Descaling my hot water boiler, following the new online manual (thanks Stefano, RandyG, 1st Line), letting pressure build, light goes out, shut off DD, reservoir filled with descaling chemical, drain hot water from wand, do it again. Then, at the end, I forgot to shut off the wand after water has drained.

Next morning, turn on DD, and walk away. Hear the pump come on couple times from another room, think nothing of it. Return to the kitchen, pump has drained the reservoir onto the floor, then shuts off DD.

Refill reservoir, pull 1/2 dozen shots, all of them bad. Hot water and LOTS of steam, pressure is too strong. Shots starts out OK, then pressure builds into a very large cone plopping crema into my cup.

Troubleshoot reading the manual about PID. Check PID and Temp Offset. Temp Offset default should be ''19,'' it is now ''50,'' so adjust down. ''P'' (in PID) default is ''1.0'' is now ''1.8,'' so readjust. ''D'' default should be ''.05'' is now ''1.5'' and adjust that down. ''I'' is OK at ''0.0''.

Warm up DD for 1/2 hour, start pulling shots, everything is perfect, again.

How many ways can I kill my DD?

HLeland wrote:How many ways can I kill my DD?

I don't know, but I'm sure you'll think of new ways in the future because I certainly do!

I'll relate an incident of Saturday last, as in yesterday, that happened with someone having a degree in Electronic Engineering, a solid footing in elecrical as well as electronics, many many years experience working on high end computer systems and quite a number recent years working on espresso machines. This espresso tech was doing a simple task, replacing a Sirai pstat in a 4grp Linea. As anyone who should know knows 240v is being fed to the Sirai via a black and a white line 120v in and a black and a white 120v out feeding from the Sirai contacts to the Contactor which feeds the steam boiler heating element. Simple, straightforward. Disconnect pair of black wires from existing Sirai contact terminals, do the same with the whites, disconnect Sirai from steam line, installation is reverse. With covers off plug in Linea, turn power switch to position one and FLASH/SMOKE POOF from left set of new Sirai contacts! Immediately turn off and unplug Linea as heart sinks. What the hell did he do! Inspection of Sirai wiring revealed one of the white wires had a goodly black shrink wrap and had been installed with an actual black line! Re-wired correctly, plugged in, turn on to position one and no poof, but almost nothing else either. PIDs and touchpads would normally come on lighting up, but instead dimly flashing. Turned to full on nada. Oh no, did that brief short on the steam boiler circuit somehow kill Lineas computer brain flashes through the mind for the worst case scenario! Checked, found no signs of burned connections anywhere. Plugged in again checked the two hot incoming lines to ground, one 120v one zip. Then dawned to check the breaker box, didn't appear tripped but flipped them off and back on anyway. (should have been first thing to do after a direct short, dummy!) Plugged in, turned on, all ok. Thank god!

That dummy of an espresso machine tech would be me attempting to kill one of our $14k Lineas!

This last post sure reads like something I would do. The only explanation for aberrant behavior in my case is that I am not fully awake when I turn my DD on, and until recently when the new manual was made available, did not understand the intricacies of the machine. To date, I have only scanned the manual and it was only while trouble shooting the massive water/steam/pressure that received that I thought of checking the Temp Offset and PID -- both clearly explained in lay-man terms.

I have a serious aversion to all manuals in existence explaining (usually by a 3rd world engineer) how to operate something. The new DD manual is an exception. It seems to be user friendly, and written in a manner even I can understand.

Thanks again to those who put it together -- you know who you are!

(Think small stick-ums around my DD will jog my memory!)

I wonder if you could change out the valve for the spring-loaded variety like on elementary school drinking faucets, or the new electronic ones like in bathrooms where they only work when your hand is in proximity to them...? Then just put a three pound weight on the group lever to make sure it drops back into the closed position when you release it!

It could have been worse. It it were plumbed it wouldn't have stopped pumping water until the local water district went dry.

But think about one of these:
http://www.floodmaster.com/waterfeed.shtml
or search
FloodStop FS 3/8-C

wonder if you could change out the valve for the spring-loaded variety like on elementary school drinking faucets, or the new electronic ones like in bathrooms where they only work when your hand is in proximity to them...?

HA! You could easily swap out your valve with Rancilio's Clever valve they use on their commercial machines that does just this. The handle resembles one on the back of your crapper, hold it down and it actuates the steam. Let go, and the steam stops. Don't see why this wouldn't work just as well as a water valve too. But it wouldn't be fool proof, lift up on the handle, and it locks into the on position...just sayin.