I've been a long-time lurker here, and really a virtual newbie at espresso. My attempts at using my La Pavoni Europiccola have always yielded less than stellar results. I've been on the lookout for a deal on a commercial machine rebuild project for years, and finally scored tonight! I spotted this deal on craigslist only an hour after it was posted, and I jumped on it. It's a Pasquini, but I have no idea of the model or the manufacturer. I'm hoping the folks here will help me identify just what I've got and make some suggestions on what to concentrate on before attaching water and power. I'm really surprised at the good condition of the machine considering I paid only $100 for it.

Here's a few shots:




Should the needle on the upper gauge be where it's at? Bad gauge?


I really wasn't looking for an auto, but it seems to be in good shape (visually, at least)


A little dirty, but not too bad:


Does this help with identifying the model?


Rear view:


Pump:


Is this boiler stainless or nickel plated?


There's a couple of the fittings that have obviously had some leaks, but they all look like easy fixes.


solenoid?




Descaling in my future?


So, can anyone help me with identification? What is the low-hanging-fruit as far as reconditioning this baby? Can the Procon pump draw from a carboy before I get it plumbed-in? Any manuals online?

Thanks for your help!

Ross

nice buy for $100, especially if you can get 220v to it.

I'd start by cleaning all the copper/brass in citric acid. Make sure the pump is free.

Yes, the gauge is broken.

Good luck! Looks like an easy machine to work on.

Last night's adventures
I installed a new 2-pole breaker for 220 and ran a temporary line to my workbench (picture romex draped across the ceiling from one side of the basement to the othe), installed a Nema 6-20 plug on the machine (the previous owner had canibalized the plug for his replacement machine), raised the machine up on blocks, slid an old photography tray underneath to catch leaks from wherever, dropped the water supply line in a bucket of water, plugged in the machine, clicked it on.

Relays clicked, the motor started and the pump started filling the boiler - autofill seems to be working - excellent. I could hear the heating coils starting to do their thing. While I wait for the 9 liter boiler to heat, I'm watching for any leaks. There's a couple, but nothing bad. I intend to tear it down, but I wanted to get a sense for what was working and what wasn't. Thinking about the adage about a "watched pot", I turn my attention to the rest of the plumbing and try to understand the water path. In the picture below, is the device that I've circled just a sensor for the auto-dosing, or does it control water flow? If it doesn't control the flow, is that an overpressure valve on the downstream side (the one going to drip tray)? When I press the brew button for one of the groups, I do get a good stream of water from that line.

On the circled device, there's a yellow LED. On one of them, it's illuminated while the machine is idle, and flashes when brewing. The other one is off all the time (perhaps not coincidentally, the auto dosing buttons don't work on that group, but the manual button does).

Oh yeah, it steams like crazy! One wand does want to leak a little unless I really close it tight, but it does generate some nice dry steam.

So, can someone help me put a name and function to some of these parts? Thanks.

Ross

You seem to be quite fortunate. I believe the questioned item is either a flow monitor or a 3way valve. If a flow monitor, the device tells the computer how much water has flowed through it to the group. You may be correct about the OPV.
Cheers
-Richard

The 'what is it' sure looks like my Elektra T1 flow meter. Mine (and it looks like yours) has a two wire connection out the top that goes to the controller box to monitor how much water flows through the group head.

Once you remove the wire, 3 bolts around the outside will allow the top to come off. At this point you should see a small plastic wheel with spokes that easily turns on a stainless steel post. There is an O ring that you should consider replacing during the rebuild.

During the rebuild of my T1, I replaced every O ring and gasket I came across.

Mark

Take lots of pictures from many angles of everything while it's in one piece. They look a lot different when sitting in a pile as you try and figure out where they go again a month or two from now.

Strip the machine it to the bone and clean everything in TSP and hot water. Repaint the frame, or just touch it up in the rusty spots. If you are lucky you may find a schematic of the interior with a list of parts to order. You'll probably end up with a couple orders of parts as you figure out what you need (and what you accidentally break).

