Hi. I want to pull the screen of my Millennium Europiccola and check for obstructions. I searched and found a method. The instructions read like the screen just pops out. I stopped when it seemed I was using too much force on the piston shaft.

Can someone please give me guidance on the method, or amount of force required on the piston shaft to free the screen?

When removing the group from the boiler, can I reuse whatever gasket there is or should I have a new one standing by?

(The situation: When I lift the lever of my seven-month-old Millennium Europiccola, a tiny bit of water weakly drips out. When the sight glass reads at the proper full level, the steam wand hisses, spitting occasionally. I have no experience frothing at this point, so I don't know if that steam output indicates normal pressure, but the hissing and spitting indicate pressure in the boiler.)

Thanks.

-- eg

Normally not much force is required to push the screen out, but when it has not been removed for a long time it may be difficult. Be sure to have the acorn nut on the top of the rod when you push to avoid damaging threads. A couple of years ago I purchased a used machine in which I had to destroy the group gasket to get it out, but your machine is fairly new and should not be like that.

The group-boiler seal is an O ring. It does not require replacement with each group removal, in fact you can remove the group many times without changing it. If it be bad, you will hear and see steam escape.

This machine should have a brass piston, the plastic ones are infamous for coming unscrewed and producing problems like you appear to be having. Sometimes La Pavoni puts parts into their machines that are not normal for the presently produced ones. Each machine seems to be very much individually assembled.

May require attacking the group gasket (o-ring) with a dental pick to get it pulled out if it is seriously stuck. Check that the piston is fully screwed onto the rod. If it is plastic then replacing with brass is an upgrade.

On a 7 month old machine it should not be hopelessly stuck. If it's not coming out with pressing or tapping with the machine upright, invert the machine, and with the top of the piston rod on a wood block and your hand on the bell of the group press down hard on the group. You'll feel the shower screen give against your palm. This is even easier if you remove the group. (see Refeathering the Peacock - Pavoni head gasket replacement ) And as Robert said, you can almost always reuse the little group-to-boiler o-ring.

On a millennium, you won't get a really forceful spray when you lift the lever (like you might see on some youTube videos of pre-M machines.) But it shouldn't just barely dribble out. With the lever fully up, a millennium group at ~~0.8 bar of pressure should be delivering in the rough neighborhood of 10 ml/sec.

A 7 month old machine would be expected to have a brass piston, but you never know for sure. If the piston has unscrewed a little on the shaft (which happens frequently with plastic pistons) you see diminished or nonexistent flow when the lever is fully up.

For the last few months, I've had problems with my brass piston coming unscrewed and pressing down on the shower screen. I guess I should use some loctite to correct this, but I don't know which one to buy. It would have to be food safe and not make the piston too difficult to remove if that should ever become necessary. I'd be grateful for any suggestions.

Matt

Looks like Loctite 2046 or Loxeal LOK-EAL 18-10 from what I could find. Supposedly Italy uses the Loxeal brand often, and Loctite is a good alternative.

Dug that info up looking at several La Pavoni threads - google really helps.

Loctite 2046 is a very expensive food-safe thread sealer that I've used but it is really pricey. Loxeal has an off taste if you get it into the water, but that can be avoided by following Oliver's suggestion below:

cafebmw wrote:don't ever get the loctite threadsealer in direct contact with water inside the boiler. it will foul the water immediately. i learned it the hard way. what i do now is using plenty of teflon tape and then applying a small amount of loctite on the last 3rd of the thread (away from the tip) of the male part. that way you can make sure thread sealer won't get into the boiler. always apply it to male fitting!

If you want to try a Loctite product search for one that is rated to be removable with hand tools. They have different holding capacity. Here's a link to the updated Loctite Adhesive Sourcebook on the Henkel website.

Teflon tape is a lubricant. The end of the piston rod that screws into the piston is tapered. Grasp the unlubricated rod with one of those no slip gloves or mats and crank it into the piston as tight as you can get it, it will not unscrew out of the brass piston.

Thanks all. I'll try this first. I couldn't think of a good way to grasp the rod.
Matt

mathof wrote:I couldn't think of a good way to grasp the rod.

Find a screwdriver that just fits through the lever pin hole; hold that and then grasp the piston with your stronger hand and you should get it really tight.

OldNuc wrote:The end of the piston rod that screws into the piston is tapered.

Threads are a standard M10 x 1.25, with a very short unthreaded shoulder that might be tapered (I can't tell with my cheap caliper.)

Makes sense that the lubricating effect of teflon on the upper part might make it more likely to unscrew unless you offset that with a good loctite at the bottom threads.