I had not used my La Pavoni Professional circa 1992 for years. I recently fired it up but coffee sprayed all over the place when I pulled the lever down.

Using pavoniexpress.com, I replaced the O-rings, cleaned and descaled everything, and ensured the siphon and three holes in the piston chamber were clear. Before I replaced the O-rings I compared the new with the old to verify they were the same size. I also ensured the piston O-rings slots faced toward the top and towards the bottom, respectively; I lubed the piston chamber. And I ensured the piston shaft was tightly screwed into the piston and that the nut on the other end was screwed tight. I fired it up again with a coffee holder but without coffee and water again sprayed out the portafilter drip channels. Steam was at 1 bar.

My Portafilter is brass and the protective coating is peeling off unevenly around the top ridge. However, the water is not spraying out from the top. The Portafilter twists snuggly into the group.

I would appreciate any suggestions, including reliable repair sources.

where is it spraying from???

Sprayed out the the bottom of the portafilter through the "drip channels". (I had wrapped a towel around the portafilter but left room to see the source of the spray.)

Can you post a video? This seems like an odd problem.

The only time you should have water spraying out of the portafilter spouts is when you are flushing water through the group to warm it up. A good packed puck will stop if from spraying, even if you were using old stale coarsely gound coffee.

As I said " I fired it up again with a coffee holder but without coffee and water again sprayed out the portafilter drip channels (i.e., where the espresso normally drips out).

I had what sounds to be a similar problem.
See if the solution provided helps..
La Pavoni Modello Professional
Make sure you cool the porta-filter, dry off if necessary, fill with coffee, lock into group and pull lever right away.
Let us know thanks!

HudsonHeights wrote:As I said " I fired it up again with a coffee holder but without coffee and water again sprayed out the portafilter drip channels (i.e., where the espresso normally drips out).

Yes, but you also said..

HudsonHeights wrote:I had not used my La Pavoni Professional circa 1992 for years. I recently fired it up but coffee sprayed all over the place when I pulled the lever down.

If you are pulling the lever down on a Pavoni you have something in the portafilter providing resistance (assuming you do not have a mechanical flaw providing the resistance). My bad for assuming you had coffee in the portafilter since an empty portafilter would have pressure pushing down on the lever, forgiving you of the need to have to pull down the lever.

If you have steaming water gushing out once it reaches initial operating temp, your boiler pressure is much higher than indicated. It should come out hot but turn to flash boiling if you continue to hold the lever up. If the machine is left on for a period of time it will flash water out due to the group becoming overheated with time.

To adjust the boiler pressure you'll need to drop the bottom. To do this you'll need a Torx #20 (I believe) to remove the screw under the drip tray that will allow you to access the pressurestat. You'll have to scrape away the white glue that holds the adjustment ring in place to allow you to lower the pressure and thus the boiler pressure. Adjust it to taste.

I'm not sure I've quite figured out what's going on here.

Are you saying that if you leave the handle down and switch the machine on, then after a while water starts gushing out of the portafilter spouts (not normal, or that it only spurts out when you raise and then lower the handle? if the latter, then that's quite normal. The coffee drips out when you have coffee grinds tamped in the basket because they provide resistance, but it will gush out if you have an empty portafilter.

What is the pressure reading on your pressure gauge?

if you are tempted to adjust the pressure - and I'd wait a second just to clarify exactly what is happening - then take a quick glance here to see just how delicate you need to be when scraping that glue off, and what can happen even when you are: La Pavoni Professional - when to pull lever? Buying another pressurestat just in case before you do this may be a good idea. But it could be that you don't need to adjust the pressure at all.

Cheers

Mike

What happens if you leave the portafilter off?

I'm not understanding it neither
is water spraying out from the portafilter spout when you lift the lever?
that's normal when the machine is in pressure