Randy G. wrote:As a general statement: Steam wand should connect at the top of the boiler. Hot water should come from the bottom of the boiler.

And they use a pickup pipe in the boiler which is usually just above the heating element. That way you cannot drain the boiler below the heating element. That would expose the heater to air and burn it out.

Mike -

Just undress the machine and rest it on its right side. Loosen the nut at the hot water connection (green arrow) and the counterpart where the line attaches to the HW valve. Zilch water (if any) will spill. You can always fit a hardware store line to the ell remaining screwed into the boiler.



That 90 ell screws directly into the boiler and that's it. You could always simply pass a pipe cleaner tube through the ell to see if there is any restriction there. In any event, the remaining piping is easy to disassemble and very difficult to reassemble incorrectly.

Following with interest, as my millenium has a similar issue.

As suggested, with the machine unplugged I removed the steam & HW wand tips, opened the valves, and pushed air up each wand. When pushing air up the HW wand, I get a subtle gurgling sound, but no water coming out the steam wand. The amount of impedance seems about right given the tubing diameters, doesn't seem obstructed. I am not getting any water out of the HW wand when blowing into the steam wand.

Am I correct in thinking my machine has a low water level, and I should try descaling & replacing the water level probe (which could be too long)?

When pushing air up the HW wand, I get a subtle gurgling sound, but no water coming out the steam wand.

And you never will as you are just blowing bubbles in a "glass" of water.

Am I correct in thinking my machine has a low water level, and I should try descaling & replacing the water level probe (which could be too long)?

Well, I suppose it could be but that could easily be resolved by measuring your existing water level. Remove the vacuum breaker, use a lightly sanded 1/16" wooden dowel as a dipstick and measure away.

The boilers in these particular machines are very easy to remove as the nuts for the tubing which forms the support structure for the boiler are all readily accessible. I would remove the boiler, remove the heating element with an ADJUSTABLE impact wrench, the pstat and dunk in a bucket of warm citric acid solution.

erics wrote:Well, I suppose it could be but that could easily be resolved by measuring your existing water level. Remove the vacuum breaker, use a lightly sanded 1/16" wooden dowel as a dipstick and measure away.

Thanks Eric. What am I looking for with the boiler measurement- water level should be at half the boilers depth?

I would say 60-65% but the only number I have ever seen posted (from a manufacturer) was in this thread - Pressure drop on Rocket Evoluzione during steaming and that was 15 mm above the midpoint.

erics wrote:Mike -

Just undress the machine and rest it on its right side. Loosen the nut at the hot water connection (green arrow) and the counterpart where the line attaches to the HW valve. Zilch water (if any) will spill. You can always fit a hardware store line to the ell remaining screwed into the boiler.

Thanks Eric - When I took the line off the boiler ell, water came out, which leads me to believe that the boiler isn't the problem. I also soaked the two pipes leading to the valve and water wand, they all blow air smoothly. The valve itself also blows air, soaked that anyway.

My personal thought on this is that all is fine when off the machine but the valve isn't properly opening when under pressure. The inside, from what I understand, has teflon which might not be functioning properly under the pressure of the machine, which right now is far more likely to be the case than a scaling problem, imho.

For right now I'm just heating up filtered water with the steam wand for my Americano's and when I get around to ordering a new valve I'll throw it in. Like I said earlier, my other option is to swap valves with the steam side and that would immediately tell me what the issue. I'm just too busy enjoying some amazing Costa Rican that a friend roasted to take the machine apart