Hey guys... I'm not off to a good start. I picked up a used Vetrano from another HBer and it just (finally) arrived today. I'm in the middle of trying to make sure everything is working and it appears not I checked all the connections and tubes upon arrival, and aside from a couple slightly loose spades, everything looked normal. Now I've got it hooked up to the water, and filled the boiler. However, after it started to heat up it just kept venting more and more steam to the drip tray via the little back plastic nozzle. I let it continue on for a little bit, as I know you would expect some to vent as the machine warms up but, it just vented more and more steam and the p-stat for the boiler is showing 0 bar.

Any ideas or suggestions? This is super disappointing right now

Jeremy

It's been awhile since I looked at the internals of a Vetrano, but I think it routes the steam/condensation overflow from the vacuum breaker to the driptray. If so, then your problem may be as simple as a stuck (open) vacuum breaker. I've seen it happen before and a gentle tap on the vacuum breaker pin freed it.

The pressure relief valve does dump into the drip tray. I saw one older model that had a cup around the vacuum breaker and a newer one which had a hose which presumably leads to the drip tray as well. I agree that the likely cause is a stuck vacuum breaker valve. Next would be the pressure relief valve.

We can presume that the machine was upended numerous times during shipment. If there were a few bits of loose scale in or other debris in the boiler, these could have caused a problem in either valve.

try THIS pdf or THIS pdf.

Thank-you both for the very prompt responses. My quick guesses were also the vac breaker or OPV based on reading that they both vented there, but I wasn't sure how to go about "fixing" it. Scale from shipping seems a reasonable guess too, as the seller said he had done a full descale and drained it a month or so before shipping. I've read both the linked PDF's, but they're appreciated as well. I'll pull the casing off and have a look when I get back home, but do either of you have any quick tips for un sticking the valves if tapping them doesn't work?

Hi Jeremy,

Sorry you're having so much trouble but this is minor. Randy G is right, it probably has been shaken around in shipping and some of the sediment I mentioned that came out when I drained the boiler has kept the vacuum breaker valve from seating. Remember, I suggested flushing it a couple of times to clear the sediment when you get it?
If you look on page 16 of the second pdf that Randy G linked to, there's a picture next to the "Not Heating" paragragh that shows the vacuum breaker valve with the silicone hose attached to it. Remove the hose and put a ( thin ) wrench on the bottom part of the fitting to keep it from turning out of the boiler while you remove the upper part with a second wrench ( bicycle wheel wrenches are are thin and metric, which is what I used for the lower fitting) . Clean the internals and reassemble and all should be well. I had that valve stick open in the past due to normal scale/sediment build up, which gets deposited by the escaping steam until the valve closes, so this is something that has to be done occaisionally even when the machine is not moved. Let me know if you still have a problem after cleaning it.

Best Regards,
Milan

Hey Guys,

Sorry, I wasn't trying to blow it out of proportion, I was just disappointed after a bunch of trouble with getting it shipped and the PO missing their guaranteed delivery date. I was hoping to be dialing things in, not troubleshooting, but that's all one can do.

So, good news and bad news. The good news is that I was able to get the vac breaker apart, and it was indeed just a stuck valve from what I can tell, and now seems to be sealing fine once the pressure starts to build. The bad news is 1) that rubber tube from the vac breaker was torn, and seems too short to be trimmed and replaced, so I'll have to try and source some. And more importantly, that 2) the boiler is leaking pressure somewhere. It's not all venting off through the vac breaker or OPV line now, but the boiler is cycling on and off very frequently and won't hold stable. The heating element will come on and bring the pressure up to around 1.3 bar (I think), and when it kicks off and everything is quiet you can hear a slight whine of escaping air, and the pressure drops back down in maybe 10 seconds to where the element kicks in again and it repeats. From what the manual says, I believe the boiler should kick in about once a minute to maintain pressure, but I'd guess that right now it's cycling on probably 4 times a minute. It only takes maybe 5 seconds to get back up to pressure, but you can watch the p-stat begin to go down immediately.

Any suggestions on where to go from here?

I suspect it is still the vacuum breaker. I would take the hose off the top of the vacuum breaker and see if any steam escapes from there. If so, try using a long thin tool to push the pin down, but be careful not to get burned as steam will spray up with force very quickly. This may help clean the seat.
If there is no steam from the vacuum breaker you just need to investigate with the cover off. Just be careful not to get burned or touch any live electrical terminals.

John,
Thanks for the response, but I'm fairly certain it's not the vacuum breaker. The hose was ripped, so I don't have it attached. Looking at where the hose attaches to the barb on top you can see the steam and a little water start to come out as the machine warms up, then the valve closes and there's a little water standing in that barb above the valve. If the steam/air was escaping there I would see the water move or get spit out, but it sits still, so the valve is sealing tight there...

I've got the casing off, I didnt have much time to investigate as it was 1:30am when I got the Vac breaker back in place, but I couldnt easilly pinpoint where the noise was originating. Thoughts?

Depauperate wrote:The heating element will come on and bring the pressure up to around 1.3 bar (I think), and when it kicks off and everything is quiet you can hear a slight whine of escaping air...

The boiler may have a pinhole. Use a cardboard tube as a stethoscope to locate the sound of the escaping steam.

Cardboard tube.. haha.. paper-towel roll? Home in an hour and I'm on it.. thanks for the tip.