The gun is now loaded and I can commence second-guessing myself. I pulled the knob from my Astoria and put on the Rio so there would be insulation between my fingers and the brass switch pole with 220v on the other side.
I stare at the mass of wires going into the switch. Maybe it's me being simplistic, but 220v is better for me to stare at and understand. Both wires are hot, therefore they can't be backwards.
It's got water connected so I stare at the machine, tell my toolbox I love it and switch it on with a gloved hand.
Good things generally happen.
- The autofill circuit clicks, the pump comes on and it runs for about 5 seconds. I had manually filled the boiler with the lever so it didn't have a lot of work to do. It is FANTASTIC that this part works since it's expensive to fix.
- I hear the element come on. There's a sort of creaking sound that the boiler gives when it's being attacked with a bunch of heat.
At this point, some might have advised me to disconnect a wire to the element or pressurestat (element is much easier) and tape it off. This keeps heat out of the initial testing/troubleshooting. We did this on my other machine since it was a total rebuild and didn't know if anything worked. On this one, since it really seemed like it had been working weeks before and I was buying it from someone who told me they used it - I felt like taking the risk. It also has a brand new pressurestat. My other machine had an ancient Penn pressurestat device that I did not feel comfortable with and never sent power to.
One more point - on most of these commercial machines, the heating circuit is entirely independent of the other electrics on the machine save for both being turned on by the same switch. So you can do a lot of diagnostic work on a machine going with the heating element deactivated.
- More creaking. This is good. No new leaks have appeared.
While it is heating up, I decide to test the dosing pads. I push buttons at random and some at the same time. It's all actually working!
8-10 minutes later, it comes up to pressure and I hear the pressurestat click off. Nice. Prior to this, I heard the "under pressure" valve click shut. This thing keeps a cooling boiler from filling with a partial vacuum and sucking stuff in. It gives a little spurt when it shuts.
I guess a worry with this could be explosion. However, there is a valve on the top of the boiler that prevents explosion, sort of like a pressure cooker pot has. So if the pressurestat had stayed on, the valve would have started noisily opening and I would then know to shut the machine off. If that over-pressure valve was broken and the pressurestat - I guess it explodes.
I wouldn't say that the machine is hot enough in 10 minutes to be "home-barista espresso ninja" ready, but I will again extol the virtues of 220v and recommend that if people can do it, it's totally worth it. Horsepower is cool.
I give the steam knobs a spin. There is a lot of steam power in a two-group. To reinforce the thread about home machines being less forgiving than commercial ones - this is a great example. I could turn this machine on, steam a gallon of milk and make a dozen drinks before a Silvia gets to operating temperature.
And the hot water knob. The autofill fires right up when I do this. I can't really see in the sight glass to check, but it's kinda all working.
The craigslist deal is looking pretty promising and it's time to see if it will make some brown liquid. My assistants like this part. (Don't drop the RB tamper!)
