Hello -

I recently bought a brand new 2014 Cremina. I wanted to get a good idea of how dirty the brew group and shower screen would be after a couple weeks of use.

The circlips of both back and front pins came off easy enough. The back pin also slid out easily. The front pin through the piston, however, is absolutely frozen. It won't budge at all.

Should the front pin of a brand new 2014 Cremina be frozen like this? What are my options to clean the shower screen if I can't remove the front pin and push out the piston?

Thanks!
Andrew

I would talk to the dealer that sold it about the frozen pin. That sounds strange and if you bought it new I will not recommend a bigger hammer

If you can get the group gasket out you should be able to pop the screen of maybe with a dental pick. It just clips over the sleeve. I use the drive the piston technique

I put a aero press filter over my puck before I lock it in, keeps my shower screen nice and clean. A carry over from my pavoni's that like to siphon some fines back in the boiler when I half pump at the top to get e air out.

Thanks for the advice, I will speak to the dealer. I'm also wondering how the lever should feel. On my cremina, when the lever gets just to where the front pin will leave the group head (just past 9 o'clock), it sticks and requires some extra force both on the way up and the way down to continue moving. Is that normal?

I have an 83 and no. The lever should move smoothly in its full pinned range of motion. I wonder if it's your front pin binding.

I have a 2015 Cremina. Does anyone have a diagnosis and/or solution for why my front pin might be sticking? Thanks, -Mischa

Thanks, Dan, for merging this into the previous dormant thread--this is just a bump--my front pin is unexpectedly sticking, something I never experienced on the 4 vintage machines I've worked on. Would be grateful for any advice before I go the "bigger hammer" route. Is it directional, like comes out one way and not the other, etc.

Photos? I think the current Cremina uses an allen style bolt instead of the crappy circlips but not sure. If it is an allen bolt then it probably does only come out in one direction, but photos would help.

Nope, the new Creminas have gone back to circlips. The allen bolts were used briefly in the previous model (the 2002).

As for sticky piston pins this is common with the new Creminas. (I usually enter the brew group from underneath,something one couldn't do in the pre-2011 models. Here there is an allen key entry into the piston itself). I have, however, once entered the piston chamber from above, in which case one has to remove the piston pins. To do so, you have to hammer them out with another metal object that will fit (an allen key for example). They are not frozen, just sticky, in a way the older Creminas are not.