Water barely coming out of water wand on Isomac Tea (E61) - Page 2

#11: Post by **stefano65** » November 4th, 2011, 6:09 pm

I will be skeptical to say that you need the complete valve
yes you can open it ( removing it from the inside of the unit)
and see possibly the tip cracked and the teflon tip is loose inside
and by the way if you need to,
we ( and perhaps Chris as well) sells only the shaft without having to buy the all valve

#12: Post by **F.M.** » November 4th, 2011, 7:17 pm

I've got an Isomac Millenium which is also painfully slow with the hot water dispensing. I make americanos so rarely that it's really not an issue to me, but I'll be watching this thread to see how painful the repair might be.

Mike, I like your logic of testing the temps of the piping to figure out where the obstruction is.

Please keep us updated on how this plays out....

#13: Post by **Randy G.** » November 4th, 2011, 7:30 pm

If you remove the valve from the machine you will see that the body is two parts. Unscrew those "halves" and the shaft will be easily removed by screwing it into the body and out the back (so to speak). In other words, turn the shaft as if you would if you wanted to turn the hot water off. The seal that stops the flow is sort of built into the end of the shaft itself. With the valve off you can run a flexible probe (piece of semi-stiff wire..?) through the supply pipe to see if it is clear.

November 4th, 2011, 8:16 pm

Valve off, while it's open I can blow a slight amount of air through it - currently soaking with my portafilter & baskets in a descaler. I'll let it go an hour or so and see what the flow is like, then button it back up and try it again. I'll keep updating this as I make progress for those that are interested.

#15: Post by **allon** » November 4th, 2011, 8:52 pm

Have you tried to disassemble the valve yet?
It's possible there is a bit of debris plugging up the pipe or valve body ahead of the seat, or after it, in the water wand.

Can you remove the water wand and open the valve with a container held below?
Valves usually fail by leaking, rather than by being slow.
I'd also confirm it was put together properly. You never know....

November 4th, 2011, 9:12 pm

Couldn't figure out how to take the valve apart.

All the pipes before and after the valve blow free.

I've taken it apart and put it back together a few times - it all seems to be pretty OK.

Put it back together 20 minutes ago, getting water out again but only drips, will probably just end up buying the new valve next week. My old other option here is to swap the one in the steam wand and that will truly tell me if the valve is shot or not.

#17: Post by **allon** » November 4th, 2011, 9:20 pm

You can test one more thing...

When you removed the pipe from the boiler, did the water flow freely out? looking at a diagram, it appears that the water tap connects low on the boiler. If water didn't come out freely, then your problem could be at the boiler.

If, instead, I'm misinterpreting the cluttered diagram, many boilers have a tube that extends down inside the boiler, on the other side of the fitting on the outside of the boiler; this can also get plugged with scale, particularly being inside the boiler.

November 4th, 2011, 9:49 pm

I didn't check that, too afraid of the pressure I suppose. Yes, the pipe does connect at the bottom of the boiler on the steam wand side. I may actually try this but will need to get some plastic tubing to divert the water so it's not going all over the place. Thanks for the suggestion!

#19: Post by **Randy G.** » November 5th, 2011, 1:31 am

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

#20: Post by **allon** » November 5th, 2011, 10:31 pm

A side note - do this on a COLE machine.

And my CMA lever machine has the water wand connect on the top of the boiler, though it has a dipper tube inside the boiler.