Espresso machine tripping GFIC after descale

Equipment doesn't work? Troubleshooting? If you're handy, members can help.
petr0x
Posts: 81
Joined: 9 years ago

#1: Post by petr0x »

Hi all,

during descaling and cleaning the manual E61 machine I am surprised what happened.
I descaled the STAINLESS ! boiler completely and put everything back. What happens now is that the domestic RCD switches off (GFIC in the USA), like if there is short circuit to ground. I disconnected the heating element, which was the problem (without it I can run the rest of machine). But then I wanted to check the resistance of element to boiler and found, that I cannot measure it, because there is corrosion working on it = If I measure voltage between element and boiler I get about 0.6V (measuring resistance with small multimeter gives faulty values because of the voltage). This means there is something like "battery" between these two metals, stainless boiler and copper tubing. I can say that the corrosion was also visible before I cleaned it.

I wonder if this is normal or if there is some other problem. There could be really short circuit, but I think it is the "battery" that causes this problem.
Do you have any ideas?

kize
Posts: 271
Joined: 13 years ago

#2: Post by kize »

Are you metering the element/boiler with the machine still plugged into the wall outlet ? Because you can have trace voltages seeking chassis ground. If you are -pull the plug from the wall then check for resistance faults from element to boiler. I have seen many machines that get descaled (that have a border line working element ) and the solution exposes a pin hole on the element. Whats even more maddening is I've seen this pin hole show a high resistance short from element to ground then disappear due to the boiler being drained. If you are picking up stray voltage after being unplugged from the wall- ground the chassis and then measure element pole to pole and poles to ground. The fact that you can run the machine with element disconnected points to a bad element.

petr0x (original poster)
Posts: 81
Joined: 9 years ago

#3: Post by petr0x (original poster) »

Hi, thanks for reply.
Of course I have disconnected the machine from mains.
Today I managed to remove boiler (again) and also remove heating element. It does not look bad, unfortunately the problem is here. Element works, but there is some corrosion between the element and case so there I can measure the voltage and it also makes electrical connection, which switches off RCD (or GFIC). I tried to power up the element from wires directly with no ground and I could measure live wire on the whole machine casing. Not a good idea to leave it this way.
Next week I will order new element

kize
Posts: 271
Joined: 13 years ago

#4: Post by kize »

Have to agree- not a good thing. If your gfi wasn't working that would have potential to electrocute some one or burn your house down. Glad you got it sorted out. I don't have hard water at my place and avoid descaling. Creates to many other problems.