I bought a Faema Smart 1 group off craigslist and the dude said that it worked a year ago but hadnt plugged it in since his shop closed. The machine heats up, the internal water pump works but the issue I am having is very strange. The water will continue to fill so that the water level indicator is maxed out and then water will continually flow out of my hot water dispenser. I believe this is probably some sort of safe guard or bypass that is built into the machine to prevent the access pressure or water build up but that is just my guess.

Could my problem be as easy as replacing a broken or gunky sensor? And if so which one?

Also, I did notice there was quite a bit of corroison on the back of the water level glass, dont know if that might be effecting my problem as well.

I have fired the machine up twice now. The first time I got steam to come out of both steam wands but never water out of the grouphead. I pulled a couple of the tubes going into the grouphead and they didnt seem to be too clogged. But I am concerned there is no water coming out of the group.

Regardless of my other issue shouldnt water start coming out as soon as I activate the button?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Craigkack wrote:The water will continue to fill so that the water level indicator is maxed out and then water will continually flow out of my hot water dispenser.

This can happen if the water level sensor probe is coated with scale and fails to detect ground. Sadly many shop owners ignore basic maintenance requirements, most notably neglecting to check for excessive scale buildup. There are plenty of horror stories like this one:



To elaborate, if the water level probe is covered in scale, it fails to detect ground and the controller calls for water. No room for steam => no steam pressure => water heats up, expands, and overflows boiler through the vacuum breaker. I recommend you engage a qualified service repairman to assess the boiler level problem and also address the root cause, scale buildup.

Craigkack wrote: But I am concerned there is no water coming out of the group.

The group solenoid could be stuck closed, the gicleur could be clogged, or the heat exchanger could be ruptured (e.g., if it was stored outside and froze). But rather than speculate, I recommend you engage a qualified service repairman.

Craigkack,
If the pump starts running the moment you turn on the machine, the pump relay is welded shut or you have a carbon trace bypassing the relay. If you have the pump run after a few seconds, time for the micro-controller to come to life, you probably have a scaled up level probe as previously mentioned. The fact that water comes out of the hot-water leads me to think that you have other issues. An overfilled boiler should leak out the boiler over-pressure valve. It should be set at 1.8 bar or something like that. No way it will hold back the pump at 9 bar. If it's coming out the hot-water, it's getting past a solenoid. Steep learning curve or get out your check book again. By the way, do the gages set at zero with the water off and the machine off. Wacky static gage readings are a sure sign of a machine that has been frozen with water in the machine.
jpboyt

Thanks for the input guys. I will look into all of those suggestions and let you know what I find. Really appreciate the help!