So I'm doing this tonight, in the middle of it, think I followed the instructions correctly, but nothing really prepared me for lots of water underneath the machine.

It appears it came out of the top of the boiler on the left side of the machine for some reason.

Should I be worried?

If you refer to the steam boiler, remember that it has a vacuum breaker. If you fill the steam boiler to the tippy top, water will flow out of it. Only fill high enough to cover the water line plus a bit more. My comment does not apply to the brew boiler since it is a sealed vessel.

Needless to say, water and electricity are a dangerous combination. You should unplug and dry the interior, ideally for 24+ hours. Some use a hairdryer to speed up the process, though I recommend good old patience.

I don't know what I did. I blindly followed directions for my machine (possibly failing in the following part).

I don't even know which boiler is which, though I believe the smaller boiler on my machine is indeed the steam boiler - In which case yes, the water came from that boiler.

But the instructions have you remove a sensor that is for sensing the fill level (to intentionally overfill it I presume).

I still was not prepared for a watery mess on the counter... And somehow I do not think it was supposed to happen

Edit: It is definitely the steam boiler.

me thinks the in/destructions (though I doubt anything is broken with my machine), were more general in nature.

I found more specific instructions from Stefano that appear to be much more specific to my machine.

Strange. But now I get to do this all over again I think. Oh well.

Hopefully I can stop the now SMALL leak from the steam boiler.

I am now wondering if the "leak" is due to not having the drip tray installed for most of the procedure.

I think the water was coming from the 3way valve (or whatever its called), that drains into the drip tray... But since it wasn't there, that water pooled, and went into the "back" of the machine, where it was allowed to drain out thru holes/etc on the bottom of the machine.

There was still much more water coming form the top of the steam boiler though, so I don't think this idea above was 100%, or even close, to the total amount of water coming out of my machine.

The instructions are quite a bit different from the PDF from Stefano. And the portion dealing with the vacuum breaker quite possibly is directly responsible for my water woe's.

If you run water through the group even with no back pressure, there will always be some drip from the three way, especially with a group that stores a lot of water, like an E61; it's not a leak, it's a drain.

On the boiler, you disconnect the level probe to overfill the boiler. BUT, you need to open the steam wand (assuming steam boiler of main boiler on HX machine). When water starts to spit out of the steam wand turn off the power, the boiler is full. Then reconnect the level probe, turn the machine back on and let it heat and soak for a while. You will probably still get some spatter from the vacuum breaker as the machine heats but it will be minimal. If you do not open the steam wand, water will spurt out the vacuum breaker and get everywhere. The breaker could snap shut under the water pressure and the boiler will pressurize to 9 bar and the emergency boiler pressure release will pop. Most relief valves open at around 1.80-2.0 bar, your pump will pressurize the boiler to 9 bar.

All,

The leak has stopped.

I would strongly suggest using the PDF from Stefano, downloadable from:

http://www.espressocare.com/VibiemmeMain.html

I believe all of the leaking was due to the wrong, or a generic, instruction manual for descaling. Most notably no consideration for the vacuum breaker, and no consideration for getting the correct water level back in the machine.

While the instructions suggested here are a *TAD* more complex, they are still well within the realm of anyone wanting to do this themselves. There's nothing hard about them at all.