Hi - long time 'lurker' (have relied heavily on this community without having to post my own questions for years now) so first hello, and thank you for being such a great resource.

I am in the midst of a full refurb on a Brasilia Mini Classic and have basically a 2-part problem: starting with the machine beginning to trip the GFI it had been connected to a few years ago. It's been a while, but I recall getting a measurable connection between ground and heating element terminals (too long ago to say which) and the (shameful) solution was to run the machine from a non-GFI outlet to see what other symptoms popped up .....I know, I know. In my defense, I DID order a new element that turned out to be the wrong one (non returnable, of course) and...well that's kinda where diagnostics stopped; machine continued functioning fine.

Now, years later, I have the machine entirely apart to solve a different problem, I figured I'd at least see what was going on there and have instead found 2 issues:

1. Element seems to measure roughly normal (8ohm across terminals, open to the boiler wall/casing groung....both full and empty)
2. I cannot for the life of me get the screw-in brass plate that the element terminals pass through to budge.




As for 1, my guess would be that there is some kind of small crack in the element casing that perhaps only opens enough for water ingress when warm...unfortunately the machine is in this state right now and testing that will be...a trick:



I can see a bit of the element through the vacuum breaker and fill ports in the top of the boiler, and what I can see looks ok. THere is a small bit of scale buildup at one of the terminals where it passes through the brass plate, but on the outside of the jacket (and teflon insulator) and I would expect a short there to remain shorted when empty...

The SECOND part of this is that I can't budge that mounting plate. I've had the whole mess vised to my worktable, pounding on a monkey wrench handle with a sledge and it still won't budge. I am now alternating descaling baths since the boiler is totally out, and will try again, hoping i've dissolved some of what's locking it in there.....at the same time wondering what sense it makes to continue:

Hesitation 1: I don't have and cannot seem to find a direct replacement for this. I understand this machine is quite close to a Quickmill Alejandra and still can't seem to source the coiled, screw-in, 110v 1400ish W element. (machine plate lists 1700w - I Kill-a-watted something like 1425w with the heater on)

Hesitation 2: I...cannot find anything currently wrong with it? The problem necessitating teardown was unrelated to the heating element and it had been, apart from tripping GFI years earlier, performing fine.

Any tips on either further diagnostics or how to get that #*@! element loose would be greatly appreciated...If I can solve that, I'll post some detail about the auto-filling glass reservoir I've retrofitted to "plumb" it to my filtration system.

Cheers,
-Shane

Hi Shane,
If you can't source the correct heating element, maybe that's a gift to you, and you can now purchase something that you will also come to love, either used or new.

You can probably get that large nut to move if you use a combination of heat from a small hardware store torch, and a product called Kroil, or a product called PB Blaster. Getting the metal hot, letting it expand, and cool, giving the threaded area a shot of Kroil and letting that wick in, and repeat a few times. Make sure you have a socket that is the correct metric, or SAE size, otherwise, you'll just round off the corners and be screwed.

But it all seems to be a mute point.

Thanks guys...I'm hesitant to use direct heat because of the PTFE gasket, nor do I want to introduce any more chemicals than I can possibly avoid (both because this is a copper boiler and because...well, potable)

I do have impact guns...will need to grab a socket big enough (looks to be 38mm/1.5inch, which I guess I can get locally)

And yes the long game here is indeed to switch over to a lever machine as I've been lusting after one for years now...but this machine was good to me for more than a decade and I was hoping to pass it along to a friend after thorough refurb, along with the improvements I've made...but that's only if the element is going to behave (i guess?) or can be replaced.

Perhaps in the meantime I'll try to go through the rest of the wiring as thoroughly as I can in the off chance there is a short somewhere else...I'd be happy to have been incorrect in assuming it was the element.

If nothing else, there is always this:

https://www.harborfreight.com/hand-tool ... 62842.html

Seems like you can find one every 5 or 10 miles in Los Angeles.

Indeed..I'm there regularly. I'm opting to have amazon deliver me one that's deep enough to get around the terminals....evidently sockets that big aren't so easy to come by locally as it seemed, apart from that full set (and I'd rather spend $60 on a replacement element...if I can find one)

In the meantime I'll see if I can solve the other issue(s) and get everything else cleaned up...will update if I learn anything.

Well....not sure what to make of this but with the boiler isolated (outside the machine and full of water, with 110VC temporarily wired directly to the element by way of standard kitchen GFI) ....everything was fine:



• I measured 8.9ohm across the terminals before energizing
• terminals to ground (boiler wall) measure open circuit (out of range ohms) and negligible voltage
• water came to a boil in a typical (short) amount of time
• GFI never tripped

So now I'm at a loss for what had tripped the GFI before. Either something else in the system had shorted, I took bad readings, or I dunno...a small crack in the element casing that WAS allowing water exposure has since scaled up...?!

Since I still can't seem to locate a direct replacement for the element, I don't see much sense in upsetting the gasket to get the current element out (despite the 1.5in socket arriving today...slightly oversized for what must be a 38mm hex on the plate)). I guess I'll check the rest of wiring as well as I can for shorts and put it back into service until a problem arises

Great job being so thorough. I wonder if your GFI in the house is just old and failing? Maybe pop in a 20amp version (instead of the more common 15amp version), and if the current one has been installed with the house wires simply "stabbed" into it, install the new one with the house wires bent into hooks that go around the screws. Wiring wrapped around the screws is the preferred method, because it allows for better current flow. The stabbed in wiring style gets loose over time, not to mention it can't move the same amount of current.