When I heard my technologically impaired neighbors bought a used Europiccola (after overhaul) I was quite astonished. A year and a bit later, the machine is rusty, stained and reeks of olive oil! (The machine is placed under an olive oil bottle and someone forgot to close it one day).
They asked me to find a lab who'll give it a good scrub and bring it back to new-like condition (not cosmetically), or do it myself.
What I saw here is a perfect opportunity to learn about this beautiful machine and so, I'd like to do this mini overhaul myself.
I have a few questions though:
Where should I start? What's the first thing I should take apart?
What parts should I soak in the citric acid solution? (I have to say I'm not sure what it does to the color etc.)
What's the best way to get olive oil smell out of a coffee machine? (I never thought I'd find myself asking this question)
What is the best way to clean the steam wand? It doesn't seem to be possible to remove the tip and soak it in a Coffeeclean solution, so what should I do to remove those stains?
And lastly, what parts should I change to avoid future problems?

I'd love to hear any tips you all might have.

I'm sorry if those questions have already been asked, I couldn't find any threads about them (except for the parts that should be replaced, but I'd love to hear different people's takes on this).

Thank you all very much,

Ben.

I just stumbled upon the Pavoniexpress site! What a gold mine!

Welcome to HB, Ben!

I would start by changing the group gaskets. A good source for parts is Stefano's Espresso Care. Pavoni Express has well-written instructions on how to do this and just about every other maintenance operation you can imagine. Definitely worth checking out.

Soaking the dispersion screen in a cleaning solution would be a good idea. I'm sure it has quite a bit of residue if the machine has been neglected.

Once you have the group head assembly taken apart, determine if the piston is plastic of brass. If it's plastic, I would upgrade it to brass. Brass pistons hold the gaskets in place better and, in my superstitious opinion, have a better feel to them.

If the owner has been using hard water, you might need to de-scale the boiler. A quick search of the forums should give you some ideas.

As for the olive oil- what have you tried so far? Is it just on the outside, or did it get into the boiler?

I see you discovered Pavoni Express on you own. Good work!

Thank you for the reply,
I haven't tried anything yet, I prefer to have a plan before diving in. The olive oil isn't only on the outside, if you sniff the tank, it's olive oil and on top of it all, there's some olive oil to the bottom of the glass water level sight.
I think I might just take the machine and start taking it apart to see what I'm dealing with.

Thank you,

Ben

At least the machine was well lubricated.

Haha indeed, and the aroma is quite intoxicating, it's really good olive oil, I think they brought it from Nablus!

Cleaning the boiler with citric acid might work.

Do you guys think I can soak the whole grouphead in soapy water or some coffeeclean solution? it is REALLY dirty (I'll upload pictures later)

Well, I cleaned everything I can and descaled the boiler (Citric acid, 2tbsp/liter) and the coffee tastes quite decent! I can't smell olive oil anymore which I guess can be called progress. I gave up on the stained steam wand, I couldn't get all the milk out of it so it's stained but doesn't look terrible anymore.
new problem rose to the surface, it seems that the machine is running too hot. The water dances out of the portafilter and without it, a lot of steam sprays out of the group head. Is this normal or should I adjust the P-stat? My gut says yes but I just wanted to make sure since I'm not too familiar with this specific model.

Thank you all,

Ben