Hi all

My one month old Izzo Alex Leva has been making this strange gurgling/burbling sound from the boiler since new.

The noise seems to come when the heating element is active.
(I edited/cut the 5 second steam flush out of the video because it was noisy.)

The noise is always present; it's moderate during idle (first few seconds of the video) and more intense while heating up or while steaming (last 18s of the video is the noise after the steam valve has been open for a few seconds). Once the machine is turned off it almost completely disappears, and its completely gone once the machine has cooled a little.

I assume that this noise is unusual/not normal?

My own thoughts are that the water level could be too low?

Thanks

Likely that.

So it keeps adding water and boiling and adding water and boiling? How is the fresh water intake behavior as that would be a good sign

No the water filling acts normally; after flushing, pulling a few shots and steaming milk it will refill. After refilling the PID temp display falls to 108ish Celsius (winter here so intake water is cold), but quickly returns to 128. When sitting idle (at 128) it doesn't consume any water.

The machine works perfectly, makes excellent coffee; takes about 45 minutes to heat the group head from cold as expected etc.

The only issue is this popping/gurgling/burbling sound that's always coming from the boiler. Quite annoying/worrying from an otherwise silent machine.

I will get hold of the importer but I was hoping it was something I could fix myself.

Hi Thomas, definitely not normal, Did you remove the cup tray so you could look at the top of the boiler for something obvious, like the vac valve? Jim

AntelopeCruise wrote:No the water filling acts normally; after flushing, pulling a few shots and steaming milk it will refill. After refilling the PID temp display falls to 108ish Celsius (winter here so intake water is cold), but quickly returns to 128. When sitting idle (at 128) it doesn't consume any water.

The machine works perfectly, makes excellent coffee; takes about 45 minutes to heat the group head from cold as expected etc.

The only issue is this popping/gurgling/burbling sound that's always coming from the boiler. Quite annoying/worrying from an otherwise silent machine.

I will get hold of the importer but I was hoping it was something I could fix myself.

So I pull about 4-6 shots a day. It only fills the water every 1 to 2 days.

This suggests that the both the upper sensor is too low (also the lower sensor could be too low but not as critical). So it is calling for water too early instead of having a much fuller boiler to work with. Much fuller is more stable of course and less boiling needed but I'm still thinking the lower sensor is a bit low too.

Thank you for the reply Jason, that sounds very reasonable, I will pull the top off and see if I can adjust the height of the top sensor. It does in fact sound like my machine refills much sooner than yours, and if the water level is too low and leaving some of the heating element uncovered that could explain the sound, and potentially overheat the element I assume. I have previously restored a NS oscar as a project, and I assume the Leva uses the same system with a metal wire/rod water level probe.

Jim - thank for the reply - I've been inside it a few times, haven't specifically looked at the vac valve but everything seemed normal. I don't think it's an under pressure issue though, as opening the hot water faucet or steam doesn't improve things.

Also I listened carefully today mine does the bubbling noise when heating element is heating but it is only loud when water level is low. The sensor cant go as low as the heating element so I wouldn't worry about that.

All my larger boiler machines have made the noise as the larger boiler reverberates the sound. Particularly the Rancilio S20 and the Classes 8 I owned.

Seems normal to me. Different boiler, different elements they all make different noises. Some are more noisy than others.

My Leva is about three months old now and make no noises at all. At first I was concerned the boiler was not heating when I first turned it on, so I watched the PID display to make sure it was increasing.
Are you on a standard 120v line?

Chappcc, very unlikely the op (Antelope Cruise ) would be using 120V, Denmark is 230V