Lelit Bianca tripping the breaker

September 24th, 2022, 12:24 pm

I've had my Lelit Bianca for about a year. It's been working great, until yesterday...

I have it set up on a Wemo and yesterday morning my machine wasn't on- (20A) circuit had tripped.
Turned the circuit back on, fired the machine back on- PID showed the Lelit logo and the second the temperature started showed, tripped again.
There is nothing else on this circuit, but I tried another circuit to try to narrow down the issue. Same exact thing.
Played around a little bit- if I took out the reservoir, the machine powers just fine and I can play with the PID. But if I put the water back in, it trips.
Tried it later in the afternoon... it actually heated up a bit, tripped once the temp got to around 95.
Tried it this morning, got up to around 130 before it tripped.

I'm no electrician, but I feel pretty confident it's the machine and not my house (we recently went through a remodel, the kitchen electric is entirely new). Feels the the boiler is creating a power surge, but I have no idea what would cause that or how to fix it.

Anybody have any ideas?
Thanks.

I got it through Clive and reached out to them-- it's still under warranty, so we'll see what they say.

#2: Post by **Nunas** » September 24th, 2022, 12:34 pm

Does the Bianca have a switch to shut down the steam boiler? If so, shut it down and see what happens. Part of the symptoms sound like a ruptured steam boiler heater. However, this does not square with the bit about taking the reservoir out.

#3: Post by **cafeIKE** » September 24th, 2022, 12:38 pm

With the reservoir out, the heating element could be disabled.

Does it trip w/o the Wemo?

Does it trip non-GFCI circuits?
If not there is a conductive path to earth which is tripping the circuit

September 24th, 2022, 1:16 pm

Nunas wrote:Does the Bianca have a switch to shut down the steam boiler? If so, shut it down and see what happens. Part of the symptoms sound like a ruptured steam boiler heater. However, this does not square with the bit about taking the reservoir out.

To the best of my knowledge the boiler doesn't turn on with the reservoir out (if it's set for reservoir, direct plumbed is a different story). So if there is something wrong with the boiler, it will only show itself with the reservoir in.

I didn't play around with turning the boilers off, as it seems pretty clear it has something to do with the boiler (given it stays on when the reservoir is removed).

cafeIKE wrote:Does it trip w/o the Wemo?

Does it trip non-GFCI circuits?

I immediately took the Wemo out of the equation... it happens without the Wemo.
Non-GFCI outlets (on both circuits I tried)

#5: Post by **slybarman** » September 24th, 2022, 2:19 pm

crazyascarl wrote: I didn't play around with turning the boilers off, as it seems pretty clear it has something to do with the boiler (given it stays on when the reservoir is removed).

Might help narrow down to which of the 2 boilers though.

September 24th, 2022, 2:44 pm

True- pretty sure the Bianca works by first heating over heating the brew boiler, the firing up the steam...

I found this graph, which suggests that's the case... but then again, it/I could be totally wrong.

https://www.instagram.com/p/B7rT5CYADUY/

#7: Post by **ira** » September 24th, 2022, 3:05 pm

Blowing the breaker in the panel usually means a bad short. have you tried taking off the cover to see if you can find an obvious problem? or to see if there is a flash when it blows?

September 24th, 2022, 4:17 pm

Yeah... I was thinking of doing that, but have't yet. Given it's still under warranty I'm going to give it a couple days to see what I hear back. If it's a semi-known thing they might have some feedback.

I also don't really have space to have a half-taken apart machine sitting around for however long it will take to get whatever replacement piece I might need.

#9: Post by **Milligan** » September 24th, 2022, 9:01 pm

ira wrote:Blowing the breaker in the panel usually means a bad short. have you tried taking off the cover to see if you can find an obvious problem? or to see if there is a flash when it blows?

Very true. A GFCI issue can be a lot of minor things but a full blown tripping of a breaker is cause for concern. Sounds like there is a significant short causing it to draw well over 20amp quickly or slighly over 20amp sustained for a decent amount of time. Unless you see a obvious sign such as frayed wires or burnt/melted insulation then it is likely some sort of factory defect showing up like the boiler element being exposed to the water. If it was me, I'd look at every wire in the machine for obvious signs and then drain the boiler and inspect the element. You can do some poking and prodding with a multimeter to see if you can find continuity through things that should be insulated from each other such as the boiler heater lead to the boiler itself (with water in the boiler.)

#10: Post by **cafeIKE** » September 25th, 2022, 12:46 pm

Different types have different trip curves, but 150% current typically takes 15 to 60 minutes to trip.

This is a typical breaker trip curve

More info
Understanding Trip Curves