Howdy folks,
I recently picked up a pre-millennium Europiccola for a song, due to the fact that the high heat element is broken.
Now I'm looking to bring it back to life and have a few questions I'm hoping you can help me with.

1) Clearly I'm looking for a 4 post element, the photo below is my current (broken) element.
So, why is it that there doesn't appear to be any elements available with the centre (or resettable) fuse? The only ones I can find are from partsguru and espressoparts. They both appear to offer the same (brown fuse) one (shown below).


2) Any reason why what appears to be the same element would cost $188 at espressoparts and only $95 at partsguru?
http://www.espressoparts.com/product/P10ES/
http://www.shop.partsguru.com/pro...d=21&productId=174

3) What else should I be replacing if I'm popping out the element? Is it just one gasket or are there a couple? Also, I'm presuming that I'll have to go with the brown fuse - is it possible to install a resettable fuse on a four post element? If so, is it worth it?

Any and all help is greatly welcomed.
Thanks very much,
-GB.

First off, I would recommend going to http://www.pavoniexpress.com where the is a lot of good information covering this electrical fuse issue. You have one of the models they refer to with the resettable thermofuse.

As far as the rest, are you certain that the element is 'blown'? quite simple to test the element with a multitester by setting your tester on ohms and test across the ends of the elements....figure out which posts go to which elements (the two posts closest to the edge are one element and the two posts closest to the center are the other element)......almost all of your tests will produce no continuity except the right pair. If you get any reading at all across the element in ohms then likely the element is not burned out. the element can be shorted or broken continuity and this would produce a 0 reading, but if you get anything in between 1 and 0 the problem lies elsewhere, the fuse, or the switch, or even a short or ungrounded machine, so before diagnosing with parts it is prudent to test the element coils. If you have no multitester they are pretty inexpensive and even the el cheapos can do continuity testing.

As far as the price, you should likely, if you test the element as bad, talk with the supplier on the phone to make sure that you are getting the right element. the two coil model is pretty pricey and the one coil about half the price, so this may be the differential you are seeing in the two sources you name. The 95 dollar price is about last years wholesale for this part, so the lower price is either a tremendous bargain and you should buy a bunch and sell them on ebay or check to see what this part is exactly. All suppliers love to sell parts, but I would recommend that you make sure the part you have is bad before launching into a parts buying binge.

Now ask yourself, the machine is obviously very clean, at least underneath from your pics......so if the element if blown, then why? A heating element is a copper wire of varying thickness surrounded by a ceramic insulator, covered with a copper or stainless sheath. To be blown, the copper wire inside the rod has to melt, why would it melt? this points to the thermal fuse setup....is it good, again, more testing.

there is only one gasket between the heating element plate and the boiler...depending on the model year it will be either a flat rubber or fiber gasket or an o ring type gasket, so you should look to see which gasket you have. there are also replaceable gaskets (2) that secure the boiler to the base, one on each side of the base but unless your boiler is loose these should not be needed.

Hey Doug,
Thanks so much for the thoughtful and detailed response.
You're quite correct about http://www.pavoniexpress.com, it has always been my first stop for troubleshooting anytime something appears amiss with one of my machines.
I've tested out the machine in question with my multi-tester and one element appears fine (low heat) while the other (high heat) give me no signal whatsoever. I've tested the fuse as well and it appears to be working correctly too.
In popping out the element, it appears as though the high heat element suffered some sort of "meltdown", as evidenced by the photo below. My guess is that the previous owner left it on without water in the boiler or something along those lines (though I welcome any other thoughts).


Interesting that you mention I may have the resettable fuse, because it certainly looks like it, though there's no "reset" button on it.

Anyway, if folks could let me know there thoughts I'd certainly appreciate it, as I'd love to get this machine back up to speed and it looks (to me) like it should just be an element replacement. I guess the only question that remains for me is whether I should go with the brown fuse on a four post element or if there's a way to use the resettable fuse on the older two-swith/four post Europiccolas.

Thanks everyone,
-GB.

Wow, I guess you diagnosed that one all right! Ugly sight. In my way of thinking, it seems that the thermostatic switch, resettable or not (and yours evidently is an auto reset type, sorry for calling it resettable, which is the type of some, but not all the Olympia Creminas) did not protect the element from meltdown, though it functions in the same way as the brown overtemp fuse.

All of the fancy diagnosis advice was before I realized how easy it is to remove the bolt on element vs the older screw on style. Take note of the gasket inside the rim of the element.....the part that comes from La Pavoni central is an o ring and to me this seems to require a flat gasket which looks like rubber and not the composite material. (we have, over time ordered a lot of parts from the available suppliers just to see what one gets when you order a boiler gasket for example, and then we puzzle over the concept of using this part, not identical to the old one we have, to fix the problem). there is a lot of variation in the older machines and sometimes what they send is not exactly what you had, but will work, and sometimes it won't.

Doug,
I couldn't believe how easy it was to pop out the element either! It took less than a minute, whereas with my Europiccola from the 60's I'm still too scared to try.
I'm now chatting with Edward from PartsGuru, so I should be all sorted out soon.
I'll post any further questions/updates as I go.