Rocket Cellini w PID - no temperature over 100C

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trader144
Posts: 3
Joined: 8 years ago

#1: Post by trader144 »

HI,

I purchased a Rocket Cellini v3 PID a month ago - brand new machine.
After a few weeks of use, it started tasting poor and shorting out my house outlets. Soon the unit immediately shorted out upon startup and would not power up. An inspection revealed a broken heating element (the new wand kind that looks like a light saber). The wand was split open and it was obvious that water was shorting out the heating element. I was previously using Reverse Osmosis water.

This "improved" kind of heating element has a white powder inside a stainless steel case; the downside is if it ruptures the powder cakes everywhere inside the boiler, in all of the lines, and in your steam and water wands. It requires alot of flushing and I would much prefer an alternative heating element.

So I cleaned the boiler inside flushing with water and a wooden spatula stick to loosen the white gunk and replaced the heating element. I re-primed the machine and now it starts up and fills without a problem.

The current issue I have is that it heats only to 100C, and stops there (even though the PID is set to 123), and I have no steam and nothing out coming of the hot water wand; I do get water flowing from the brewhead. When using a thermometer to measure the water, I am still not over 100C. The reason the temperature stops at 100C is because the vacuum valve does not seal--it hisses and leaks steam continuously. This leaking prevents the boiler from increasing the water temperature above 100C, even after waiting a while. If I briefly close the vacuum valve with a pair of pliers, it seals quickly and then the boiler heats to 123 with no problem and I can make espresso again. At this temperature I have steam and hot water out of the hot water wand.

As recommended herein, I have cleaned the tank side of the vacuum breaker valve with a q-tip (white power caked all over) and I have soaked the vacuum valve in vinegar and salt to clean the o-ring and teflon ring, rubbed it clean and rinsed it heavily. The o ring and teflon appear to be in very good condition (only a few weeks of use).

As also recommended I have tried various positions of the water sensor probe. It as not originally all the way in but I tried all the way to partially pulled away from the boiler. Neither position changed the situation. The water appears to fill on call and stops. I have emptied and reprimed.

I have also cleaned the temperature probe and the water fill probe to remove the white deposits.

The only reason I can see that the valve is not closing is because there is not enough steam pressure in the boiler to push it closed and this is either (i) a faulty valve or (ii) the new heating element is not hot enough or (iii) too much water in the boiler. One of the posts said if the boiler is overfilled it will not produce enough pressure to close the valve. When I had the water sensor (cleaned) and pushed in as far in as it would go, I still had the same problem.

Update: after a few times of closing the valve and brewing espresso at 123C, the PID now lets the temp rise above 123C and it seems to rise all the way to 135C (of course I now shut it down before it gets there as that is probably dangerous pressure).

I live in Arkansas, so I prefer not to ship my unit to an authorized service center.

Any suggestions would be appreciated.

David

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homeburrero
Team HB
Posts: 4863
Joined: 13 years ago

#2: Post by homeburrero »

Given that it's only a month old, I think you certainly should wrap it up and send it back for repair or exchange, hopefully covered by warranty.

You aren't clear as to whether the failed element simply tripped a GFCI, or if it tripped an over-current circuit breaker. If it was the latter there may easily have been enough current running through the machine to damage other components. For example, if the SSR were failed closed, that would explain why the temp keeps cruising up beyond your PID setting.

Also, your steam boiler safety valve may be clogged in the same way as your anti-vac was, so it's probably worth replacing that as a precaution as well. I think the white stuff in those rod type elements is magnesium oxide, but there could be other things in there as well that aren't so easily rinsed and flushed, and which might cause future clogs.
Pat
nínádiishʼnahgo gohwééh náshdlį́į́h

trader144 (original poster)
Posts: 3
Joined: 8 years ago

#3: Post by trader144 (original poster) »

So nice to get advice thank you!

At first it started tripping the gfci and I read that sometimes these do that so I moved it to a non gfci outlet. That worked for a few weeks and then it tripped the big breaker. This was probably due to the slow death of the heating element.

With the new heating element it now heats slowly to 100 but will not close the vacuum breaker valve. I have soaked the valve in vinegar and cleaned it with a q tip twice.

If I hold the breaker valve shut for a few seconds it will seal and I can get enough heat and pressure to brew espresso.

But I have to keep an eye on it as the pressure will go above 2 bars if I do not shut it off.

Any ideas why the valve won't seal? Maybe the PID isn't sending enough power to the heating element to get the pressure high enough?

I have contacted the company and we are working out a replacement.

David

trader144 (original poster)
Posts: 3
Joined: 8 years ago

#4: Post by trader144 (original poster) »

Success!

So my machine had a heating element failure (cracked and the magnesium went everywhere in the machine).
As a result I replaced the heating element with a new one. After this replacement, the machine would heat to 99 degrees and the vacuum pressure valve would not close. It would simply spurt steam forever (or spurt water if I had the tank fill level indicator pulled up too high).

If I manually closed this valve the machine would then heat to 122 degrees and I could brew espresso.
But overall heating my boiler took 45 minutes.
And, the recovery time after brewing a shot to get back to 122 degrees was long too.

it would not go past 99 degrees unless I manually closed the vacuum valve - then it would heat property.

The problem - my replacement heating element was 220v and I needed 115v.
after replacing my replacement with a 115v, everything works and I heat up to 122 degrees in 8 minutes.

key words: spurting vacuum breaker, slow heating, will not get hot, won't heat, steam from vacuum breaker, recovery time

I replaced everything: the brain, the pid, the wiring, the thermostat, the heating relay and it still didn't work. It was always the wrong heating element (dealer was shocked to find out all they had from Rocket was 220v).