... or should that be guerillas? I just bought another Europiccola off our local ebay equivalent site. I don't know why I needed a second one but the price was too good and I convinced myself I needed a backup. Sadly, the shipping goons have given it a blow, mighty enough to have bent both the steam arm assembly and the pressure release valve. I was wondering what your thoughts are on fixing it and whether it is safe to use as is. I never use the steam arm so it's position isn't too much of an issue. The machine seems to come up to pressure OK and the release valve does it's thing. I'll attach a couple of pictures and I'd be very grateful for any comments.

hi sam

on the off chance you're in chch, bring it into my little workshop and we can pressure test it and check any cracks. I would personally try to claim against the courier cpy first though.

Hi Paul,
Thanks a lot for the offer. I'm in Auckland though unfortunately. I've filled out the online claim form so I'll see what happens with that. It may just have to be a parts machine. Cheers.

Oooh. Not sure I like the look of those spider crack. I'd really want to have someone take a look at it before I fired it up. Not that I think it's going to explode but you might end up with some steam burns if there are cracks in the boiler.

I don't think there are cracks in the boiler but I think the pressure release valve was bashed far enough that it has opened up the hole it fixes into a bit. I already actually tried heating the machine up (perhaps with reckless abandon). Steam seems to escape from the base of the valve assembly. I guess the machine is spare parts now. I can't see it being worth replacing the boiler and probably the valve and steam arm assemblies. Anyway I've lodged a claim with post so I'll see what happens with that.
Cheers.

Bummer. Although, as spare parts it will more than pay for itself. I wonder what a LP would cost if you bought it part by part?!