Hello! First time poster and inexperienced owner of a La Pavoni Europiccola generation 2.3. My machine worked great for the first year and has stopped working, despite many attempts to fix. Hoping for some help!

In short, my LP Group head will not hold pressure. The Boiler heats, starts to sing around 1.25 bars, and builds pressure just fine. When I lift the lever up to bring water and pressure to the group head, it tends to struggle/push back. However, it comes down with no force whatsoever, indicating very low pressure. Additionally, if I have no/corse coffee in the porta filler, water and steam spew and gush out of the porta filler holes. When I have espresso fine ground coffee in the porta filler, no steam nor water come out of the bottom of the porta filler. Regardless of the coffee, whenever I push the lever down it comes with no force, unlike when it used to work.

I and family members have made this a group project but with no success so far. We first replaced all the seals in the group head (ended up doing it twice just to be sure). We also strived to put it together correctly to not damage any seals. It has also been descaled. Nothing seems out of the ordinary, except for possibly the siphon tube from the boiler to the group head. Near the threads going to the group head, there is a hole. Is that normal?

We find this whole situation particularly frustrating since it was working wonderfully for a year and stopped for no apparent reason. Any tips or advice would be much appreciated!!

Here is a video of the problem:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVEJO3fjtmg

First, welcome to the forum.

Second, the hole in the tube is probably a part of this mod: Heat control mod for 2nd Generation La Pavoni Levers (#46)
It basically prevents steam from heating the grouphead, thus keeping it cooler.

Third, It can still bea gasket problem, please make sure the piston gaskets are installed as shown in #7 of this post: Refeathering the Peacock - Pavoni head gasket replacement

Does water come out of the grouphead if you lift the lever without having a pf (portafilter) installed in it?
What grinder do you use and how fresh are the beans?

Guido,

Thank you for the suggestions and links! Didn't know that was a mod on the tube. Back to the group head, I believe we installed them correctly, but here are pictures just in case I am missing something. I haven't tested whether the water comes out if the pf isn't on so I'll try that later today.

Doesn't seem like there's Dow111 (or similar lube) on those piston seals...

Shower screen is clean? Every single tiny hole let's in light of you look through it?

Runningdaisy wrote: In short, my LP Group head will not hold pressure. The Boiler heats, starts to sing around 1.25 bars, and builds pressure just fine. When I lift the lever up to bring water and pressure to the group head, it tends to struggle/push back. However, it comes down with no force whatsoever, indicating very low pressure.

I had a similar situation on my machine after I installed a brass piston to replace my broken plastic one. The lever would let some water through, but there was suction from the boiler that pulled the lever down quickly. The solution was to crank the piston onto the rod as hard as I could. After that it has been good for years.

Runningdaisy wrote:Additionally, if I have no/corse coffee in the porta filler, water and steam spew and gush out of the porta filler holes. When I have espresso fine ground coffee in the porta filler, no steam nor water come out of the bottom of the porta filler. Regardless of the coffee, whenever I push the lever down it comes with no force, unlike when it used to work.

Again this seems like the loose piston problem. When there is little resistance you get that water coming out, but as soon as there's a little more in the way there just isn't enough water/pressure to get through.

It is hard to know really what is going on without seeing it, and a video would be helpful.

Jtrops,

Thanks for the advice! It appears that my piston rod is welded to the piston so I am unable to unscrew it. And I followed your suggestion on the video, here is the link! Hopefully it'll show something that I'm missing! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bVEJO3fjtmg

Do you have any sort of plug like the one discussed in the mod that was linked above?
It seems like something like that is needed and would be a custom made part.

Otherwise perhaps your machine was operating with the dipper tube hole plugged up in some way and the plug got lost.

I would try plugging the hole, perhaps with a strip of copper and a small hose clamp or something like that.

From your video:

Why are you putting the switch in the II position when flushing water through the group or right before pulling a shot?
The II position is for a quicker warmup and for steaming only. Not for espresso.

All we see is hot steam and burning hot water coming through the group. It doesn't give a clear indication of how the water is hitting the puck while pulling a shot.

When you pull the shot, there's not enough time for the pressure inside the boiler to lower and reach the desired temperature and internal pressure for a proper espresso pull.

Can you try to have your machine reach full pressure only with the low element ( switch in I postion) then pull a flush to see the water pattern and pull a shot after.

Also, you didn't answer my question about applying lube to the piston seals?

This is what you're looking for when flushing the group with switch in the low position:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihqLNW3VaaM

Lobin,

Thank you for your thoughtful questions! Yes we did use lube when inserting it back in the group head. I will implement your feedback in my technique, definitely still refining how I use it!

Armindillo and Guido,

Your suggestion was spot on; my machine is now working!! We didn't have the plug, but conveniently enough we had the generation three flange part on hand. We modified the part as noted in the linked video and now it's back in operation! Thank you all for your ideas and suggestions, I have this forum to thank for fixing my La Pavoni!