Hi Guys,
I've had my Alexia w/PID for almost a year now and recently noticed a burning plastic smell. Turned off the machine and took a peak inside.




The shop I took it into repaired it no problem but I'm a little concerned about the machine as I treat it very well and never move it. Why would the coupler burn like that all of a sudden?

My other concern is I've heard the PID kit is supposed to come with additional boiler insulation, yet what I got installed from the shop just has the stock black foam around the boiler which has definitely shrunk into saran wrap - might be exaggerating a little, but you get the picture.

Any input would be much appreciated... It's just too expensive a machine to have issues when it's well maintained.

Could simply be a "dry joint" ..or bad electrical connection.
It happens sometimes with those crimped connectors.

I've had the same machine since June. The first month the black foam insulation out-gassed and really caused a stink in the kitchen. The smell is gone now but the black foam is meant for insulating cold tanks, not really hot ones. See 'Armaflex'. I'll soon replace it with high-temp boiler insulation. I've learned to open espresso machine every 6 months or so and inspect the wiring terminals. A company that makes the best ones is Stakon. Cheaper ones are sold everywhere else and they lose their tensile strength, get loose and over-heat. Any discoloration, and I replace them with a pro crimping tool and Stakons. After a few years, I had weeded out the bad terminals on my original machine.

Otherwise, its a great machine.

Dave

Chalky wrote: Why would the coupler burn like that all of a sudden?

Resistance caused by corrosion in an unsoldered crimp connection &/or a sloppy fit between the male/female connectors will generate heat in a connection. Add in the hot environment & it only gets worse. Make sure the connectors fit tightly together & consider soldering the crimps if you are a competent solderer.

Those spade connectors can be problematic. It is a good idea to go through a machine and make sure all the spade connections are good and tight. If you have one that is sloppy it is a good idea to replace it. You don't want arcing in the connection.

The particular failure the OP is showing is clearly at the crimp area. Unless you know what to look for, it would be hard to find as the spade was probably perfectly fine. It is even possible that someone trying to test for a good spade connection could cause such a failure if they pulled on the wire instead of the plastic cover to test.

It is good to test for good connections, wiggle the wire gently to see if it seems firmly crimped, and wiggle the spade grasping the insulating cover.

I have not seen anything like the above on my PID's Alexia, but the thermocouple connection into the pid was loose and caused the readings to go bad every once and a while. It seemed to me that they put the thermocouple into the wrong hole... it was plugged into the terminal release hole instead of the actual terminal. They are push in connections for bare tinned wire.

Jim

Thanks for all the responses guys, very informative. I'm hoping the shop tech checked the other wires when he replaced the problem component. I've got the machine back now in working order but have thought a lot about the insulation. It seems kinda crazy for such a high end machine to cut corners on something as trivial as insulation. Can anyone link me to a good replacement insulation I can order online?

I think the PID kits at one time included a pre-cut insulation kit...