Background
I recently purchased a very lightly used Rocket Giotto Evo v2. The previous owner had it in use for 1 year, it was plumbed with a filter and he used it rather sparingly and had no issues with the machine. Prior to selling, he had it "professionally prepared for storage" which he thinks implies they simply emptied the boiler but he wasn't in attendance and cannot confirm exactly what work was performed.

I've set the machine up to run from the water tank instead of plumbed and filled the tank 3/4 with filtered water according to instructions. I then started the machine and you could hear the boiler fill and begin heating.

Issues / What is not working

• The machine heats up but the boiler pressure gauge never exceeds .2 bar
• The water wand is not functioning at all ( I get no water from it and I feel no heat on the pipes/valve feeding it )

What is working

• The steam wand works flawlessly and I'm getting good steam
• Brew pressure is great (steady 9bar on pulls)
• Brew temps seem to be great as well; I'm getting "water dance" on the flushes and pulling decent shots

What I've tried

• I've run enough steam to hear the boiler auto-fill a few times now
• I've back-flushed numerous times
• I've confirmed the anti-vac valve seems to be functioning as expected (it moves freely when cold and I can see it hiss & pop open/up when the boiler starts heating up)

My apologies if I'm leaving out any pertinent details or using weird n00b terms I'm very new to the espresso world and forums such as HB and others have been a wealth of knowledge thus far so thanks in advance for any/all help or corrections.

I'm open to any suggestions for further troubleshooting. At this point, I haven't opened the machine up far enough to check the connections/etc. on the boiler gauge wires but I was thinking that might be something I look at next.

The hot water tap not working tends to reinforce the fact that there's not enough pressure in the boiler. It's odd that you get enough pressure to produce steam, though. It's possible that the boiler still isn't filling with enough water to get the pressure up to the typical 1-1.5 bar range. If that's the case, then the water fill sensor may not be adjusted properly. Before changing things, did you check with the previous owner to verify that the gauge and pressure were previously okay?

Thanks for the response Dave.

Yup, I've confirmed with the previous owner that the gauge and pressure were previously okay. I suspect that perhaps when the boiler was drained perhaps something could have occurred at that time.

Is there a way to determine the amount of water present in the boiler is sufficient? As I mentioned, I can hear it fill but I don't know if the durations on that are normal or short. And yea, I seem to be getting really good steam.

There a couple of things I'd recommend checking. You may have low pressure because the boiler is overfilled. Too much water in the boiler would lower pressure but still provide enough heat for brewing.

I'd recommend removing the auto fill sensor and probe. Check for scale on the probe and check that the probe is properly mounted. The water will fill to the bottom of the probe and the probe should be fully extended into the boiler.

You may also want to check for scale on the vacuum breaker valve. It may not be sealing well and not allowing the boiler to reach full pressure.

Rocket machines are pretty easy to service and I've removed these items on my Evoluzione in the past without a problem.

I had similar thoughts as well (possibly overfilled).

I've pulled the auto-fill sensor / probe and checked for scale and it looks clean. I also noted that only the very bottom of the probe was wet which would seem to indicated a good water level?



In terms of breaker valve, it seems really clean and operational (moves freely) but I didn't remove the valve and examine beyond that. I've attached a photo of it in the open position.



While I was in there, I also looked for any loose wires/connections, etc. and didn't really find anything.

When the machine is hot, do you hear any noise from the breaker valve? The valve has a rubber seal that could leak. But you'd hear it if that was the case.

It's possible that the pressure stat needs adjusting but that seems like a long shot. You may want to adjust it a bit to see if the pressure rises, just to rule it out.

When the machine is hot, the breaker is pretty silent. It only makes that small hiss sound when water vapor escapes just before the valve triggers during warm-up.

So yea, good question on the p-stat. I forgot to mention that I also tried turning up the pressurestat to see if I could get the pressure to rise at all. I followed the insights from this thread in terms of the particulars of adjusting a Sirai. In the end, I made 3 half-turns total with no apparent change in pressure according to the gauge.

Have you checked the gauge? If you're getting good steam, a normal flash-boil, and if adjusting the pStat has no effect on the gauge reading, it seems to me that the gauge (or a clogged capillary tube) would be the primary suspect. You can use a gauge on your steam wand to check your built-in gauge. One can be made out of an inexpensive 30 psi hardware store pressure gauge, a hose (like a rubber brake line hose) and a couple of C clamps.)