yes, you're right. bad advice that could have terrible results. please do not try this, the risk is too great. I pressed submit too quickly and without thinking it through completely.

Hogfire

I'm not going to do it. Mostly, though, because I can't get to the steam wand without getting close to the pot and if we have a "thar she blows" situation, I wouldn't be very happy. I've decided to jiggle that valve thing in the cap (seems to be on a strong spring and I can push it with a small metal stick) and see if maybe it was just stuck at the beginning. If that's the case, I might even get it to work one time, but I'm still going to insist on a new cap. If it stuck once, it could stick again.

And that's brass; lovely, aint it?

That is indeed the same boiler cap that my Factory uses. The springy plunger in the cap is the emergency pressure release valve. The rubber 'O' ring simply seals the boiler. The hole in the threads is a pressure release hole. Just in case you unscrew the cap while there is pressure in there. You get a loud, hot, PFSSSSS as you unscrew the cap. It is at that point you jump back and go Ouch, because the steam just vented up on your hand. That just kept you from blowing a hole in your head with that cap because you opened a pressurized boiler.

Either your spring is too weak or your boiler is overheating. Most of the time it is the spring. When I power up my Factory, I will open the steam wand. After a little hissing from the valve I close it and let the machine continue heating. It looks like you have ordered a new cap; hope that does the trick for you.

OK, but I was thinking the spring was stuck. Too weak? I can see that, but what about stuck open? I pushed it and it feels pretty tight. The boiler can't be overheating; it happens right away, before it gets anywhere near temp (I think; with no gauge of any kind, I can't be sure, but it happens quickly, within three or four minutes.). Yes, the new cap will hopefully fix it, and I just hope fervently that it's not the boiler.

cannonfodder wrote:When I power up my Factory, I will open the steam wand. After a little hissing from the valve I close it and let the machine continue heating.

Cannonfodder, the intended function of this cap has me confused. When you say "after a little hissing from the valve. . . " do you mean the valve in the cap, or the valve in the steam wand? Everytime my machine starts to build pressure, the boiler cap hisses for about 5-10 seconds, then suddenly shuts. I'm in the habit of releasing some steam from the wand before I begin pulling a shot (even though my Expobar had a vacuum breaker, it wasn't very reliable, which showed in an immediate drop in pressure on the gauge then kicking in the heating element), but it never causes a noticeable drop in pressure on the gauge as with the Expobar. Is it possible that this cap serves double duty, vacuum breaker and over pressure relief, or am I just misinterpreting the initial actions? I can fully imagine that this cap would act as safety release, since pushing on the center piece encounters spring resistance, much like too much pressure in the boiler would do. But how come it also allows some pressure release at warm up? Sign me perplexed but enjoying the fantastic results,

Hogfire

Good that Cannonfodder could put this straight, explaining the purpose(s) of the boiler cap!

There's no nut on the right side of my boiler; no acorn nut, nothing. Nothing underneath, either, except the rubber feet things. It's a Millenium edition, just purchased from Aabree Coffee People. There's a valve type thing under the cap which responds to pressure, and on the instructions, it seems to point an arrow at that spot describing the pressure relief valve. On second look, the arrow points to something which is not present on my machine, and it looks almost like the alternate steam device, but isn't. It's attached to the steam wand. My wand has nothing attached. Could it be that I'm missing an important part?

Some of the confusion in this thread, seems to be related to the fact, that Hogfire's LP must be the Romantica model, and not the standard Professional or Europiccolo. As far as I know the Romantica model comes with and without the eagle on top of the cap that hides the boiler cap. I'm the happy owner of this machine myself!

Some of the confusion in this thread, seems to be related to the fact, that Hogfire's LP must be the Romantica model, and not the standard Professional or Europiccolo.

It was of course Gatewood's LP I was referring to, sorry!

Mine's supposed to be the new Millenium Romantica, but there was no eagle option. I probably would have gone for that. I have measured (best I can with bathroom scale) the pressure it takes to push that spring in; it was about 5 pounds, plus or minus a bit. That seems to me to be a bit weak, but I don't know. I can't wrap my mind around pressure vs. weight as far as the machine goes. Can anybody clear that confusion up for me? If it takes 5 lbs of pressure to release this valve, is it getting up to pressure in the boiler? OK, I wasn't so hot in math in school, and it's been a long time ago.

Hogfire wrote:Cannonfodder, the intended function of this cap has me confused. When you say "after a little hissing from the valve. . . " do you mean the valve in the cap, or the valve in the steam wand? Everytime my machine starts to build pressure, the boiler cap hisses for about 5-10 seconds, then suddenly shuts. I'm in the habit of releasing some steam from the wand before I begin pulling a shot (even though my Expobar had a vacuum breaker, it wasn't very reliable, which showed in an immediate drop in pressure on the gauge then kicking in the heating element), but it never causes a noticeable drop in pressure on the gauge as with the Expobar. Is it possible that this cap serves double duty, vacuum breaker and over pressure relief, or am I just misinterpreting the initial actions? I can fully imagine that this cap would act as safety release, since pushing on the center piece encounters spring resistance, much like too much pressure in the boiler would do. But how come it also allows some pressure release at warm up? Sign me perplexed but enjoying the fantastic results,

Hogfire

From my experience with my own LP Romantica, then I'm sure that Cannonfodder refers to the valve in the steam wand which he opens during warm up, and then closes when steams starts to build up.

Regarding the safety valve in the boiler cap, then I have never experienced that it has released any pressure/steam. I assume that this is because of the pressurestat which is regulating the pressure - typically in a deadband of approx. 0.1 bar.

As mentioned earlier in this thread, if the boiler cap keeps releasing pressure, this could be due to a defect pressurestat or a defect boilercap.

Sorry all, I'll readily admit to creating/adding to confusion by being confused myself and flip-flopping on matters of over pressure release. I remember seeing images of Cannonfodder's boiler cap in another thread, and despite looking physically the same, there was one difference from mine. Have a look:









Cannonfodder's boiler cap didn't have the white markings on top, but who can say if it makes a difference or not? Does anyone else have these markings on their cap, and what do they mean? To add to the confusion, English is not my first language, and American English is definitely not the first English I learnt. Now that I'm living in the U.S., there's a constant battle in my language centres (can't believe I spelt it "center" before) for dominance (and I'm an English Language Arts teacher at an inner-city H.S. oh the poor sodding students!), adding to the already existing cerebral fisticuffs of having parents who have always used three languages intertwined, sometimes completing one sentence with bits of all three. Well, back to the topic at hand, I certainly don't want to be a purveyor of dangerous or mis-information, just a bit 'o help if possible.

To the OP Gatewood, good luck and don't mind my waffling on and on about this, enjoy your little beauty to the hilt!

Hogfire