Hello all,
newbie here.

I got sick of having to buy a new coffee maker every year or so, the kind that sells for about $100, also I hated the espresso when compared to the results a friend of mine consistently gets with his professional equipment. Here I'm now, expecting delivery of the above goodies later this week.

I'm really scared I might damage my new machine on initial start-up as I have no experience with this kind of semi-automatics, so I downloaded the instruction manual and read it several times over. A video would help me do it, but I couldn't find any on u-tube. The problem here in Cyprus, there are no dealers to take the machine for servicing or repairing, so I have to learn how to do it myself. How do I go about this? any suggestions, please.

What exactly do you want to know? Why do you think you're going to damage the machine? Doesn't the manual tell you what you need to do on start up... like filling the water tank (if it has one), etc?

If you don't know the people you are buying from, and the state of the machine when you get it, your feelings are not unjustified. My chief paranoid fantasy would be that the boiler may arrive dry, and the pump would not be able to fill the boiler fast enough to avoid the heating element overheating and getting damaged.

Due to your relative isolation from expert support, and your need to get acquainted with the machine to allow do-it- yourself maintenance, I'd learn to take the case off first, before plugging it in or doing anything else. That will allow you to open the boiler from above to fill it manually about two-thirds full, or detach the heating element leads to allow the boiler to fill automatically without activating the element.

If these things don't sound too daunting, then I don't think you have much to worry about. Search the boards for more info and ask questions about things you're not sure of, and you'll get off to a good start.

Thank you, you have given me a great idea. I'll disconnect the heating element and let the pump take its time filling the boiler. I do shy away from filling the boiler manually, as I fear it might leak afterwards.