Hi,
I bought a used Pub V and could use some help. I'm a very handy guy and installed the machine and pump. It seems to work fine with a few exceptions. The unit appears to overfill and runs too hot and has the pressure set too high. I removed and cleaned the fill sensor to no avail. The water level in the sight glass is too high.

The main problem seems to be that I can't get it to operate cooler or at a lower pressure. I wonder if the over filling is a symptom of the over pressure. The pressure when fully heated is at 1.5 bar or just slightly in the red. The steam wand really blows seriously high steam making it difficult to froth. The hot water tap just blows steam.

I tried lowering the pressure with the pressure regulator ( think that's what it's called). I turned the screw in the lower direction until it just engages the springs below. I think that's as far as it goes without cranking out of the device entirely. The pressure remains high.

The machine originally came from Crossroads. I found them not particularly helpful. I'm not sure exactly how old it is, I suspect about 10 years. It was very clean and other wise works great. I'd appreciate any advice I can get.
thanks,
Marty Lewis

Hey Marty,
I too am working out some gremlins with an old Pub S and it is intermittently over filling. What I had to do was because today I found the pump to be running nonstop- I disconnected the pump's positive from the control box and disconnected the autofill positive from the box as well. I then allowed the machine to come to temperature while leaving the hot water valve open to bleed out the overfull boiler. I just ordered some replacement autofill parts from crossroads for a leaky old inlet valve. This problem I had today was all new. Other posters in other sites thought it highly unusual for the control box to crump. They recommend tracing all the wires including the main ground and checking the the water level probe for corrosion, etc. I'm doing all that tomorrow.

My machine came with two probes but I removed one from the boiler and relocated the other from the sight glass to the boiler and it worked until today. Don't be discouraged, these machines may be fickle but I think they'll last a long time once they're brought up to speed again. I did manage to get some really nice shots from my Pub over the last few days. I'm sure you read my posts so far. Put some pics up too!

Good luck and keep posting.
Tom

Thanks Tom. I love my machine. The look of a beefy red machine on the counter is great. My main worry is that running with too high pressure/temp will prematurely wear parts.

When I first hooked it up the pressure was way too high and I burned off one of the mounting points of the heating element. I got a replacement from Crossroads, but only after a lot of effort.

I've looked a lot for a service manual for the machine with no luck.

I'll check all the wiring, but I'm not sure that anything will seem amiss. The pump will operate just for a short time to fill it. I checked the water fill control for corrosion, but it's clean as a whistle.

Hey you might need a new diaphragm for the pressure stat. Maybe that's why you're getting such high pressure. ( I'm still learning, remember). Search these sites for pressure stat topics and you'll get lots of info. Try coffeegeek.com, too.
Tom

Thanks for the tip. Stephano of espresso care also recommended that I take the pressure stat apart and make sure it isn't scaled. I'll look here for pressure stat tips.
thanks Tom

http://www.espressocare.com/