Recently I received an old Elektra Lever machine in trade for courses in sculpture. I have a brass one and now I am enjoying the new chrome one.

So on to Safety.

I guess it is more of a question. Seems the gasket in the old pressure stat is too hard and the pstat has a big band where it goes on and off.

I did the usual full cleaning of all the parts, etc. The gasket worked better for a short time. Until this weekend when I used the machine. The machine heated up, I got busy preparing breakfast and then heard the safety valve start hissing but not immediately. I looked at the gauge and it read 2.5 bar. The safety valve was operating fine yet the pressure was still rising.

Now for my question. Will the pressure just keep rising when a pressurestat fails, and if so, is there a danger of this machine (I hate to say it) blowing up? Are there any other built in safety features?

I am tempted to fill a machine halfway. leave the blast zone and turn it on until the water either boils out, or the tank explodes (Well maybe not I like the Elektra). This whole experience got me thinking, I have repaired/restored quite a few old machines and hope I am being as safe as possible.

I just got a gfci extension cord, I hope this also makes it safer. Which brings up my second situation. For 220 machines (I am currently restoring a Faemina with the much appreciated help of orphanespresso from the US.) This is the set up. Grounded wall plug to the gfci extension, gfci to the transformer, transformer to adapter, adapter to older Italian plug....
Will the GFCI operate in this configuration? I am concerned that the ground between the transformer and the machine is not intact with all the adapters.


I have other concerns which come up as I am working but as I never manage to write them down in a list. These are the two that I have today. I am sure more will follow.

On a lighter note Faemina was missing a Portafilter so in keeping with a tinkering nature I made a new one.
Cannot find the Picture today so I will post it soon.

Happy holidays

Thanks Jim,

I had adjusted the safety valve is in the boiler cap. Mine was setup to go off at less than 2 bars, yet the pressure still increased after the safety valve went off. Until I closed the machine at around 2.5 bars. How high can the pressure get before ... and will the water boil out before this happens?

It was a bit of an eye opener for me. I am wondering if the machines are designed to boil out in case of a pstat failure. I sure hope so.

happytamper wrote:
It was a bit of an eye opener for me. I am wondering if the machines are designed to boil out in case of a pstat failure. I sure hope so.

OTOH, if you have the heat going and no water to cool it, the element will weld itself to death.

This was a 110V source on for about a minute thirty to a minute forty without water.

You need to replace the safety valve -- it should drop pressure fast. Some machines, and I believe the Elektra is one of them, have a thermostat that cuts power if the boiler skin gets too hot. This will protect the heating element in case the boiler runs dry. In other machines, the heater is armored, and can run in air. However, there are lots of machines where the heater is toast if it runs in air.

Perhaps there is a problem with the safety valve in the boiler cap. I think it is working well but to be sure I will exchange this cap with the cap on my other machine and see it it releases pressure faster.

This machine does not have the thermostat protecting the element unfortunately.

Ok, just did this and seems the old pstat came back to life. On at 1.1 and off at 1.2 bar. So much for checking the safety valve. When I get a chance I will bypass the pstat and check the safety valve.

If I bring the pressure up to 2bar and the safety valve whooshes (works) but the pressure still rises then I will definitely question the safety of this design.

On the first MCaL I fixed, the pressurestat had failed (due scale) and it had been operated in that configuration for some time. It seems the safety valve in the boiler cap would just reach an equilibrium pressure (ie a gradual and increasing pressure release), rather than just 'letting go'. When I got it, I cut the power at just a tad over 2 bar as it had me worried, but I very much doubt it had been stopped there before. It doesn't mean that my safety valve was necessarily working correctly though.

The safety thermostat is only on some of the relatively newer MCaLs.

Cheers, Chris