Hi-
I recently got a Lusso. I was using it today for an office party, and about 5 shots into it, the boiler stopped working. The power light turns on, and the bottom indicator light stays on, but the top indicator light never turns on and the water stopped heating. The water level was at 50% when this happened. I opened the case to check on the circuit-breaker switch (I think it is the little red button) but it was not flipped. After letting it cool down completely, it still doesn't work when I turn it on.

I am waiting for Vaneli's to call me back with advice, but they probably won't respond until Monday. I was hoping to use it this weekend, so does anyone here have any suggestions? Does it sound like something broke & needs to be replaced, or is there something I can do? Thanks.

If you brought it into work, perhaps a wire connection is loose?

iratika wrote:The power light turns on, and the bottom indicator light stays on, but the top indicator light never turns on and the water stopped heating.

To clarify, the power rocker switch doubles as the power indicator. Above it near the top of the case is the heating element light. It goes on when the boiler calls for heat. The light below the power switch illuminates when the boiler level is too low. Your water sensor says the water level is too low, the next question is why.

After checking all of the wire connectors I would go straight to the boiler and unhook the wires to the element and test the element with a multitester. Set the tester to ohms to check resistance.....0 ohms means no continuity means burned out element . The other end of the scale (1.000000) again, bad element. Without knowing precisely the number of ohms resistance the element is supposed to be, either of these two cases is bad element and you should get SOME reading, depending on the scale you are using on your meter .....anything but open circuit or closed circuit means the element is OK. Trace back from the element leads with your meter to check continuity all the way through the switch. If you suspect any part of the control system to be bad, including the pstat microswitch, bypass that component with a bridge to see what happens...following safe electrical procedures of course. If the switch is OK and the wiring is all tight and the element good, then there is something telling the element not to turn on....all eyes then on the pstat, which is the main control system.
We have a friend who, without a manual, completely rewired a gutted jet wired in the navy using a multitester and a piece of pencil and some paper, when I ask him ANY electrical question he says "draw a wiring diagram" that's it, and you know, when you draw a wiring diagram there is a lot you can figure out.

I've had the thermal cutoff flip on mine once. I had to push the little red button. Try it once or twice.

It had also flipped the GFI, which in my worry about the machine I forgot to reset. But I guess if the lights are on you have power.

It could be the heating element as Doug suggests - I think he wrote how to test it. You could call him in Idaho?

Also, Joe at Good Coffee Co. in Seattle might be in on Saturday? You could look him up and try calling.

PC

Before measuring the heating element for resistance, let's review the facts:

iratika wrote:The power light turns on, and the bottom indicator light stays on, but the top indicator light never turns on and the water stopped heating.

The bottom light is the "not enough water" indicator. It's unusual to find a low-water indicator on a lever espresso machine, let alone one with a sight glass. When it's illuminated, there's no power to the heating element.

The water level was at 50% when this happened.

Now there is the puzzler: Why a false low-water indicator reading? Scale buildup on the probe? Loose connection?

Thanks for the responses. When I got home, I looked in the troubleshooting section of the manual, and it says if the power comes on & the bottom light stays on, that means the heating element is not working (burned out after 15 shots in one day?). I only got the machine about 3 weeks ago, averaging just a couple shots a day.

My coworker has a friend who has the same machine, and he said his friend has had to replace the heating element 3 times. Has anyone else heard of this problem on the Lusso?

Wow! That is not a very good record for a heating element. Knowing that their are machines out there that have heating elements work for thousands of sessions.
Has anyone else had these problems. I remember the 1st impressions people on this site gave of the PV and they were quite positive. Could this be a batch of bad elements or a cheap heating element that needs to be upgraded?

there were a few posts a while back from someone in the UK that had a similar heating element problem. I thought maybe they were mislabled with the wrong voltage, but I'm not sure. And that alone shouldn't make them fail should it?

Whoever sold the machine is clearly responsible for sending you a replacement, although it will be a pain to put it in, unless you can return the machine. Either way its a big inconvenience and I'm sorry to hear about it.

I used my 110 element for 1000 on/off heating cycles with no problems, and so far none with the 220.

Good luck getting it resolved,

PC

Couldn't the low level sensor simply be wrong? I know mine was on my Bezzera. It seemed like it wasn't far enough pushed in inside the boiler to be able to sense the water level. The sensor on my Bez is a metal pin which sits in a piece of teflon. Took it out, cleaned the tip, stuck it in again, this time making sure it would be sticking "out" far enough to work.
After this it has worked fine.

Once again, unhook the leads to the element and check it with a multitester. Could save an lot of ha$$le.

I had not thought of that. Testing the machine unplugged kind of takes the fun our of it, all those gigawatts coursing through your system, but yes, a good point of procedure indeed.

Thanks again for the advice. I finally got a multitester & gave it a whirl. all components report resistance (pressurestat, heating element, circuit breaker) except for the water level probe. I checked it for voltage & resistance, and 0 on both. Is that normal, or indication that the probe is bad? it is just a metal rod that sticks into the reservoir, so i don't see how that can malfunction. I removed the probe & it is clean too.

Any (new) ideas?

Good news on the element at least, if your read resistance that means it is not shorted out or melted down. So sorry not to have a PV Lusso on site or could address this water level probe situation. Some Lusso owner hopefully will come to the rescue here.

Sorry to post twice in a row but it did just occur to me that you could likely bypass the probe by making a bridge circuit around it and see if the machine works without the probe in the circuit. I'm not advocating a permanent setup, just a test to see if the probe is the problem or not.
Good luck.

I thought about doing something like that, but I am not sure how. I am a dummy when it comes to electrical stuff.

There is just one lead/wire coming out of the probe, and it goes into the control unit. What connectors should I bridge?

I would just say to ground the end (probe end, of course) of the wire attached to the probe to the boiler casing and this should turn the heating element on and the low water level light out. You should hear a relay "click" inside of the control box when you do this.
Does the boiler water level sightglass have min and max marks?
Assuming this is the case, maybe slowly fill the boiler to the max mark and see if this does not allow the heating element to work.

I connected the probe wire to the ground & turned the machine on, nothing happened (the low water light stayed on and the machine quietly sat there).

The water level is currently 3/4 to the max mark (it was about 1/2 way when it died but I added a little more just in case).

Unfortunately, it then seems as though the transformer or heater relay, both internal to the "control box" have died. From your original post, it seems the machine is under warranty, so I'd make a call (to followup your initial email) first thing Monday morning unless they have shut down for the holidays.