Used Isomac Millenium II- no manual- getting started questions - Page 2

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
User avatar
cannonfodder
Team HB
Posts: 10497
Joined: 19 years ago

#11: Post by cannonfodder »

The pipe you have highlighted is the heat exchanger feed tube. It could simply be loose from vibration. Brass compression fittings can be touchy. If you over tighten you will strip them. A general rule of thumb when tightening fittings. Go finger tight then give them a half turn with a wrench. If they still leak give them a quarter turn more. You should not have to throw your weight into it.

The heating element, I was thinking the original packing had a paper gasket but I had the original Millenium. Put a big wrench on the element bolt and see if it will turn just a smidgen. If it does it was simply loose, if it does not you will have to pull it and put a new gasket on it. Never tried the Teflon packing cord. You can get it at the local hardware store in the plumbing department. It is used to pack the stems on plumbing fixtures like you tub water controls. They may make a Teflon seal just for that machine as well. When I rebuilt my two group I replaced the paper gaskets with Teflon. Wonderful stuff.

Almost forgot, the electronics under the HX line, that is your SSR for the heating element. Not a good thing to get wet or replace. There will be some thermal geese under it to help conduct the heat into the shell of the machine.
Dave Stephens

User avatar
F.M. (original poster)
Posts: 164
Joined: 15 years ago

#12: Post by F.M. (original poster) »

Silence! Thats the sound of success 8)
-Replaced the Vacuum Breaker ($12)
-dis-assembled the leaking compression fitting, cleaned and re-assembled. No drips!
-Tightened the heating element plug 1/16th of s turn and the leaking got MUCH worse :shock: removed it and found a seal ring that had split open. Replaced it with PTFE cord, with additional PTFE paste on the threads. No drips!
-]Descaled.

So the machine is silent and drip free now :D
Inside of the boiler and machine look pretty good, considering.
Hot water tap is putting out slightly blue/green water after the descale. I guess I'll keep running water through it, hopefully it just needs a good flush. I will probably do another descale and 2-3 days.

Thanks again for all the advice- and for the other related threads I found searching around.
I know have a better understanding of this machine and the repair really wasn't too difficult.

Advertisement
User avatar
cafeIKE
Posts: 4704
Joined: 18 years ago

#13: Post by cafeIKE »

F.M. wrote:additional PTFE paste on the threads. No drips!
The paste provides a bit of lubrication but only serves to prevent leaks on pipe thread

See Simplified HX Descale [PourOver]

User avatar
F.M. (original poster)
Posts: 164
Joined: 15 years ago

#14: Post by F.M. (original poster) »

Cool. Double sealed since I have the PTFE cord on there too.

Well, the machine runs dry & silent now, but I notice that water is only coming out of the front half of the groupheads' shower screen. Hadn't checked that previously since I was so focused on the dripping & hissing! So, I think a group head rebuild and the HX descale will be in order this week. Seems like all the info is here, thanks for that!

User avatar
cafeIKE
Posts: 4704
Joined: 18 years ago

#15: Post by cafeIKE »

First ensure the bottom of the group is level.
Pull the show screen and observe the flow from the water spreader. It should be pretty even from the 6 cutouts around the edge.

If it's not, then remove the spreader and check for obstruction. Probably a good idea to remove and check on a used machine in any case.

Remember, the flow is about 2ml/s on a double, so the water pressure is evenly spread over the puck. The screen is there to stop the puck exiting the basket at shot end


Stock spreader left and right.

User avatar
F.M. (original poster)
Posts: 164
Joined: 15 years ago

#16: Post by F.M. (original poster) »

As it turned out, the shower screen itself was the issue. It was very very dirty.... most all the holes were plugged. And, the gasket was carbonized, very hard to get out. Great trick somebody posted here about using a self-tapping screw- I used a drywall screw, threaded it into the gasket then pulled the whole thing out.

So at this point I have replaced the vacuum breaker, shower screen, PF head gasket, scrubbed the grouphead interior till it was spotless, repaired two leaks, thoroughly descaled, adjusted the pressure stat down to 1.1-1.3, backflushed, and cleaned the interior and exterior of the case, and flushed 3 tanks of fresh water. Oh and I replaced all the fasteners with 4mm stainless phillips buttonheads. It is looking and running nicely, now I can get to making some coffee!

Thanks again for the great advice.

Post Reply