Hi everyone,

I just stumbled upon this machine and finally was able to connect it to water and power.
At first the motor didn't work when I first turned it on. I then took it apart and spun the shafts (I think it seized from being in storage) and was able to get it to run. However, once it runs it starts to pulse and sound like it is dying. I don't think a bad capacitor could cause this? and if the pump is running great initially, I don't think the pump is seizing itself after a few seconds of running. Any ideas?

Here it is in action:
Although it is pulling water from a bucket, I've never had any issues with my other rotary machine (Faema Due 2 group). It had enough water, so I suspect that the water supply isn't the issue (I may be wrong).

Thanks!!

no ideas?

I have an Epoca with 1 GH that I'm trying to rebuild from scratch and would be very interested to get my hands on any information or build manuals you might find. Unfortunately, I don't have any advice for your question at hand.

anyone else have any idea how they would approach this?
I'm thinking about buying a new motor.

The first thing I would try is to disconnect the water pump's water output hose from the espresso machine side. If the pump water flow from the hose with no issue and the pump runs smoothly...then you have a partial blockage in the water circuit (blocked jet). From what I hear in your vid, the pump is building up head pressure and causing the motor to load up....try this and let me know what you find.

Thanks for the reply, I'll hopefully try that this next weekend.
I can't believe I didn't think of that.

So I was able to disconnect the line from the pump and was able to run the pump without stalling/seizing. I think that rules out the pump being bad. Although the pump seems okay, we measured the capacitance of the motor capacitor (disconnected) and it tested to be about 4.5microFarads (which the capacitor is rated/labeled to be 6.3 microFarads). Don't know if that's a big issue.

I was able to replicate the pump stall by placing my finger on this drain hole, creating pressure in that line.



So I guess i'll have to do a tear down and see if a jet is blocked? or if some pipe is blocked?

Also, does anyone know how this water level sensor works? Is it supposed to fill based on how high that sensor is on the clear tube? It didn't start filling the boiler regardless of how high or low I moved it.



Thanks!!!

You shouldn't be able to stall the pump by putting your finger over the end of that drain, that drain is the opv drain, was there water coming out when the pump was running?

If the jet was blocked that opv valve should be open dumping high pressure water into the drain pain.


Yes that's the new Rancilio level sensor , the light should be red if you move it up and green if it senses water.

You can also fill the boiler manually using the small black valve on the bottom of the machine.

stuartmac wrote:You shouldn't be able to stall the pump by putting your finger over the end of that drain, that drain is the opv drain, was there water coming out when the pump was running?

If the jet was blocked that opv valve should be open dumping high pressure water into the drain pain.


Yes that's the new Rancilio level sensor , the light should be red if you move it up and green if it senses water.

You can also fill the boiler manually using the small black valve on the bottom of the machine.

Yes, water was dripping out steadily from that hole when pulling water from the group head.

Thanks!!!