Hey everyone, I'm David, and here's my first post.

Short version of my story and resulting questions:

1. Bought an 80's Olympia Coffex machine, not working
2. Disassembled parts, and dunked metallic parts without electronics in citric acid solution, still not working
3. Take off tube from pump outlet, and then turn pump on - black stuff comes out before water flows out.
4. Machine is now working, flush the whole system with the citric acid solution.
5. Use RO water to flush out citric acid solution (bad idea, I know).
6. Keep seeing little blackish metallic-ish bits coming out of the group head.
7. Switch the alkaline water --> flush out system --> little brass flakes (I assume) is coming out.

From here, I research deeper into these forums, and come out with two unanswered questions.
1. Is making espresso with an exposed brass boiler (from the 80's) dangerous?
2. I can scrub out the boiler with a brass brush, what about the other metallic parts that the water travels through?


Long version for those interested:

I was able to pick up an interesting espresso machine from a thrift store with the hopes of beginning a new hobby of making espresso at home, without breaking the bank. I was surprised to find out that I bought a pretty cool vintage machine, an Olympia Coffex from the 80's, in pretty good condition. Now here's where it went wrong.

I'm going to preface this by saying, I am NOT an espresso aficionado - like I said, I'm just starting to get into this stuff.

That being said, the machine wasn't pumping anything out of the group head. So I looked online, particularly Youtube, and a few general forums, and thought that I should descale this machine. I bought citric acid, and since nothing was pumping, I disassembled the parts, and what was metal and not touching electronics, I dunked in a citric acid solution for a few hours. This included the group head assembly, the boiler, a part of the pressure sensor, and the heat exchanger (I am still not sure about what this is called, its the plate that sends water into the boiler). I do not have pictures of this sadly, because I really didn't know what to expect. A bunch of "descaled" blue solution came out of these dunks, and I reassembled the whole thing.

Still not working... Alright, so I took out the tube that connected the output of the pump to the rest of the machine, turned the pump on, and black liquid, with unrecognizable black bits came shooting out, effectively declogging it. I did a happy dance, and reassembled the machine. Now, I'm using a citric acid solution, and just running it through the machine. It's returning some leftover blue solution, but also some bits of black flakes. So I figure its some old built up flakes, and I start running my RO water through it. I keep seeing these flakes, so I research online to see that RO is acidic and can leach the metal inside espresso machines. So I switch over to alkaline water from the store, and keep flushing it out. I've done about 2 gallons so far, and I get little brass flakes coming out of the group head.

I plan on disassembling the machine again, and opening up the boiler to really scrub it with the brass brush, but still had two pretty important questions.

1. Is making espresso with an exposed brass boiler (from the 80's) dangerous?
2. I can scrub out the boiler with a brass brush, what about the other metallic parts that the water travels through?

I've attached a picture of my machine, and a picture of a typical cup from the group head.

Thanks drgary! Your response has been greatly helpful. I actually didn't know that this machine was so precious, I picked it up for $25 dollars at the local thrift store. I'll be a lot more careful with it knowing this information now. I'm ordering some cafiza tablets right now, and give it a flush, although I don't get black specks now, more goldish flakes that I assume is brass. Just want to drink some espresso without consuming metals .

Wow - this is the thrift store find of my dreams. Good luck with the machine and hope that you have beautiful drinks for years to come with this one!!