hi all,

i just installed a electronic energy cost meter and checked the consumption of my isomac tea. after installing a new pressurestat some weeks ago i noticed the pressure going down from 1.4 bar to 1.1 every 25 seconds. so every 25 seconds the machine builds up pressure again (takes about 8 seconds) to be back up at approx 1.4 bar. i never watched that behaviour before i installed the new pressurestat, so i'm not sure the machine did that the same way before.
anyway... watching the cost meter i see that every 25 seconds the pressurestat "pressure build up" causes a consumption of approx 1.400 watts for 8 seconds.

is that a normal behaviour?

thanks: lars

The boiler pressure seems a little high and the deadband is a little wide, but otherwise it sounds normal. Most owners set the boiler pressure to 1.2 instead of 1.4 bar. See How to adjust an espresso machine pressurestat for instructions.

Are you seriously asking if a 1400 watt heating element should be using 1400 watts when it kicks on?

the question more was about "that often?" not "that much?"...

You can hear the pStat click to tell how often.

IMO, watt meters are WoFTaM. You'll never recover the cost of the meter.

AHA. Maybe you have a tiny leak somewhere?

It may be a small leak is causing the boiler to kick on more frequently, but remember we're talking about an uninsulated boiler running at higher than normal steam pressure. IIRC, insulation extends the cycle time by 20-30%.

The pstat cycle time will change (off time increases) as the machine approaches a fully warmed up state. If your time interval was measured when the machine was fully warmed up, I DO BELIEVE you have a slight leak - perhaps vacuum breaker?

bitrocker wrote:hi all,

i see that every 25 seconds the pressurestat "pressure build up" causes a consumption of approx 1.400 watts for 8 seconds.

is that a normal behaviour?

thanks: lars

No. You have a leak. My old Tea (1400 watts) had a duty cycle of roughly 5 seconds on and 55 seconds off. Averaged consumption was around 120 watts.

You will also notice the autofill run during the day even when you didn't steam (if the autofill on an HX EVER runs when you haven't steamed, there's a leak somewhere, or the wand needs cleaning)

bitrocker --

Slightly OT -- did your new Giemme control box fix your problem with the TEA? I've been having a similar problem and have been holding off replacing the control box -- but the problem is happening sooner and sooner. Basically, as far as I can tell the machine stops sending power to heating element (and both the red and green lights go off, so probably not sending power to the pressurestat at all) after it's been warmed up for a while. At first, it was only if I left the machine on for a couple of hours; now, I can barely get 15 minutes out of it.

I have always suspected that the location of the box right below the boiler would shorten its life.

Jim -- or anyone else with lots of TEA experience care to weigh in? I was hoping it was the $50 SSR and not the $169 Giemme!

Thanks in advance!

Dave