Possible to add autofill internal boiler to a machine?

[Kristi]

specificially the Eliane?
tia
Kristi

[Reighlok]

Kristi, why?
Auto refill during steaming, or brewing espresso?
I only ask because I have never felt that I was missing something by not having that feature. But then again, I've never heard of it on a dual purpose single boiler. I don't have any answers for you, just questions.

[Kristi]

Kristi, why?
Auto refill during steaming, or brewing espresso?
I only ask because I have never felt that I was missing something by not having that feature. But then again, I've never heard of it on a dual purpose single boiler. I don't have any answers for you, just questions.

LOL - I didn't realize the need either. other evening I came out and noticed boiler at pid 222F and head at 36C *normally it's up at 97C or so) - the water level was below the E61 boiler outflow, and I had, I think, only left it on for 3 or 4 hours. So the reason is a very simple protection from burning out the element if for some unexpected reason the water level gets too low. I am not perfect and heaters are expensive. - That is the main prob with the Eliane, and Isomacs - it is possible for the water level to get too low.
Kristi

[Reighlok]

Okay, well I wish you luck on it then. If you do it, I look forward to reading about it. I am still thinking about doing a Kristi-ish shower screen temp probe... when I get my new-to-me machine up and running...

[Reighlok]

Well.....
I guess there are three ways to judge the level of the water without having to install a floater in your boiler.

1 You could hang one wire into the boiler (the wire would have insulation except for the very end) at a certain height, and when a current could no longer be transfered from it to the boiler, you know the water level is beneath the height of the wire.

2 You could hook a separate boiler that was connected at the top and bottom to your main boiler ( the water height would be the same) and install a floater there.

3 You could make the connections to your boiler out of something other than copper (something flexible), then have a weight based system where if the boiler doesn't push down hard enough on a switch the pump is turned on.

Thats all I can think of.

I would stay away from option 1 because of electroplating worries. I would stay away from option 2 because of complexity... so I think I would recommend option three.....
And in any of those, maybe you could have a pressure over ride switch that prevents the pump from being turned on if the boiler pressure is above a certain amount to prevent a error from leaving your pump on for a hour.

[Kristi]

Since I see you are also posting to the thread on CG, I will stop posting to this thread and have already posted the beginninge of a possible mod over there. I have also pinged Terry for ideas. Thanks HB.
Kristi

[barry]

1 You could hang one wire into the boiler (the wire would have insulation except for the very end) at a certain height, and when a current could no longer be transfered from it to the boiler, you know the water level is beneath the height of the wire.

....

I would stay away from option 1 because of electroplating worries.

given that this is how almost all commercial autofill systems work, i wonder what your concern is?

[Reighlok]

given that this is how almost all commercial autofill systems work, i wonder what your concern is?

Well... until now I didn't know that's how almost all commercial auto fill systems work. I guess it isn't a problem if it isn't a problem. Also, I really meant electrolysis --not electroplating. I remember running current through water as a child... and oxidizing the electrodes and creating hydrogen in the process (I did this for a few days while trying to build up enough iron oxide to create a thermit... I end up just giving up because of the hassle of creating aluminum powder (I got tired of filling)). I don't know if oxidizing the electrodes is a universal issue with electrolysis... I would imagine the effect would be pretty small in any case at the voltage/amperage they would use...
The only one of my suggestions I had heard of being used in an espresso machine was the weight one.
And I'm not sure I read that relating to a boiler auto refill in an espresso machine.