and found a wealth of information. I disassembled the group head and was greeted with a moderate amount of scale. I also noted that one of the valves were installed upside down causing the mechanism to leak and not operate properly.

After a good soak in vinegar everything was looking much better but the seals in the valves needed to be replaced. I attempted to remove the seals and proceded to break off the threads in all three. Another call and $60 to WLL and im back in action.

This brings us up to date as I am currently waiting on the shipment of valves/seals.

A couple of questions remain:

1. After cleaning the 'mushroom the chrome plating is completely gone leaving just the brass material behind. Is it okay to use this way? I assume it will just scale a bit faster.

2. The steam tip that came with it is a 4 hole. Would it be better to switch to a single or 2 hole tip for more pressure?

3. My wiring diagram shows the brew boiler is controlled by a solid state relay. I don't seem to have one on this machine. Were they ever made without them? The brew boiler heats normally and the PID indicates the proper temperature. I assume the PID can't handle the load of a heating element by itself.

4. Does anyone have a source for the fiberglass boiler insulation? It is in pretty poor condition.

5. I am currently using a preciso and am getting pretty good results from my Gaggia. Can I still get good results using this grinder or is it worth upgrading to a Vario?

Thanks for reading my long winded post. I'll update as I get the repairs done.

-Ryan

As for a steam tip... I highly recommend the La Marzocco 4 hole... Makes the smoothest milk I've ever had. If you find the steam pressure still lacking you could probably tweak the pressure stat on the steam boiler.

The 4 hole tip will drain the steam boiler pretty fast, try the regular tip for expobar, single hole.

Wow, didn't realize the Expobar had such a small boiler.. 2-hole would be better than 4 for sure... The 1 hole seems interesting on a DB machine.

Yeah I was surprised how fast it dropped with the dedicated steam boiler. The HX seems like it takes up quite a bit of volume in there.

With the 4 hole tip I can maybe get a minute of steaming before the gauge drops below 1 bar. Is that pretty standard?

The steam gauge settled at just under 1 bar, so I tweaked the pressure stat up a hair to 1.2 bar. What's the max I want to go with that?

I'll probably order a couple different options on steam tips to play with.

Thanks for your input

It is not a question of 2 holes or 4 holes or 40 holes. It is the TOTAL cross sectional area of the holes that counts. As but ONE example, the standard tip offered on the Quickmill line of hx machines (Anita, Andreja, & Vetrano) has been 2 holes having a diameter of 1.50 mm each. This configuration is designed such that one can steam all day and night without losing any pressure other than the normal pstat deadband.

Good deal and good job on the Expobar! I've had my Lever Plus for over a year now and it's been great. I have it paired with a Preciso and am pleased with the results. Although, I'll likely upgrade in the future and use the Preciso for drip & FP. I've had the Preciso for about 3 years now and have replaced the burr carrier and ordered a few extra parts just in case. The Preciso will do what you need for now, upgrade when you can.

Thanks for the advise. I am looking forward to getting this thing IP and running. I'll try the preciso for a while and then keep my eyes open for a better grinder.


I was able to pull the auto fill sensor out of the steam boiler and get a visual on the inside and was pleased with the lack of heavy scale. I did however find that there is a lot of sediment in the bottom of the boiler. I wasn't able to see inside the brew boiler but I had to have peace of mind so carefully removed all the tubes and hoses and removed the brew boiler. I was able to remove the top thermosiphon fitting to get a view and again found minimal scale but lots of sediment and debris floating around.

I don't like the idea of all that stuff in the brew water so my plan is to stick a garden hose in there and give it a good flush, then fill with vinegar and let It sit overnight.

Progress!

Yesterday I ended up getting some citric acid and soaking the boilers for half the day. They came out looking like new again. I got them flushed out and reinstalled in the machine

All my E61 valves came in and I was able to get the group put back together as well. I was pleasantly surprised when there was not a guyser of water shooting out when the pump kicked in. Not even a drip.

Everything was going almost too easy until I ran into my first roadblock: My wife. I failed to mention how much bigger this machine was than my old gaggia and she was much less enthusiastic about taking up the counter space. So, we compromised and now I am relegated to a small table adjacent to the kitchen.

I finished setting everything up around 10:30pm but that wasn't going to stop me from pulling a couple shots to test it out.

I was used to dosing my gaggia double basket at about 17.5g but found that was too much for the expobar basket. It likes about 16g. I pulled a couple shots and I am really close to being dialed in already. My brew pressure starts out low and then ramps up evenly to 10bar. (I am not sure if that is the perfect pressure or not). The machine came with a naked PF and I got beautiful even flow all the way around the screen. The first shot was a little fast so I went a step down on the grind and got my next one right at 28 sec or so. The taste was every bit as good as anything I have made with my gaggia and it will only get better from here.

I tried steaming some milk this morning and I definitely need a tip with less holes. There is a lot of steam produced but I seems like I can't get a good swirl going. And the pressure of the steam is low compared to my gaggia with the Rancilio wand.

Another thing I wondered is if anyone has converted an expobar to an optional steam boiler feature. I use the steam less frequently and it would be nice to have that option. The brew boiler should be able to keep the temps stable without the HX in the steam boiler right? I know the newer brewtus has that feature.

Here's a pic of the setup as it sits

I recently picked one up as well. It had been sitting in storage for two years so, I was prepared for it to need more than just that.

I switched it on and after a lot of pump noise it quieted down and started to build some pressure.
I was getting hot water out of both the steam wand and water dispenser. Silty, gray, hot water, but,.. it was working.
I was NOT, however, getting anything from the group head so I pulled the shower screen and cleaned that and also pulled the Gicleur chamber parts and found a good bit of scale there.
After cleaning everything there I tried the group head again but, no dice. No water.
Also, this time, the pump refused to shut off so I opened up the top and saw nothing was being pulled from the tank.
The water that had come out was just what had been sitting in the boiler which, I assume is now close to, if not totally empty.

I pulled the pump out and there was visible scale just looking into the ends so I figured not only was it not functioning properly but also indicates that there is likely much more mess inside that I hadn't yet seen.
I got a new pump but haven't wanted to pull any more junk through the system and, based on the look of the water looked that came from the steam boiler, I'm not willing to consume anything made from it until it's been thoroughly cleaned out.

That brings us to now.
-I'm concerned about breaking something trying to disconnect the lines into the boiler, for one. I had a helluva time trying to loosen the bottom connections and just stopped. Is there a particular way I need to disconnect it so I can pull the boiler, remove the heating element and descale the bejeezus out of the brass/copper boiler?
-Second, the plastic covers on the wire connections on top crumbled when I pulled them off. Seems like a lot of heat zapped the life out of the plastic. The wires and connections themselves look fine but I''m not sure if it's just a heat-over-time situation, or if it's something I need to be concerned about moving forward.

Would appreciate any and all tips/advice on overhauling this guy!