Zizo wrote:Thanks, in that case I might give it a try!

One question - is the gasket different from the O-ring that comes with the heating element?

If the new heating element also includes the o'ring then that's all you need. I had to order on separately so make sure it does first. You won't need to unscrew the boiler ring so no base gaskets are needed.

Part #8 in the diagram:
https://www.theespressoshop.co.uk/en/La ... cc-33.aspx

This: https://www.theespressoshop.co.uk/en/La ... -2215.aspx

The heating element I'm looking at comes with an o-ring. If I remove the heating element by undoing the screws (10), doesn't the brass ring (7) and therefore the gasket (6) also come undone? Or can i re-use the same gasket?

Brass ring is screwed on the base of the boiler. It's role is to keep the boiler fixed to the base and steady so it doesn't rotate. The boiler ring also has 3 small threaded holes to hold and tighten the heating element at the bottom of the boiler. The heating element on your model is not threaded but rather attached with the 3 bolts.
There's no need to remove the brass ring in order to change the heating element. Don't touch it

Thank you for the detailed information. I'll give it a try and let you know how it goes!

Well the multimeter arrived so I thought I might as well measure some things before ordering a new element.

The resistance of the element is 55 ohms, which seems about right, that of the safety swith is 0, and across the terminals of the power plug is also 55 with the switch in the On position. Also between either terminal of the power plug and the earth terminal is open circuit, indicating no shorts.

I thought - strange - it seems to be behaving normally. Will I take a chance and plug it in? So I filled it with water and plugged it in, and - presto - it works! And it doesn't trip the circuit breaker.

No quite sure what happened there, but I'm not complaining!

So I got myself a countdown timer switch so this doesn't happen again, and I'm back to brewing!

Thank you all for your help.