Hello,

A quick introduction and back ground - I've had my Elektra A3 for 6 years, always had a ESO7 filter supplying softened water. The machine makes about 4 coffees a day, and is always on. I've had the machine back to where I bought it for a service about 3 years ago, and it generally runs without problems. I have never descaled the machine.

In the last couple of months, I've had a problem with my Pressurestat and have noticed some off coloured water coming out of the hot water tap. The pressurestat is fixed - the contacts were getting fouled - so switched and cleaned the contacts and it runs fine again. I'm not sure what would cause the off colour water though.

On the weekend, I powered it down, and took the mushroom off - I noticed some scale forming on and around the gigleur screen and gigluer as well. I'm thinking that it might be time to do a descale. In order to clean out the boiler, and descale it thoroughly I was thinking of ordering a gasket kit from Stefano's espresso care, pretty much completely disassemble the machine, and soak the boiler and tubing in scale kleen for 4 hours. I would also replace the screens, gigleur, and gigleur spring, as well as the brass dispersion block, pressurestat, and expansion valve at the same time.

Is this a bad idea? If I've gone this far, should I replace the water level probe, safety valve and vacuum breaker as well?

Thanks,
Mike

I fully appreciate that your A3 has undoubtedly a higher build quality than my Isomac, but I think your plan has some merit, If you are gonna pop-the hood, it may be worthwhile to replace/upgrade those other components while you are in there.......and 6-10 years represents a lot of wear time. While your at it I'd consider replacing the pressure stat, anything made of rubber, like the grouphead internals, solenoid valve, etc.


For my Isomac I took a more system-by-system fail approach. In retrospect, I wish I had just done it all at once. Consider that unless you have dedicated work space, your machine must be opened-up and spread-out on the counter to 1) diagnose the problem, 2) find the parts & order them, 3) wait for delivery, 4) install and testing, 5) reassembly. That represents a lot of disarray and downtime if you just fix each system failure when it happens.

The flip-side is of course that you may spend a a good size stack of quarters replacing parts for "preventative maintenance" that could have lasted longer.

If you have the mechanical fortitude to break down the machine near 100%, then, well, doing so is not a BAD thing. Replacing all the rubber parts and otherwise "consumable" items, plus a full breakdown and descale, will on reassembly, give you a basically brand new machine. And everyone here knows how awesome a brand new shiny sparkly machine is.


That said..

Doing a regular descale isnt that hard, and you can save yourself a lot of time and effort.


I would say, if you WANT to break down the machine and replace stuff and do a full deep clean of the machine, go for it. JUST dont feel like you need to do that. Because you certainly don't NEED too.

How "consumable" are things like the water level probe, safety valve and vacuum breaker?

Does anyone have any concerns about soaking a boiler in a descaling solution for a couple of hours? Any good resources on doing this?

When I first brought my A3 home I was surprised how easy it was to strip it to the frame. I replaced everything I regarded as consumables, ie anything rubber, washers and filters. The boiler was badly scaled so I soaked it in a proprietary descaler. This is where I urge caution because if left in the solution too long it will eat away at the solder joints so go by the manufacturers directions. I did most of it in the solution and finished off with citric which is comparatively benign.

The A3 is just like a big mecano set so I wouldn't be too daunted if that's the way you want to go. You'll certainly get to know the beast.

Edit; Take photos!

My A3 is around 10 years old and runs 24/7. I run a descale on it once a year as a matter of preventive maintenance. There is no real need to disassemble the machine.You can do a good descale with the system intact especially with as little scale as you describe. I get that in 6 months. If you had caked on scale then yes, a disassembly may be a good idea but that light, not really needed unless you just want to go through all the work.

I simply overfill the boiler (after draining it via the water tap as much as possible) and let it heat and soak for a couple hours. You also have to flush out the water in the heat exchanger with descale solution. Then power it off, flush it out via the water wand, overfill again and let it heat and soak. Then do a through system flush.

As to parts, I just recently went through the same process when my pressurestat started to fail.

Elektra A3 - how to rebuild Sirai pressurestat and descale

A new pressurestat is not much more than a rebuild kit which only replaces the diaphragm, not the points. So I ended up replacing it with a fresh one. I think 10 years was a good run from the original. The group filter I would replace, spring no reason to replace it, the Giggleur gasket, group gasket (replace about every year), vacuum breaker (always keep a spare on hand) and the group bell gasket (between the flying saucer and group body). There is no reason to replace the dispersion block or screen unless they are damaged but having a spare would never hurt. The steam/water valves I just took off and cleaned. No reason to replace the level probe. Most probes are generic so you have to cut them to the proper length based on the one inside the machine.

Dave

flyingtony wrote:Hello,

On the weekend, I powered it down, and took the mushroom off - I noticed some scale forming on and around the gigleur screen and gigluer as well. I'm thinking that it might be time to do a descale. In order to clean out the boiler, and descale it thoroughly I was thinking of ordering a gasket kit from Stefano's espresso care, pretty much completely disassemble the machine, and soak the boiler and tubing in scale kleen for 4 hours. I would also replace the screens, gigleur, and gigleur spring, as well as the brass dispersion block, pressurestat, and expansion valve at the same time.

Is this a bad idea? If I've gone this far, should I replace the water level probe, safety valve and vacuum breaker as well?

Thanks,
Mike