Hi,

I was given my shop's old 3-group La Cimbali Dosatron M32 when we just recently upgraded to a La Marzocco. The espresso installer gave me a few tips on hooking it up at home, but wouldn't go into a ton of detail. I know it was set up for single phase and needs a min of 208v. When I looked online, I found a few things saying that I need a 40Amp outlet, but the espresso tech say that I should be fine using a 30amp outlet and plug. As I have washer/dryer hookups but no washer, or dryer, I felt this would be the ideal place for it. So, here's where I'm at now - I have a 3 prong 30amp dryer power outlet so I went to home depot and got a 30/50amp wire able plug. The power coming from the espresso machine is Black, White, and Green so I wired up the Green to ground and the black and white to the two hots. I accidentally got the wrong water adapter (got a 3/8" to 3/4" but needed a 1/2" to 3/4") but I figured I'd go ahead and try it so I wired the plug and see if I'm getting power. Wire it up, plug it up, turn the main switch into the 1 and then 2 position (i'm pretty sure position 2 is the On for electric, but we usually just left the machine on all the time and sometimes used the computer timer to turn it on and off) and I get no dice.

I checked the outlet with the voltmeter and it is getting power as is the power cable all the way to the espresso machine. I know that this machine was working in the shop a few days ago and shouldn't have had anything broken in its short trip to my house. The other thing I'm wondering about is if there is some sort of automatic thing preventing it from turning on without water pressure as it isn't hooked up to the water line yet.

Thoughts?

Thanks. Can provide pictures if necessary.

I have sent this link to anyone looking to convert or wire up a 120 / 240 / 208v machine themselves. Read through it all, it provides a decent explanation of various types of power.

http://www.thecoffeebrewers.com/electricity.html

I will post more later, but this is the most important part of what I was going to say.

Manuals for the M32 including electrical diagram... there are nice bits of information like:

The machine is factory-made for the voltage indicated on the nameplate
data. If the voltage is different the connections must be changed. See
figure. ATTENTION: In U.S.A. " N " is NOT NEUTRAL wire but phase wire

La Cimbali M30 Classic manual: I've got it (pdf)

Drew,
The power switch has three positions. All the way to the left (CCW) is off, one click right turns on the electronics, and the next click turns on the boiler. I know when I bought my used La Cimbali M29 and hooked it up at home nothing seemed to work right until the boiler had the appropriate amount of water in it, so I would not over react to things being broke until you have the water plumbed in. And when the water is plumbed in, don't turn on the boiler until it is full of water.
As far as power consumption, 30AMP vs 40 AMP, I would start by looking at the electronic data plate (on mine it is under the drip tray). If your machine sucks more power than your are wired for, you will either trip a breaker, start to heat up wires, or both. My machine is running off a dedicated 220v 30 amp circuit and I have had no issues, but I don't know if the power requirements change with a DT3.
Good luck!

I had a read through the manual for my M32 Dosatron DT2 (2 group with the turbosteam feature) and it stated that there are a number of interlocks in this machine. A interlock (at least in the oilfield) is a "enable" function that makes sure that one thing can not happen until other conditions are fulfilled.
On this machine, filling the boiler is one of them. I have forgotten if the machine stays dead until the boiler is filled or if it simply the triac board that energizes the heating elements that is not energized until the boiler is filled.

I am in the process of de-scaling my boiler on my M29, so tonight when I get home I will experiment. After I drain the tank I will turn on the machine (just one click) and see what happens. My gues is the green power light, and red low boiler light will come on, but that will be the only signs of life other than the boiler fill solenoid firing and maybe the pump. I'll let you know.

With the boiler empty I turned on power (one click) and the green power turned on, the red low water in boiler turned on, the fill solenoid fired and the boiler started to fill. I still have water pressure, just an empty boiler. Also, the group head work with just power on, they just process cold water. The hot water fill does not work unless there is pressure in the boiler.

Sounds like you are on your way to having a working machine.

Correct me if I am wrong, but you are saying your boiler won't fill?

Mokko wrote:...the fill solenoid fired and the boiler started to fill. I still have water pressure, just an empty boiler...

I have the exact same problem on my cimbali M32 Bistro as Drew. No power (no lights) when I connect the machine and turn the knob one step, and I use essentially the same setup as the cafe from where I got the machine. Any luck resolving the issue Drew?

Many thanks,

Johan

Hi all,
I have successfully setup my M30 dosatron for UK 240v single-phase mains use.

When I got the machine, it was set for 3-phase. In these machines, the controls work from single-phase electricity. The three heating elements are each rated at 240v and can be run from three-phase on delta or star (see wiki) or single phase where they are all connected to the same live and neutral. These are all switched by the three-pole contactor in your brain box. These three poles can carry different phases or the same phase if it is wired for single phase at the drum switch.

BTW, you can select different incoming voltages too - mine has a power board on the left hand side that gives access to different taps on the control transformer.

The total power consupmtion for all three heating elements is ~5.5kw on mine. However, I had a regular UK 13amp outlet available giving me a max power of 3kw. So I rewired the incoming to single phase and disconnected one pair of heater wires. This runs fine, and though it takes a little longer to heat, is quite adequate for home use.

Regarding behaviour, I think that most functions on mine only operate when the boiler has reached sufficient pressure. TBH I'm not sure if the autofill works correctly on mine - I monitor the level carefully and again, it is a home use machine now..

Regarding switch settings: "left" is off, "middle" is electrical only, "right" is water heater.
NB if the boiler is still at pressure, I have found that I can still pull shots with the heater switched off - the interlock doesn't prevent this until the pressure drops too low again.

Finally, only apply heat with water in the can!

Best,
Thom.