Hi All,

First post here so hi!

I recently picked up a Rancilio Midi CD from a cafe upgrading their equipment here, I love my Rancilio Silvia and couldn't resist getting hands on with a commercial machine that seems to share so many of the controls of the Silvia.

Paid £250 (not sure if thats a good deal or not?!)

Came with 3 portafilters, a few spare baskets, blank basket, spare spouts, a couple jugs, a tamper, sprung tamper attachment? and a box full of spares (new gaskets etc)





Under the hood-


Plugged it in and it heated up quickly and produced really good steam right off the bat, haven't tried to pull a shot yet. (Will probably do a full descale and backflush shortly).

Know very little about commercial machine so any info/advice greatly appreciated!

Already noticed a number of parts that could do with replacing; all the indicator lights are cracked, brew switches are worn, screen on the left is leaking a small amount from the nut and a few assorting casing screws missing.

Cheers!
Teddy

Hey Teddy,

Welcome to HB!

A few of us on the forum have had MIDI CD or the DE variants over the years, and they are great machines once you get the know them. They use the same group components as the Silvia for the jet, shower screen, group gaskets, etc... so I recommend switching to the flush shower screens using the pits for the Silvia if you want to do away with the hex-head imprint in the top of your puck.

They tend to run quite hot if the distributor that originally sold the machine opted not to install a thermosyphon restrictor between the boiler and the group, but temperature can be managed with a decent flushing routine, regardless. Mine was designed for a 0.5mm gicleur to be installed behind the big cap on the groups, but I found that instead I had an M8 tapped hole in each group. Installing the gicleur made the machine infinitely more manageable for pulling shots. Without the restriction in the group, the thing sprayed water out the shower screen like a fire hydrant.

Another upgrade I did was installing a kill switch for the pump after I plumbed it in. This made boiler fills silent and allowed me to play around with line pressure preinfusion. The upgrade was very nearly free and really helped me enjoy using the machine day in and day out.

Keep us posted on how your relationship with the machine develops!

Cheers!

- Jake

Thanks Jake! I've just been reading your write up on your mods, your CAD work is incredible.

Regarding the kill switch mod, which seems like the most straightforward to start with. How does the pump kill switch result in silent boiler fills, does the boiler fill off mains pressure when the group head opens? I thought the group on these took water from a HX rather than the boiler?

Also are original parts like the bulbs, switches etc easy to pick up?

Cheers!
Teddy

The pump motor on these machines is controlled by a relay in the logic board box behind the left cover panel. The logic board triggers that relay when the boiler is low, along with the boiler fill solenoid, which allows the water to enter the boiler when it needs to fill. Each of the group switches also trigger that same relay, so by putting a kill switch on the other leg of the relay, you disable the pump until you want to use it.

Boiler fills work just fine when you have mains pressure that is higher than the boiler set point to top up the boiler level. All you hear is a satisfying "clunk" when the solenoid opens and closes. The brew groups don't have any input in filling the boiler. With the kill switch, you can preinfuse at line pressure, which simply opens the 3-way valve, letting line pressure move water through the HX and into the group. Once you're done with preinfusion, you flick the kill switch and the pump kicks on. Easy peasy.

Original parts aren't super easy for these older machines, as Rancilio has made many revisions over the years. For instance, my bakelight steam handle was cracked, so I ordered a new one but got a handle made of fiber-reinforced plastic instead of bakelight. I rebuilt one of my switches when a wiring snafu caused it to explode and it kept working for many years after that.
The lights you see on the machine are actually colored lenses with a barrel/tube on the back that are secured to the front panel and the bulbs are sort of a press fit into the tube on the back of the lens. Not sure if they are readily available because pretty much everything has switched to LEDs these days.

Thanks for the kind words!

-Jake