Greetings Folks,

Well, I purchased this from a guy in Italy, and it just showed up on my doorstep today. As you can see from the photos it's in [i]decent[i] shape. I'm definitely going to need to replace the gaskets and give the innards a thorough cleaning. It does heat-up (but no light) but won't do a thing with water in it. Yes, it is a 220, and no, I don't have an inverter yet (will probably get one from Orphan this weekend) but as a point of reference my 220v La Peppina will go from Zero-raucous boil in less than 15 minutes. Granted, it is a much larger element (1100w vs 550w) so I may be expecting too much there.


So here are my questions:
1) when it is on I can touch the element, and while it gets hot, it doesn't get OMGWTFBBQ hot. Is it safe to assume that this is a product of the 220v on a 110 outlet? I would think so, but I want to make sure.
2)In the topmost pic on the left you can see the control on the bottom and one which appears to be the thermostat adjustment. Does the bottom switch just turn the machine on and temp is adjusted with the top screw, or is both temp and on/off controlled with the lower switch?
3)there's a definite detent on the lower switch. if this is the thermostat control as well as on/off, do you turn clockwise or anti-clockwise to turn the thermostat up?
4)Lastly, there is some surface rust on the piston in spots. What should I use to clean that up?

Cheers in advance for any help!

Dennis

My model looks just like yours, the bottom switch is on-off only, the top switch controls the thermostat. Clockwise = cooler. It wants 220 to get to temperature quickly, though not as rambunctiously as your Peppina.

With a full kettle, my 220v Caravel takes about 45 minutes to go from room temp to 204 when run on 120v. On 220v, it's about 12-15 minutes. I haven't tried touching the element when it's been on for a while, but I'm not sure how touchable it should be. I'd say fill the kettle, turn it on, and see where it is half an hour later.

a 240 machine run on 240 ends up with a red-hot- definitely untouchable element.

I recently described how to adjust the thermostat on another Caravel thread. However I wouldn't touch that until you have sorted the power out.

Usually the light on the caravel works fine (15 out of 15 in my experience). Perhaps that is affected by the low voltage as well?

I was thinking that as well. I had made a cable with a 220v dryer plug (my electrician is backed up a month so no 220 outlet in the kitchen for a while yet), but I think I'll. Have to make do with a transformer. While I know the cable I made will work the amount of woofing and tweeting I'll hear running a cable 20 feet from the dryer to the other side of the kitchen just isn't worth it.) I have off tomorrow so perhaps I'll try it for a few hours during the day, when the only ones to get in the way are the dogs and cats.

On 220v the element looks much like an electric stove element on high....you could bbq a weenie over it. The pilot light often does not come on using 110v but does with 220. If it is like other Caravels, Red is ON and Green is OFF, but this likely varies. Cleaning....Barkeepers Friend is good on stainless and the piston can be cleaned with this as well, perhaps some simichrome as well. Looks pretty good....complete, which is the main thing. Congratulations sailor!