Well, now that the kitchen remodel from hell is finally nearing completion, I brought the Vetrano out of storage. It has been in a box for about 10 months. It heats up fine but is not pumping well. The pump runs but it is not drawing. I am using a bottle without a Flojet, just what I had used before without a problem.

Where should I start to look for the problem? I guess it could be some sort of air lock in the line. If so, how do I sort that out. I should have time this weekend for some minor surgery.

Are you sure the pump is turning, or just making noise? It will make an operational-like noise even if the motor is stuck. I recommend decoupling the pump from the motor and making sure you can turn the shaft by hand. Another way to see if the motor is stuck is to feel the side of the motor; it will get very hot in a hurry if you run it and the shaft is stuck. Sometimes long-term storage can cause scale to form as the water totally dries up (or something like that), and seems to make the shaft stick too tight for the motor's starting torque to loosen it. You may need to turn it with a wrench to get it going again, and after that you should be fine.

For what it's worth, it's probably a good idea to pump some distilled water through your pump next time you store it, as this will reduce the chances of the shaft binding. This was suggested to me by a Fluid-O-Tech rep when we were discussing pump storage.

I had my A3 mothballed for just a few weeks once and the pump had frozen up. It was not ruined, but just sticky. I took the pump off the motor and could not turn it with my fingers. It should turn freely. Put a little water in the pump, take a crescent wrench and wiggle the pump shaft back and forth. It will let go and start turning, hopefully. Then remount everything.

The motor will hum and the solenoids will click but the pump does not turn. To double check it before you pull it apart. Pour some water down the intake line to prime it, put the end in a glass of water, hit the brew. If the pump is working, it will draw water from the cup. If it just clicks, hums and the water level does not go down. Pull the pump and try the above.

Great suggestions. Hopefully I will get things going soon. This job was supposed to be 6 weeks, and it turned into 10 months.

Excellent news on the kitchen remodel getting there. How about some pictures of the new espresso shrine.

Mark

When it is finally all set up I will get pictures. I have not had any luck yet getting water to be drawn. i am going to try to hook it up to a pressurized water supply to see what occurs. Still waiting on the plumber for the real plumb-in job.

Scott, if you can't get it to draw water I think you're really going to need to take the pump off the motor and make sure its shaft is turning. A pressurized line will let water flow but I don't think it's going to unstick the shaft. If you do hook it up, make sure that it pushes ample pressure on the gauge. If you just see line pressure you know it's not working.

I doubt you will get anywhere with that. When those pumps seize up, they are hard to get moving, provided it has not locked up for good. If the pump is frozen and you keep running the motor, you could burn it out. You can have a pump rebuilt for a reasonable rate but if you burn out the motor and pump, you are looking at some serious cash to replace it all. They are easy to take out. If you want to trek up to Downingtown with the machine we can toss it on the workbench and take it apart. Only takes 20 minutes or so.

I did "open him up" and found that the pump seems to turn easily. I found no other obvious problems. The motor runs fine. I suspect there must be some scale somewhere, and am hoping that with a little pressure I can get water to flow, and then do a de-scale.

Scott, excellent! It's great to know your pump is turning and your motor isn't burning out. Plumbing it in is probably the easiest way to re-prime the pump, so I think you're heading in the right direction now. You should just need to plumb it in for a few minutes, run the pump and make sure it produces ample pressure and water flow at the group, and then you should be able to easily switch it back to working from the bottle.

I doubt it's a scale issue if the motor/pump are fine. You would still see it producing pressure but not seeing or hearing flow if it were clogged from scale, I think. Sounds like it's just not able to prime itself, too much air in the line.