What are the symptoms of a ruptured HX?

or that of a hx that has a pin hole leak



If the water level in the boiler/sight glass increases when pulling a shot or backflushing the machine with a blind basket, there can be only(?) two faults. One is a leaking boiler fill solenoid valve and the other is a leak in the heat exchanger.

As the repair shop "talked about" a solenoid and a power surge, they MAY HAVE only replaced the solenoid coil itself and NOT the entire boiler fill solenoid valve. Sounds kinda crazy but if they do end up replacing the solenoid valve, gently remind them that it has an arrow on the body indicating flow direction.

Thank-you for the labelled diagram, Eric. I'm going to drain the machine this afternoon and then take the bottom off and post pictures. I'm having trouble identifying the parts because my machine is configured quite differently from other "under the hood" pictures users have posted.

I really appreciate everyone's input on this. I'm dedicated to both figuring out the issue, learning everything I can about this machine, and possibly helping others who may experience the issue in the future.

Edit:

So, in lieu of draining the machine I decided to do a little test. I turned it off and let it cool for a day and measured from a little ridge on the bottom of the sight glass to the center of the meniscus in the sight glass: 3" exactly. Last night I turned it back on, and this morning I made two drinks (macchiato and cappuccino). I then turned it off and went to work. When I got home I measured the water level: this time it had decreased by 1/6". So although the level appeared to rise during brewing, it seems in reality it did decrease by the expected amount after making two drinks.

Is it at all possible that the sight glass is giving me wildly inaccurate readings while the machine is at full temperature due to the presence of steam/bubbles in the boiler?

da gino wrote:Hi Don, that is not true. I am the previous owner and this was not an issue before it was serviced and shipped - it could have been caused when it was serviced, but since they tested it after service and before shipping, my hunch is something happened in transit.

I accept the rebuke. Please also accept my apology.

As it wasn't doing it before transit then Norm's suggestion has a lot of merit. Give the old girl a thorough upside down and sidewise flush. Remove the steam wand when you do it. You might get lucky and dislodge a bit of gunk.

Also I never thought they might have only replaced the coil. Which is fair enough if they thought it was a power surge that caused the original problem. Although power gremlins can do strange things to magnets which is all the mechanical part of the coil really is.

Hi Don, thanks. No offense taken and I didn't mean to rebuke you - I might have suspected the seller, too, if I were reading this thread and didn't know the machine's history.

To add pieces to the puzzle, I don't know if either of these things can cause a problem, but it makes sense to look at things that changed between when it was working and when it started having these issues. the two biggest things the shop did when they tuned up the machine were replace the vacuum breaker since it suffered from false pressure and replace the gauge because it suffered from the same problem Mark Prince's did in his CG review. (He says "False Reading: The gauge on the Elektra no longer zeros out, and reads about .4BAR when the machine is shut off") at https://www.coffeegeek.com/proreviews/d ... a/longterm). Obviously all the usual gaskets were replaced, too, but I assume those weren't the issue.

By the way, I always used distilled in the steam boiler as suggested here because of the issues others here had come across with a sticky pressure-stat so scale should not be a culprit.

normriff wrote:The first place to look would be the upper and lower sight glass supply tubes and connections for debris and obstructions. Have an extra sight glass and seals onhand or be extremly careful not to break the glass. Flush out the boiler really well, like turn the machine upside down and stick a garden hose inside the boiler.

Could installing the new pressure gauge have affected this since it sits on top of the sight glass?

I would not blame the gauge so much. More often the little plastic needle gets pushed back on the spindle cos of negative pressure and people think the machine is about to explode. (Poof!)

A simple maintenance regime is to every now and then pull the front off the gauge and gently pull the needle off. Push it back on the spindle letting it rest on the peg. Voila! You again have (reasonably) accurate boiler pressure reading. They're not such a bad gauge to start with.

I hate to think of perfectly good gauges getting flushed down the gurgler..

Okay,

So after a few days of turning the machine on at night, making drinks as normal in the morning, and then turning it off again so I can check the sight glass after work when it's cooled down, I believe the Elektra is fixed after all.

I've been backflushing (once time cafiza and several other times with just water) and after a few times a huge glob of (something? grounds? dirty water?) spat out into the drip tray.

The sight glass still appears to rise, and bobs continuously as drinks are made, but when the machine cools down the sight glass has been returning to about 3/4, and has been decreasing slightly consistent with the number of drinks being made.

I'm calling it good for now, although I'll update if I feel there are any developments that could be useful to others.

Also, I want to vouch for SF Coffee Biz-- they responded to my e-mail asking for assistance and offered to let me meet with their expert repairman and go over the problem in-depth, in person. Good guys! They get my vote.

Thanks as well to Hugh for his concern and support.

I was wondering how it was going so thanks for posting the update. I just completed a comprehensive strip down and service on my Semi including a new fill solenoid and the water in the sight glass behaves exactly as you describe. Same as before really so it's pretty well normal I guess.

Enjoy!

Edit; Just an aside, after the machine had sat a couple of days I finally got around to finishing off. Took a quick peek inside the steam valve before screwing on the wand and a tiny spider had built a nest inside. I don't think I would have diagnosed this as the problem had the steam tip started spluttering..