Left La Pavoni Europiccola on, now on/off switch just flickers

November 26th, 2014, 3:25 pm

Yes -- in a rush out the door I left my Europiccola on. When my wife came home 2-1/2 hours later it was still hissing, but the on/off switch was no longer lit. When I plugged it back in and flipped the switch it flickered. I should mentioned that I only left it on with the single switch, so both elements weren't on. Also, I replaced the switch about a year ago. The original switch had a white and red button with a white housing, the replacement one had the same buttons but with a black housing, so the machine needed to be re-wired.

How do I diagnose the switch and also see if I burnt out the heating element?

thanks in advance.

#2: Post by **pizzigri** » November 26th, 2014, 4:07 pm

Can you post a picture of the EP? Maybe also of inside the base? Most important, was there still water inside the boiler?

November 26th, 2014, 5:21 pm

Here are the photos. The photo with the switch has the original switch sitting on top of the machine. Thanks!

November 26th, 2014, 5:27 pm

Also, the machine was still hissing when she got home and had a little moisture still in it when I opened it up later.

#5: Post by **homeburrero** » November 26th, 2014, 5:30 pm

The red light on the switch gets neutral somewhat directly from the cord. It gets live, however, from the wire that goes through your thermofuse. Most likely the flicker is caused by a burnt or nearly burnt thermofuse. The diagram below does a good job of showing how that switch and circuit work:

November 26th, 2014, 5:37 pm

where would the thermal fuse be in my photo and how would I test it?

#7: Post by **homeburrero** » November 26th, 2014, 6:35 pm

It's inside that red wire sheath. You can test it with a resistance/continuity tester, but sometimes is better to bypass it and see if the machine works fine without it. Francesco Ceccarelli's wonderful website has lots of info on these - try here: http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/La_Pa ... to_eng.htm - shows how to bypass on your model.

November 26th, 2014, 7:01 pm

Thanks!

November 27th, 2014, 1:56 pm

The thermal fuse was the problem. Where do I get the replacement? The photo in the link is too small to read the name/part number. Thanks for your help!

#10: Post by **drgary** » November 27th, 2014, 3:12 pm

Oooooh, you're lucky!

Stefano's Espressocare is a good source of La Pavoni parts. He has parts drawings of the second two generations of machine (yours is second generation, aka "pre-Millennium") with parts listed below the drawings. See http://www.espressocare.com.