Well, I tried to time it. The stove top kettle took about 6 minutes to whistle. Then I forgot to check the time when the Caravel got up to 200 degrees. Whoops. I would guess it was about 10 or 11 minutes. So, it wasn't as close as I thought. But still, if I am in a hurry, the kettle speeds things up a bit, and if I am not in a hurry, the Caravel does just fine. Either way, once that initial heat-up is accomplished, the Caravel keeps it in a pretty good range of brew temp. If it is too hot, I just open the top lid and it comes down pretty quickly. If it is slightly below the brew temp, I can push the thermostat button in to engage the element and it comes up pretty quickly.

Pete

Thanks for checking, or trying to check anyway. I know that when I was in my initial testing phase it took about 37min to get hot faucet water (98F) up into the zone (200F). If it only took around 7-10min, I'd probably skip the stovetop assist. As much as I'm loving the machine more than ever now that I'm really getting dialed in, I'm noticing that it is a tiny bit annoying that my grinder is across the kitchen from my Caravel, and if I kill the heat at 210 and then go prep my basket, it's likely to fall below 200 by the time I get back (I like to weigh the whole bean dose and then weigh the basket again after it's loaded just to monitor my grinder's retention tendencies. This, combined with the leveling and distributing etc is maybe a little slower than other people's basket-prep time). So I find myself doing a bit of dance back and forth, clicking on and off as a 'stat presumably would if it were working.

New element paid for and sent If I am lucky it will arrive within a week, but then, it's Christmas time so I won't hold my breath.

Picked it up at the local post office yesterday. It looks great, like new, and fits just fine. Mounted it tonight, filled the boiler and heated it up for the first time. No blown fuses

After around 30 seconds, smoke coming out from below, and burnt smell. Is this normal for the first-time warm-up?

Still no blown fuse. Took the boiler off and had a look. The heater seemed normal, but hot of course, and the porcelain isolator mount looked fine also. I turned it off again, won't be doing any coffee tonight anyway. Will have another try tomorrow. Anyone else here seen that reaction from the new heater?

Yes - the smoke is normal. I had the same thing and thought I had a serious issue. Turns out it is just the 'breaking in' period where some of the new stuff is burning off. I would turn it back on and monitor it for a few minutes and the smoke should stop. That was my experience.

Good luck and can't wait to hear about your experiences.

Pete

I'd let it smoke outside - new heating elements are often coated with pfte (Teflon) which gives off nasty fumes a it burns off. Once it cooks away, though, you're okay.

hmmm, this could be an indication of overheating. Did the machine become very hot? Especially at the neck behind the boiler? As mentioned an another element thread here is is important that the element sit flat and tight against the boiler...

dumpshot wrote:Yes - the smoke is normal. I had the same thing and thought I had a serious issue. Turns out it is just the 'breaking in' period where some of the new stuff is burning off. I would turn it back on and monitor it for a few minutes and the smoke should stop. That was my experience.

Ditto here!

Tanks for your concern and your tips, fellow members of this, the greatest forum on planet Lever!

Solemn words for this the solemnest of solemn moments: the operation of our electric patient was successful, no more does she smoke or smell. Espresso is extracted with great ease and joy, for miss C is now warm and cosy, neither too hot, nor too cold. Behold: Her heat element is emitting heat, her bimetal strip is expanding and contracting as the boiler water's temperature rises and falls, and her little micro switch is clicking on and off with.... well, not meticulous timing, but at least it is clicking on and off.

I must say it is a great relief, so much easier to make espresso when you don't have to keep boiling water and pouring out lukewarm water and rinsing the group to heat it 2-3 minutes before EVERY shot.

I had a closer look under the hood today, and saw that my heater support, a strip of metal that I had quickly cut to size out of some old sooty BBQ grill piece of iron and put in there as a replacer for the original heater support which I had forgotten at work when taking the machine home over the Christmas weekend... phew, where did the end of that sentence go? Anyway, this DIY support was causing at least half of the smoke. It seems some of the soot still had some flame left in it, and was ignited now and then, causing occasional wisps of smoke. Now I know why chimney sweeps are needed
Took a trip to the office and found the original support. Smoke gone! And so is the burnt Teflon/circuit board smell, which Allon correctly described. So some of the smoke was from the burner, but it is broken in now.