Hi!

I am having issues with my machine.
At first the machine wasn't used for couple of months. After that the pressure to group head was fluctuating between 4-10 bar. Some water still came out of the group head.
I moved the machine to the basement to wait for repair.
It has now been there about two months because I just haven't had time to look in to it.

First I cleaned the Ulka pump but there didn't seem to be any issues there.
Seems to be working fine although very noisy.

After that I noticed that all the water flows back to the tank when the brew button is pushed.
I tried to change the OPV and it does stop and slow the flow back to the tank but the machine goes very silent. And still no water comes out of the group head.

I did descale the machine but very little lime scale came out of the machine. Perhaps there is a blockage somewhere where the acidic water couldn't reach?

Any ideas how to proceed with this? I will be taking it to professional repair if I cannot get it to work but due to limited budget at the moment I would like to repair it myself.

-Jari

Edit:
Steam wand works and hot pressurized wated comes out of the hot water tap.

What do you mean when you write "First I cleaned the Ulka pump but there didn't seem to be any issues there" ?
Did you check the flow downstream?
When a vibrating pump fails, usually there are no visible issues.

More than likely, your check valve assembly is blocked shut. Disassemble, take plenty of pics, reassemble.



Edit: On 06/17, I substituted a much better pic of the water system. This is one that I had previously created.

Thanks for your replies!

I have water now from the brew head.
The issue was the 3 way solenoid valve and the union elbow with the small part inside it (JET M6 X 6 HOLE D1.2 OT). It was completely stuck. I kept the parts for several hours in descaling liquid.

Now the new issue is that when the temperature of the boiler rises there is a constant flow from the drain fitting to the drip tray. I believe I have reassembled the 3 way solenoid valve correctly but could have I made a mistake there? Or is the valve broken? Or something else?

And when I do a backflush there is pressurized water in the blind filter. So that doesn't seem to be working either. The pressure seems to be very stable against the blind filter.

-Jari

And while my diagram was incomplete, that's why I said:

Disassemble, take plenty of pics, reassemble.

These pics would help anyone else experiencing the same problem in the future. These forums are a "two-way street".

It seems as though your brew solenoid is not releasing the pressure

I read your post after I had removed all the parts etc. And my only camera is my very crappy phone so the pictures are not so good.

It turned out that I had the arrow pointing to the wrong direction. I changed the direction today and now the pressure is released correctly when using a blind filter. No leaking from the valve to the drip tray any more.

The main issue was the blocked union elbow above the solenoid valve which has the small screw inside it.

Everything works now. Thanks for your help all!