I have a relatively new Quickmill Vetrano 2B that's been running great. It's not currently plumbed in. Recently, somebody managed to switch it to "plumb-in" mode after refilling the reservoir and left it on for a few hours. I have no idea what the state was because I was away for the weekend. Remarkably, everything works fine, but I'm trying to see if anything was partially damaged that I should address now to prevent long term issues.

Here was the sequence I was told:

• Reservoir too low so machine turned itself off.
• Reservoir refilled and accidentally switched to "plumb-in" mode.
• Pump running dry because it's no longer pulling from reservoir.
• Brew lever operated to clean screen, but noted less flow than normal. This would probably be because it was just operating off of positive boiler pressure.
• Left for a few hours and came back to PID being off and boilers cold. I asked if the pump was still making noise, told it wasn't, but not sure of the accuracy of that information.

Documentation is limited for this machine so I'm making some assumptions.

• I don't believe the brew boiler heater element was on because the boiler would have been partially drained from operating the brew lever without pumping fresh water into the boiler. I assume this because, when cold, this unit doesn't even turn the PID on until the pump fills the boilers. This would explain why the unit was found (not by me) hours later cold and with the PID off.
• I assume that the pump would have been running the entire time, but I'm told it wasn't. Does this make sense? Is there some sort of internal thermal overload? We're talking hours here so it would have been toast if it was run dry.
• I can't tell if it's just my imagination, but it seems like it ramps up differently now. Before it would spike to about 8 bar, then over a few seconds work up to about 9 bar. Now it seems to just gradually move up to 9 bar, but again, this could just be me looking for something that isn't there. I still can't comprehend that there's no permanent damage.

I really wish there was some documentation on the logic of this machine. For all I know there is a controller that senses a dry run and shuts it down. It's also possible that it quickly overheated, but then wouldn't it automatically kick the pump back on once it cools down? A few cycles of this should have caused some damage.

from the sequence of events you described, no damage would have been caused, stop worrying and enjoy the machine.

There a fill time out built into the autofill controllers for this reason that cuts the power when it can't fill in a period of around 1minute. It saved a vibe pump on my expobar once.

I have the EVO and when the reservoir runs dry the pump stops. The water out the group was most likely releasing pressure from the boiler. Not sure how it responds to no pressure when in the plumbed in switch position but you can test by emptying the reservoir, switching to plumb in and see what happens. Most likely all is well. Finally, there is the 2 yr warranty to fall back on.

DaveC wrote:from the sequence of events you described, no damage would have been caused, stop worrying and enjoy the machine.

Thanks for the reassurance! I tend to overthink and keep tinkering until I fully understand something. Sometimes at the expense of it actually functioning properly...

Teflon1064 wrote:There a fill time out built into the autofill controllers for this reason that cuts the power when it can't fill in a period of around 1minute. It saved a vibe pump on my expobar once.

That would explain my case perfectly. This is why it would be great if there were some maintenance manuals available. It's almost impossible to investigate things like this because it's a matter of guessing whether or not your particular machine has a feature.

Bill33525 wrote:I have the EVO and when the reservoir runs dry the pump stops. The water out the group was most likely releasing pressure from the boiler. Not sure how it responds to no pressure when in the plumbed in switch position but you can test by emptying the reservoir, switching to plumb in and see what happens. Most likely all is well. Finally, there is the 2 yr warranty to fall back on.

The reason I don't want to test this is because that would require running it dry for an unknown amount of time. I do have the 2 year warranty, but it's expensive to ship both ways so not planning on using in unless the machine turns into a brick.

It's also just a matter of curiosity. I'm happy it's working, but the fact that I thought it would be damaged means that it's a good opportunity to learn more about the machine.