I've inherited a La Pavoni Professional that seems to date from the 1984-1993 range. It trips my GFCI outlets when coming to temperature/pressure, which sounds like an element short. I'm planning to follow the guides from Orphan Espresso to repair the insulation on the element.

However, in my search for information I haven't encountered any pictures of an element that has the collar/shield/cowling that is on mine. This is a cylinder of metal that wraps around the element, seems to be in contact with the element, and is not moving with reasonable force. It's sitting at an angle, such that when viewed from the side, it's at a 20-30 degree relative to the element base. Is this thing possibly the source of my problem rather than bad insulation? I hope the images post.

I'm looking forward to getting this thing running to learn how to make my own espresso and appreciate any help.

Images didn't post from safari. Trying chrome now.

TwistMyArm wrote:This is a cylinder of metal that wraps around the element, seems to be in contact with the element, and is not moving with reasonable force. It's sitting at an angle, such that when viewed from the side, it's at a 20-30 degree relative to the element base. Is this thing possibly the source of my problem rather than bad insulation?

Uncommon, but we've seen these collars before in HB posts about Pavoni Pro machines of this era. For example: Help to identify La Pavoni Europiccola pre-millenium

I don't think this collar would have anything to do with your ground fault.