Hello,

I have a two years old MCaL that has seen a decent use (~6 shots a day on average). I had twice forgot it open and had to reset the breaker underneath after all the water had boiled. A few days ago, I opened it and left it open for maybe half an hour. When I came back, the heating element light (on the right) was off and the pressure was slowly lowering. There was still water in the tank (maybe 10%).

Now, the switch light does turn on but the element doesn't heat up. The switch underneath is in the reset position (not triggered), so it seems the problem is elsewhere.

Any suggestion on where should I start to investigate this?

Thanks in advance for your help,

Sébastien

Unplug the machine, remove the bottom and see if there is resistance across the heater coils with a ohm meter. There should be some, not zero and not infinite.

If I've done my math right, resistance should be about 18 ohms (or so) for a 800 watt system on 120v power.

Check that the safety fuse has zero resistance. Check that the pressure stat has zero resistance when the machine is cool.

If you have experience with hot circuits (aka you know not to touch things) you could trace the live circuit. Not recommended since I'm pretty sure this can all be figured out with an unplugged system.
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Mark

Thanks Mark for the advices!

I finally left the machine emptied and opened (bottom removed) for the night. Just before reading your post this morning I noticed that it was working again. I was able to pull two shots this morning and everything seems back to normal.

I'm thus suspecting that the problem is humidity related and that opening the bottom solved it overnight. If this is so, then the issue should come back relatively rapidly and I'll get a resistance reading on the components you suggested to pinpoint the issue.

In the event that I need to change a component, is there a recommended list of suppliers where I could get replacement parts (ideally in Canada to avoid custom issues). I'm still unsuccessfully trying to get a set of seals to replace those (they have started to leak recently).

I can't help you will Eastern Canadian suppliers, but Chris's Coffee is on your side of the coast and they are known for great service (from first hand experience, I'd agree with the masses on this). There are certainly some Elektra dealers in Montreal, but I don't know their names/numbers/etc.

Mark