Freddy Camacho wrote:Like my wise borderline hoarder friend keeps telling me...

Regrets from buying is better than regrets from not buying.

And its better to have an extra machine and not use it, than wanting to use it but no extra machine.

Really like the "Regrets from buying is better than regrets from not buying." Incorporating that into thought pattern

One of the last things I did before the President was packed was checking the heating element on the boiler. They both work, but I seem to have a more unusual heating element for a 2 group. The top element measured 36.8Ω, or 1315W on 220V and the bottom element measured 67.8Ω, or 714W on 220V for a total of about 2kW. The normal heating element as far as I know is 2.6kW, and this 2kW element is seen on one group machines. If I feel this to be too small for the boiler I'll get a bigger one. One pro if I keep this element is being able to run the Faema on a 20A 110V circuit with a Step up Transformer or perhaps I just buy a 110V element instead.

20A @120v = 2400W so a 120-240 transformer will work fine. The trick is finding a 3kw or larger general purpose transformer that is close enough the shipping is a killer, they are heavy. I bought one for cheap including shipping on eBay. You can not use a control power transformer. The idea is to set it up so heat up and heavy load runs both elements and light load or idle runs on the 714W element if insulated with Areoqgel you could keep it going on about 300W. Areogel: https://www.aerogel.com/ there is nothing like it, unfortunately it is a bit pricey. You can find the product on eBay and ther are differences to consider.

Any update on this President? I know you have been focused on the Bosco

You can probably swap out the heating element for cheap and run it at 110 20amp with enough power just a bit slower heat up time. Pstat should work at 110. Also I suggest adding a modern autofil mechanism and you can go with 110v.

Nope nothing has changed besides its location. I could switch out the heating element to 110V but my primary source only offers 2.6kW in 110V which is just too high for 20A. I am going to get my Gaggia tell running first (which does have its own thread in the repairs page) as it does not need as much work and I got it before the President. We'll see about the autofill. I am personally old school and think it would be neat with the manual fill only though I can see the benefits for having an autofill. No matter what it will need that Sirai as it was gas only originally so no electronics!

April 4 2020 Edit: The follow on restoration thread can be found here
Restoration of a 1964 2nd Series Faema President