So I opened up the bottom of the Caravel to try to fix the thermostat, and oh boy. Yes, flashback to Italian electrical work in the sixties The wiring is frayed, no grounding, and the bottom of the heating element almost split. I proceeded to take everything apart, removing the heating element, the tray, etc. and give everything a really good cleaning. I am going to order a new heating element and have my electrician rewire the unit.

This morning I made coffee with the Bacchi. My husband, who is Italian, was happy. He said that the coffee from the Bacchi has a better aftertaste. But I really missed that Caravel aftertaste, and was thinking about it all morning, so this afternoon I reassembled the heaterless Caravel, boiled up a big tea kettle of water, filled the Caravel tank once and emptied it through the group, then filled it again, got the thermometer in the tank up to 89 C and then pulled a shot. WOW. It was really good. I pulled two completed pulls. The first pull was almost all crema. I probably should have stopped half way down the second pull, but I don't mind a coffee that is a little "long". It was really flavorful with no bitterness. I used 9.5 grams of Vivaldi blend from Sandalj in Trieste, home-roasted a little into second crack, four days past roast, ground fine and tamped pretty firmly with the bottom of a shot glass.

So is the moral that the Caravel with no heating element produces better coffee than the Caravel with a heating element? Maybe I shouldn't call the electrician after all...

Gail,

Are you sure about your switches? I think the top knob is to release the tank for removal. The bottom switch controls the thermostat.

I have a version 1.2. It does not have a knob to release the tank. The bottom knob is an on-off switch. On the top, there is a very small screw-like knob (metal, not plastic) that is supposed to adjust the temperature at which the heater switches off. I was able to get the on-off switch to work again by adjusting the little screw on the bottom inside behind the on-off switch, but I have not been able to make the heat cut off when the water boils. I can hear the microswitch clicking, so I think it is working. After reading tons of pages of this and other threads, I suspect the problem is the SEPS because when I disassembled everything, I found that the two little springs supporting the front of the heating element tray were very rigid and the spring supporting the back of the tray was very rusty. The tank clicks into place but it wiggles a bit when installed, so probably something is amiss with the springs. I don't know if I can adjust the existing springs to make the tank sit firm and the thermostat work or if I will have to replace the springs or just live with the slightly wiggly tank and non-functioning thermostat.

How springy do the springs have to be and how tight is the tank supposed to fit?

In any case, the heating element and electrical wiring I have are not safe for use so the machine is currently "pre-boiled" only. When I get the replacement heater I will try again to make the thermostat work. Maybe my electrician understand how to fix the thermostat problem too. After all, he's Italian...

The metal strip on the back of the kettle expands when it gets hot and presses against the switch, turning it off. If the back of the kettle is too far away from the switch it will not function. Also, sometimes the metal strip gets flattened. BE CAREFUL if you try to bend the metal strip, a very little bend can make it stay off all the time.

According to Francesco Ceccarelli's description of switches on Caravel version 1.2 the top button releases the tank and the bottom knob adjusts temperature.

This model has a lock mechanism at the very top and a temp control as suggested.

I have this one:

http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/Annun ... rigia2.htm

As you can see, the top knob is a thermostat adjuster.


The problem is that the heating element never turned off, not that it would not turn on.

When the kettle is cold, the metal strip is pressing against the kettle at the top and bottom, and very slightly bowed out in the middle. I stuck a knife in the little space in the middle and tried to bend it out a little more, but I don't think I succeeded in bending it. The metal strip is very strong and not easy to bend.

I did once remove the kettle when pretty hot and the top of the strip had come pretty far away from the kettle, but the heat had not turned off. So I think the problem is more likely to be the springs and positioning of the kettle than the metal strip. At this point I think the kettle sits too far away from the back of the unit for the strip to make firm contact with thermostat rocker, so the three springs under the heating element tray have to be adjusted. Maybe it would be enough just to adjust the front two, which are not in horrible shape and which I can adjust. The back spring is in very rusted, so I would have to get the electrician to work on that one. But none of the three springs is really "springy". They can be compressed, but they are very stiff. Is this how they are supposed to be?

