I have a 11-yr-old Crossland CC1 that has been giving me a lot of trouble recently. During a regular shot the pump changed its sound (went quieter) and all flow from the grouphead stopped. There seemed to be water flowing into the pump, which would then hit the OPV and go back into the reservoir through the air relief tube. This prompted me to get my hands dirty and take the whole thing apart (and learn a lot more about espresso machines in the process).

There was some scale buildup in places (boiler, OPV, 3-way solenoid), so I cleaned it all off. After putting everything back together, the pump ran for all of 30 seconds before its sound changed again and became just a relatively quiet buzz. No water was really being pulled into it anymore. I thought it was dead, so I decided to replace it with an Ulka EFX5 (similar specs as the original CEME pump, but presumably better). This brings me to the current moment.

Now the new pump seems to work fine, and water is coming out of the grouphead, but after I pull a shot, there's a TON of water discharged through the drain tube that comes out of the 3-way solenoid - steady flow for about 3-4 seconds, then drips down little by little and turns on the pump every minute or so. The drain tray is full of water after maybe 2 shots or so. What could be the problem here? Is it possible that I screwed up the adjustment of the OPV when I was reassembling the machine and that's now resulting in so much pressure at the 3-way solenoid that a bunch of water gets shot back out of the drain tube after the valve cuts off the grouphead path?

Thanks for the help!

I am not an expert, but I can speculate a bit.

Before you pull a shot, try opening the steam valve, without going into steam mode on the LCD screen (which turns on the thermoblock) or turning the steam knob all the way (which turns on the pump.)

Opening the valve a little like this will tell you how much pressure is in the boiler. If there is a ton of pressure, lots of water will come out of the milk frother tube. Under normal conditions and normal pressures, only a little water will come out.

If there's a ton of pressure in the boiler at 195-205F, this probably means that the OPV isn't working correctly: it's not bleeding enough pressure, so the boiler gets over-pressurized. If I had to speculate this could be because your new pump is too strong.

The other possibility I can think of is that the three-way solenoid is broken and is being wedged open into drain mode after each shot.
I'm interested to hear what other experts have to say.

I turned the steam knob, and water started pouring out of the drain tube. Again a steady stream. Nothing came out of the steam wand as I would have expected. I'm really confused now

Any updates?

The pressure on the OPV might be too low for the new pump.
I'm not an expert but you typically want to set the pressure a little higher than your typical brew pressure.

I REALLY want your update on this because I am having the EXACT issue. 11 year old machine. Pump changes sound in the middle of the shot. I only run purified water out of a berkey through the machine. Regular descale and cafiza backflush schedule.

Here's the info I can add to the conversation. I have reached out to pantechnicon https://www.pantechnicondesign.com/prod ... ssland-cc1

And spoke to Jacob there. At first he said it didn't sound like it was a pump problem (based on our verbal conversation), however after I sent him some videos of the actual sounds he then sent them over to bill crossland and they advised to start with a replacement pump before going over to the OFV troubleshooting steps. Fingers crossed

Ive ordered the pump as they carry spare parts specifically for this machine. As it stands I cannot find a specific pump replacement tutorial for this process but I've found some info on gaggia and rancilio pump replacement on YouTube. Can't be that different.

I REALLY am interested if you have success getting your flow going on the machine. I'd also like to avoid any kind of backflush issues as you youve described.

There isn't necessarily an issue with my flow though. It just sounds very low and I've also gotten some irregular channeling. I'm not getting any unusual back pressure. Pressure from the steam wand seems fine and operates as it should. Water flows fine out of the shower screen when nothing is attached to it.

I replaced the pump without incident however it did not fix the problem as described above. I guess I'm moving on to the overpressure valve replacement.

Bmsinc wrote:I replaced the pump without incident however it did not fox the problem as described above. I guess I'm moving on to the overpressure valve replacement.

OPV should be repairable... no? Try disassembling the valve and cleaning it.

Not sure. This is my first trip far down the espresso rabbit hole. This might be the only option as I cannot find the specific opv for this machine for sale anywhere. There was a site that had them in stock last week but now that I need it. All sold out. Figures. I did just order a pressure dial so I can see if this is a road I should even take.