One thing I noticed about the Faemina is that even if you hold the lever down 'till nothing is coming out the group, there is still enough water in the boiler to cover the element. Saved my bacon once. This gives you enough time to hopefully catch the situation before disaster.

Normally it should, but when the machine is left on that water will evaporate, still don't know what happened recently but the water was gone and the power off due to a tripped gcli.

Marcel - I assume that it tripped something back at your electric panel? If so, it probably tripped what we in the US would call a Residual Current Device (RCD) which is functionally about the same as our GFCI devices. RCD's typically trip at a higher current than our class A GFCI. But the cause is the same - the device trips when it detects a current imbalance between the current carrying wires, which indicates current must be running through a grounding wire or maybe to ground via a person touching the machine chassis. Not clear to me, though, why that would happen when an immersed element runs dry. You may have just got lucky there.

I suspect that many homes lack GFI and/or RCD devices. Working on the assumption that this is a possibility it is time to go dig out the 1Kv megger and see what has passed its effective end of service life.

Thanks for your thoughts! Our home has like triple protection as it was built three years ago to the latest standards, I think you're right and it is a RCD rather than anything else, I think I'm good there. My own interpretation was also that I got lucky, sometimes the thing trips without a clear reason, I now recall that it tripped a couple of times last year and we have not found an issue with any device, so it could just be a coincidence that saved me and left me puzzled.

These devices are in no way guaranteed to save your life, they are designed to de-energize the circuit the victim is connected to so the rescue squad does not suffer accidental electrocution by coming in contact with the still energized victim.

Don't agree with that, but won't start an argument..the system is designed to cut off current below cardiac fibrillation occurs but isolation and insulation are imo more important. Having some vintage Russian capacitors connected directly to 230V lying around might show that I'm not overly scared by electricity but I nevertheless do take regular electrical safety serious

I know this is an old thread, but it's a current topic for me.

I've purchased a Conti Prestina (restored) that currently has a 220V heating element. I'm considering replacing it with a 110V one, since the plugs where I want to house it are 110V. But because the retrofitted A/C ducts fill the entire crawl space under our 80 year old house, running a 220V circuit might mean digging a tunnel. My husband would not be pleased!

Am I right to be concerned? I own a 2000W step-up/down transformer. Does anyone know what the wattage is for the Conti's 220V element?

Sue

The wattage should be stamped on the element cap. My guess would be 1300.