My rebuild is here and went remarkably well given that I'd never done this before either.
http://www.home-barista.com/espresso-machines/elektra-t1-771-built-in-2000-is-now-mine-t6800.html

Mark

Although their branded machines are re-badged Bezerras, Pasquini is a Los Angeles company. So you can call them here (in English!) for manuals and parts (I hope).

Thanks for the help and suggestions - I really appreciate it. This will be my first rebuild, so I'm sure I'll be looking for additional pointers along the way.

On Saturday morning, I hadn't made the decision to strip the thing, and was hoping I could get by with a good descaling. I ran some descaler through and let it heat up in the boiler. I then used the tip on removing the water level sensor connection to force the boiler to overfill, and I opened the steam wands until the started shooting water. I turned the machine off, unplugged, and returned 5 hours later and flushed.

However, I still had a couple issues that would require at least some surgery, I spent some time running the machine to get an idea of where the problems areas are before I began the tear-down. There was an intermittent leak somewhere around the autofill solenoid. It's kind of tucked into the corner of the frame, and I could only see one side of it. One of the opv's on one group is always open, so when the pump comes on, the opv tube is always draining. There was one other slow leak on the supply line to the pump. The electronics all worked on one group, but on the other the auto dosing buttons didn't work (but the manual button did). Maybe they just need programmed - we'll see. At this point, I realized that I would need to remove a number of pieces just to get to the problem areas. That, and Mark's encouragement to tear it down made me decide to strip it. Let the tear-down begin.

Armed with camera and wrenches, I went to it. As I removed each piece, I took a picture of the piece in the proper orientation. Hopefully, reassembly will not be too much of a guessing game. I did find that some of copper tubing nipples were extremely hard to remove from its fitting, and I had to resort to a sharp smack at the juncture of the two. I got pretty good at this. I did have a steam wand casualty - it just broke off at the swivel. No problem, it looked like a mismatched wand anyway.

By this evening, I had all the tubing out, some electronics removed, groups removed, and boiler removed. Question: Is there any pieces that should not be soaked in descaler (citric acid)? I've got brass groups and other parts descaling in one bucket, the copper tubing soaking in another tray, and the boiler in a bucket. Is there any pieces that I shouldn't be there?

I'm glad I decided to do the tear down. Check out the boiler pictures. UGGGG! I do think that the initial descaling was helpful, because the scale was just coming off in sheets. I was able to scoop out most of it before putting the boiler into fresh solution.

More to come,

Ross

Good job! After seeing the inside of the boiler aren't you glad you did a full tear down. You'd be descaling the boiler time and again to get it and all the piping clean. I put all the brass and copper together. My boiler took a week to get clean. You also have a triple element heater that has a similar shape to mine.

Really nice that one end of the boiler comes off on the Pasquini. I had to look through the boiler hole which was perhaps 2" across. How do the HX sections look? (It's the big copper pipes going through the boiler).

Keep the pictures coming.

Mark

Mark,
I am very happy that I did the full tear down. When I bought the machine, I tried to get some info about the machine from the seller (who owns a coffee shop), but I quickly got the impression that he really didn't have much knowledge about the equipment itself. Based on earlier research on this forum and the posted rebuild projects, I knew that the machine was easily worth risking $100. But, based on the seller's answers to my questions, I was prepared for a full refurb. When I opened that boiler, I knew that I made the right decision to do the tear-down.

Thanks for the info on the time for descaling. I'll leave the boiler in solution for a couple days. The removable end plate is very convenient. Reaching my hand in to scoop out the loose scale was the downside. Over the past hour or so, I've been reading through your Elektra rebuild thread. Very nice looking machine. I'll be referring to the thread as I go through my project.

Is TSP a substitute for something like Cafiza? I just ordered some Cafiza online because I couldn't find any locally, but TSP would be easy to find.

Ross