You are getting to be a real pro with these restorations. Great job drg.

A Possible Short Appears in the Brew Switch

I was running the Coffex this morning, pulling some wonderful Cremina-like shots. With the PSTAT settings Sherman suggests my group seems to run a bit cooler so my counts need to be shorter with cooling flushes to get hot/medium/cool brew temps.

After a few hours I was in front of the machine and noticed a tiny illumination appear in the Brew switch in the Off position. This appeared when the pilot light was not activated. I turned the Power switch off and there was no illumination on the Brew switch. When I turned the power back on it appeared again, suggesting a short, even though everything still functioned and the GFCI didn't trip. I unplugged the machine and will check the switch with a multimeter to see if there's continuity where there should be none and will try to trace that beyond the switch if needed. Oh well ... back to the Cremina as my temperature surfing machine.

It wasn't a short. A post by homeburrero (Pat) on another thread clued me into checking whether I'd wired to the wrong side of the switch, and sure enough that fixed the mystery glimmer. I've also flipped the switches right side up. These original switches on vintage Maximatics have a ridiculously tight fit in the faceplate, so I had to use a flat-ended screwdriver and coax the tabs through for removal by poking one side just slightly into the faceplate hole and then compressing the other. Reinstallation was much easier.

Nice work there Gary. A labor of love. I'm sure it will pay off in great espresso though. Considering how many machines you've restored lately it will have to be decaf though.

PC

Thanks everyone!

@ Jack: I just some decaf from Compass Coffee Roasters. And just in time too!

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The other day I learned that you can get espresso machine touch-up enamel at your local chain drug store. Nail polish is enamel, you see, and I found a very close match to a ding in my case.





I'm letting it dry overnight. Tomorrow I'll apply some rubbing compound and show you the results.

Dr. G, couple questions:

Did you put in the bypass valve or not? I couldn't tell from the comments above. I have and like the results but I was plenty thrilled with the espresso before that change.

My sightglass can be unreadable (no air-water level visible) while the boiler is at pressure. After I turn off and the pressure drops to atmospheric the air - water level is visible again. Does yours do that?

I don't find the machine makes very many sink shots at all. They seem to all be tasty. That's kind of nice from a thirty year old machine, don't you think?

Flint

Hi Flint:

I've just gotten the Fluid-o-Tech connector with diode and haven't had a chance to hook it up yet with the bypass valve and a new FOT pump. With the Ulka pump it came with and the flow restrictor that's already in-line the shots are very nice. Since I've used the machine a lot before restoration I don't get many sink shots. There's a slight bitter edge, so I wouldn't mind dialing down the pressure just a touch.

My sightglass water level is fairly visible and I try and keep the fill line below the maximum indicator on the Coffex front panel. I'll have to look again but I don't remember the water level rising above the maximum indicator.

It turns out I mistakenly installed my Coffex sightglass in the Conti Prestina and didn't want to trade that out. It's longer than the Prestina sightglass but still fits and longer seemed better. So ... when I went to install the Prestina sightglass in the Coffex it was way too short. Rather than go through swapping out I ordered a red line Cremina/Maximatic sightglass tube from Orphan Espresso and they were out of stock so they sold me the OEM Olympia sightglass, which has a blue line that's a little less visible than the one with the red line. When I have a chance I'll insert one of the Orphan Espresso little red floating sightglass indicator balls to make it even easier to read. Helluva marketing ploy to sell me one of those 75 cent balls.

I also just snagged an old stock tank filter with the fitting included from OE. That was a find. My adapted fitting has been working well but after the water tank holder almost rusted out and had to be bead blasted and powder coated, I want that OEM fitting in there. For safety's sake I also ordered another tank bracket from their close-outs. And I ordered their close-out OEM bottom plate with the magic red button for the Cremina !

Chert wrote:My sightglass can be unreadable (no air-water level visible) while the boiler is at pressure. After I turn off and the pressure drops to atmospheric the air - water level is visible again. Does yours do that?

Hah! My machine totally does that. I don't recall it doing this immediately after my initial restoration; it's more of a bad habit that developed after a period of months. I have always suspected that a more thorough descaling would eliminate the problem. But since I have only put distilled water in the boiler since I've had the machine, that project hasn't been a priority.

Ah yes the magic red button. How gratifying it was, the one time I pushed that and brought the little beastie back to life!

For me, too eastside that little idiosyncrasy is no real problem