So, i've dug my Pasquini Livietta out of the garage as it's time to sell it due to no use for a couple of years.

Turn it on to check it's all ok. Sadly it seems that either the pump is ruined or it's clogged up as no water will come through the shower screen/portafilter.

Just wondering if anyone has experienced this and has any tips to resolve the issue before i go and dismantle the thing.

Oh and if anyone has any tips on how to sell (and a likely price point) a 220v machine then please let me know. A few years ago when i got it off ebay there were Pasquini Livietta / Olympia Maximatic on there all the time but now they seem to have dropped off the face of the earth/ebay.

Thanks

JD

How loud is the pump when you activate it? If you feel like maybe you should wear ear protection or perhaps duck-and-cover, I think you're likely clog-free (no pressure is building in the machine). If it gets a little loud and then settles down to a tolerable noise level (meaning that pressure is building up somewhere), then there's a clog and it's time to bust out the tools. Having just done a rebuild, I can point you at this restoration thread for a complete list of tools you'll need.

Sometimes the pump just needs to be primed:

Pasquini Livietta (Olympia Maximatic) restoration

I have not had this problem since I replaced the pump in my Livietta. But the old pump often required some encouragement before it would work as intended. If you can prime the pump, it might work just fine for a few more years.

In the US, these machines seem to sell in the $300-$500 range. Vintage Olympia Maximatic/Coffex machines will generally fetch an extra $100-$200. Many casual shoppers aren't aware that Olympia was the OEM for Pasquini in the 1980s-1990s.

Thanks to both of you. The pump is pretty loud. I fired it up yesterday and noticed water was leaking. Took the casing off and saw that the boiler had sprung a leak. So maybe that was the problem (if the boiler feeds the portafilter bit - really need to brush up on my machine knowledge). Need to get the leak in the boiler in any case before I can do any further testing.

Thanks again.