I think I found what the unmated electrical connector is for. It appears there was an optional electric cup warmer:

Alan, I am definitely coming over for a shot on that machine! Guess you can't bring that to the Farmer's Market like you did the Sette!

I'm switching over to the indoor Stangl Market in Flemington on Saturdays for the winter. Getting a suitable electric hookup would be a problem, but never say never...

So I'm thinking out loud here: The design of this machine is so simple that, other than gaskets, few parts should be needed. The safety valve for $38 seems a given for a 10 year old machine. The p-stat needs to be checked as well as the manometer probably just replaced. It's cheap enough and since the machine took a freeze hit, it's accuracy would be suspect. Hard to check a p-stat without a functioning manometer.

Speaking of p-stat, is converting the machine to PID control a bad idea? There is certainly enough room on the body panels to cut a mounting window.

You should check the boiler and circulatory system for scale and take the opportunity to remedy that if necessary. While a commercial coffee shop should have had its water properly treated to achieve the optimal level of hardness (with the right mineral constituents), it's certainly possible they didn't, or perhaps weren't consistent enough about it.

Yep...I'm likely going to teardown the entire machine, clean it all up, replace some parts and reassemble. I picked this up more for a hobby than the 'pleasure' of owning and using a 3gr, 16L, 6000W espresso machine in my home . I'd have to build an addition to make room for it. I just like taking things apart, figuring out how they work and then getting them to work well again.

But who knows; if my little coffee roasting business goes full time, it would definitely be lever-operated.

Almico wrote:Speaking of p-stat, is converting the machine to PID control a bad idea? There is certainly enough room on the body panels to cut a mounting window.

No reason not to, though I think I'd hide it behind the drip tray, seems like a digital display would look out of place on that machine. And you'll need three 20 amp SSRs on some sort of a heat sink. I'd put in series with the pressurestat so you leave the pressurestat in place as a safety.

Also, if you're not serving as fast as the machine can go, pulling one or 2 elements, i.e., running at only 2000 or 4000 watts might work fine. Might make it much easier to find power. Bit longer to warm up would likely be the biggest downside. Maybe some insulation on the boiler would help it do better at lower wattages.

Ira

ira wrote:No reason not to, though I think I'd hide it behind the drip tray, seems like a digital display would look out of place on that machine. And you'll need three 20 amp SSRs on some sort of a heat sink. I'd put in series with the pressurestat so you leave the pressurestat in place as a safety.

Also, if you're not serving as fast as the machine can go, pulling one or 2 elements, i.e., running at only 2000 or 4000 watts might work fine. Might make it much easier to find power. Bit longer to warm up would likely be the biggest downside. Maybe some insulation on the boiler would help it do better at lower wattages.

Ah...I did not know there were 3 heating elements. I hadn't gotten that far yet. My shop is wired 12ga with 20A breakers on the 240 circuits. If I don't have to use the roaster plug, I can set it up semi-permanently. An extra 20 minutes warm up is nothing for the time being.

It appears there is a 230V, 4300W element available:

https://www.espressoparts.com/parts/com ... oca-classe

Almico wrote:It appears there is a 230V, 4300W element available:

And that's 3 elements also, so you get your choice of 4300, or 2866 or 1433. No reason to replace the element if the one you have works.

Ira

Ugh...

I wanted to take a peak inside the boiler so I removed the side panels and tried removing the heating element:



I loosened the 3 mounting bolts, but it would not budge. I pried a bit and finally got it out a bit to see why:



Mega scale. So much so that it spread the legs of the heating element as it grew:



Inside the boiler;



The boiler door, and that's the water fill port:



The other side:



And after the scale was chipped off:



So it looks like I have a real project on my hands, especially if it's coating the entire circulatory system.

.