I am going to wait for a new heating element and new wiring to test my theory. I don't want to take any chances with ungrounded 240v going into a failing heating element with water in the neighborhood.

Speaking of water, after a few days of exposure to water, there are no more leaks of any kind. No water comes out when the lever is down, and no water leaks from the group when pulling a shot. So does that mean that I should not change the group gasket, even if it looks worn?

Sorry to beat this into the ground. You're right. Francesco's post says the top button does regulate the thermostat. Yet he describes the bottom dial as a plastic knob for the thermostat. Are the top and bottom buttons both used to regulate heat?

Here's Francesco's post about version 1.2.

http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/Macch ... to_eng.htm

This might be a clue. I have version 1.0. The bottom dial has concentric rings, one for large range thermostatic control and one for fine tuning. Maybe those controls are separated to top and bottom for your version.

On the outside, the bottom button is labeled "power" and the top knob is labeled "thermostat regulation".

The top knob is supposed to regulate the temperature of the water at which the heating element goes off. The bottom knob is supposed to turn the electricity on. The way this works in practice is a little complicated because the two buttons influence each other.

Since I took the machine apart completely, I got a good look at what the two buttons are doing on the inside. There is a long rectangular strip of metal running down the back inside of the machine. This strip acts as rocker that turns a microswitch on and off. When you turn the bottom button to the right, it moves inward, the bottom of the rocker goes inward, and the top of the rocker goes outward and the top knob moves outward (like a see-saw). This causes the microswitch to go on (and also the power). When you turn the bottom button the left, it moves outward, the top knob goes inward, and the microswitch goes off.

You can also press or pull each button to get the same effect. But whenever you press or pull one, the other moves in the opposite direction because they are on opposite ends of the see-saw.

There is a metal strip on the top back of the kettle that expands when the kettle is hot. When (1) the kettle strip is bent in the right way, (2) another little screw on the inside behind the power switch is adjusted properly, (3) the kettle is positioned properly by the springs under the heating element tray, and (4) the kettle is heated to the desired temperature, the metal strip pushes against the top part of the rocker. This causes the the microswitch to go off.By tightening the top knob (really just a screw), you make the screw go deeper and top of the rocker get closer to the kettle, so the microswitch is activated to go off at a lower temperature. When you loosen the screw, the rocker moves away from the kettle, so the kettle has to be hotter to make the microswitch go off. This is the way that the top knob regulates the temperature at which the heating element goes off. There is not any thermometer or heat sensor in the machine, just a mechanical on-off mechanism. Unless you consider the metal strip on the back of the kettle to be a heat sensor.

It is an ingenious system when it works, but everything has to be just right. There are a lot of little things that can go wrong, especially 60 years down the road, when the metal strip on the kettle has become too bent or too flat, the springs have rusted, the rocker is full of goo, the microswitch fried, etc. Yesterday I cleaned and oiled the little springs under the heating tray (two in front and one in back inside the base unit) and then pushed down hard on the kettle. I heard a snap (the springs coming back to life?) This seems to have seated the kettle more firmly inside the base, with the back of the kettle closer to the back of the base unit. So maybe this will make the thermostat mechanism work correctly once I get the new heating element.

Greetings all -

Have been assimilated... And starting to understand what all the fuss is about.

The machine is a version two, but with version one stickers. Understanding the 'waste not want not' philosophy, guess thay just kept slapping the old stickers on the new machines as they came down the line.

Overall it is in very nice condition. A few blems in the paint and a couple of dings in the bottom trim, but that's about it. Came with what looks like an aftermarket single and original double basket. Cleaned up nice and have adjusted the 'thermostat' to kick off at 200f.

After struggling to get the double basket out of the portafilter, I figured out that it's sort of 'keyed'. Rotate the basket slowly until you feel it settle in, then push in the rest of the way. Makes it fairly easy to remove.