Riviera Espresso repair

#1: Post by **garethnewman** » March 24th, 2022, 12:10 pm

Hi, does anyone know of a repairer who could service our Riviera Espresso machine? After working well for a couple of years it has suddenly died - blowing the fuse in the plug. Replacing the fuse hasn't worked.

#2: Post by **Nunas** » March 24th, 2022, 2:04 pm

Assuming you are referring to a Zacconi Riviera spring lever machine, you should be able to diagnose this yourself, as they are dirt-simple. Remove the bottom plate and look for any burnt or badly discoloured wires or connections. Should you find none, remove the wires connected to the heater. Put your meter on ohms and measure between the two heater terminals. You should get a few ohms if it's good, infinity if it's failed open or near zero ohms if it's failed shorted. Now, hold one multimeter probe on the frame of the machine and measure the resistance between the frame and each of the two heater terminals. There should be infinity. Frequently, when these heaters fail, they short to the outer wall of the heater.

There's not much more that can be wrong, as these machines are just a single loop circuit comprising the heater, switch and the pressurestat. The chances of it being other than the heater are remote, but not impossible. If it isn't the heater, then check back with us, and we can talk you through using the multimeter to work your way through the circuit to find what might be wrong.

If it isn't a Zacconi, then just ignore all of this