Hi there team,

I recently acquired an Olympia Cremina 67, and unfortunately it had some minor damage in shipping. Nothing too major, but the top right body panel where it meets the chrome boiler cover plate was crumpled and bent.

I am waiting to see how it will be resovled, and thus have been less than enthused about playing with it.

At any rate, I fired it up last night to see if it held water, got pressure, all those things that a fantabulous machine such as this should do. I filled it with a dose of DEZCAL, it came up to pressure wonderfully, and some standard nasty greenish liquid came out with some ancient solids of some sort. This was to be expected. What wasn't expected happened shortly thereafter...

I was emptying the pulls from the group and also from the steam wand into a stainless brew pitcher, when on the third pull or so it had this strange color (black!) and what was in the pitcher was bubbling and hissing, it looked like it was a witches couldron! Seriously! I was so surprised I almost didn't want to empty it down the sink, but it was bubbling everywhere so I dumped it. It ended up staining the pitcher, perhaps indefinitely. I later soaked the portafilter, basket, and the pitcher in Cafiza overnight.

After that, it seemed to go back to somewhat normal, albeit dirty pulls again. What could that be? Was it the rubber seals inside the group? Was it some solids inside the boiler? Do you think Cleancaf or another solution would not have done this? I just want to find out if this has EVER happened to someone else here, it was a first for me.

Any suggestions would be welcomed!
I can't wait until it is all resolved and ready to go! Until then, I have some kinks to work out.

Thanks much,
Chris

Bleu405 wrote:After that, it seemed to go back to somewhat normal, albeit dirty pulls again. What could that be? Was it the rubber seals inside the group? Was it some solids inside the boiler?

Was this a used espresso machine? If so, it could be a horror within the boiler. Steve shares his experience in Restoration of an Olympia Cremina:

srobinson wrote:When you open up a vintage machine you dread opening up the boiler. The black gunk at the boiler cap gives you a hint, but it is not until you pull the heating element off that you fully see what you are up against. This is HB and not Fear Factor, so I will spare everyone from the unpleasant pictures of what I started with....but without a doubt a firm cleaning was in order.

I started with a traditional cleaning which got the surface gunk to a manageable point. At this point I started what I thought was an aggressive scrubbing with scotch bright pads and straight dishwashing detergent. One can barely fit their hand down the throat of the boiler and the bottom rim has a very sharp edge to it. Let's just say that I have found out the threshold of flesh when scrubbing in a very tight cylinder with caustic soap and the risk of trying to withdraw your hand rapidly. Dan can verify that I was sporting a few of my daughter's Hello Kitty Band-aids the next day.

After this step, I was still not happy with the condition of the boiler. It still had a hard petrified scale inside and I was questioning whether I would need to sand-blast it. As with all rebuilding issues, follow the advice of my good friends who tackle much more than I ever will who say "when you can't make progress on a problem, simply walk away...cool off and then come back".

This is what I did and my next angle of attack was to try this weapon:

That is a 5 inch brass wire brush on an 18" drill bit extender attached to my portable drill. Now we are talking....this thing did the trick. It was a tight fit but once I got the RPMs spinning, the black abyss of my boiler quickly turned into this.

Dan is so right- Don't be alarmed until you have cleaned and dumped the tank and flushed numerous times. Never trust what others may or may have not used.

Remember that a de-scaler will not get rid of old coffee oils residue and a cleaner like Joe GLo or Caffiza will not get rid of scale.

So do cleaning on both counts- flush as needed. Fill and dump the boiler several times.

Then see what is being produced ..... no need to jump to conclusions till they are warranted. Just always be careful on these first rounds- people out there do not always consider using cleaners and lubes etc that are food safe... THIS CANNOT BE SAID TOO MUCH! Be secure in knowing that the insides are clean enough before begin you drinking something from the machine.

greg

I had the same thing happen on the second Cremina I bought off Ebay. I ended up pulling the machine apart then thoroughly cleaning the boiler and replacing all the rings, gaskets and seals. I was very glad I did.

Chances are the unit had sat for a number of years without the water dumped and cap on. Then the previous owner used some sort of caustic solution to try and chemically clean out the inside of the boiler. Mine had the same black crud come out of it. See "Olympia Cremina 2: The untold story". Then after running the unit for a while I got another surprise from the same unit. See... "86 Olympia Cremina pinholes in boiler... 'The fix'". It seems the caustic solution that my previous owner attempted to use did not get much mold out but did pit the boiler... I am very glad that I did take the unit apart and brushed out the interior as S. Robinson did. Otherwise you don't know what 'witches brew' you may be drinking.

Parts (Orings, seals and gaskets) for the Olympia do seem obtainable now (for a price). It would be well worth the effort for your own safety and peace of mind to "tear apart, clean and replace"!

Good luck!

Here we go.

Thanks Dan, I thought that I had read the whole "restoration of an Olympia Cremina" article, but I had not seen that part. I will need to do some more digging and reading.

Also, Greg and TUS172, I am pretty sure now that I am going to delve deeper into the insides and do a full gasket and seal replacement along with any cosmetic stuff too. I want to start fresh, and I want to keep the machine for a long time, this way I KNOW what is inside MY boiler. I am a little scared to stick a flashlight down there now...

I will try to update with any progress once I have started the process.

Thanks!

Chris

Good luck Chris... There is plenty of experience on this site... So if you need advice please ask. Also if you can take some pics and post them it would be nice.