Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on September 11, 2012 at 10:55am

Didja find anything yet?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mariposacoffeeroastery on September 11, 2012 at 11:36am

Not yet. :( 

I also think the boiler is filling up too much. I've been looking through and I think I'm going to have a technician look at it. 

I'll keep you guys in the loop.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Kate Gilmore on September 22, 2012 at 11:37pm

Mariposa! Let me come over sometime and give it a look/listen. i am not an expert obviously but we use that same machine at Crimson and I at least know what sounds are really off. I'd love to learn more about troubleshooting that machine as ours needs some work, too.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mariposacoffeeroastery on October 3, 2012 at 7:12am

Hey Kate! Sorry, I'm bad at checking these...we'd love to have you check it out sometime. I just finished descaling the boiler and will be putting everything back. We're under a time crunch to get this project taken care of. You're more than welcome to pop by for a look though. If after firing it up after the clean, and I have to reopen it, you can definitely take a look under the hood too - I'm sure this won't be the first time I open this puppy up.

Kate Gilmore said:

Mariposa! Let me come over sometime and give it a look/listen. i am not an expert obviously but we use that same machine at Crimson and I at least know what sounds are really off. I'd love to learn more about troubleshooting that machine as ours needs some work, too.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mariposacoffeeroastery on October 3, 2012 at 8:31am

Sorry for the late reply all, I wanted to let you know what I ended up doing. So, I took the plunge and decided to open up the machine and do a complete rebuild and descale on the machine, replacing anything broken. Overall, the insides were not bad, a bit dirty and need of some descaling. The group heads had considerable gunk on it from not being flushed and cleaned well from the previous owner. 

When I got to the boiler, I opened it up and found a rather large amount of nasty scale. It was pretty apparent that the previous owners never descaled it, and after a lot of CLR, it looks so much better. The picture is scale that hadn't been scratched off yet, it was just sitting in the boiler like that when I opened it! 

Being a small roastery, I had the time and was able to afford having the machine be offline for about a week. I'm putting it all together today, and will let you know how it runs.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mickael on October 3, 2012 at 8:36am

That much scale would make a lot of noise.  You probably also had wet steam.  When the TDS content of the water is so high the elements cause the water to froth and boil very violently. Its a common repair for us.  We use a "wet" bench to flush out the solid stuff.  We then try to vacuum out as much as we can.  If it is still bad after that we use muriatic acid to completely dissolve all minerals.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brady on October 3, 2012 at 6:02pm

To clarify, your scale problem happened not because the previous owner never descaled, but because he didn't take care of water quality. On commercial machines descaling is a repair, not a regular maintenance item. If water conditioning is done properly it shouldn't be necessary for a long, long time (if ever).

If the boiler looks like that, you have work to do elsewhere on the machine too - at very least the flowmeters, possibly the group jets too. The source of your noise is likely something else scale related. Good luck!

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Mike Sabol on October 3, 2012 at 7:53pm

I have to second Brady's input. Remember, also, that putting CLR in the steam tank does nothing for the heat exchangers and groupheads, which is where the restrictions would be to have caused the noisy pump. If the big open tank looks like that just imagine what all the tubing and water pathways look like inside and around the groupheads. I have had to drill out the pathways in the heads on several occasions. Great job thus far!! I'm afraid you might still have some work to do, though. Keep us posted.

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mariposacoffeeroastery on October 4, 2012 at 6:34am

Hi fellas, thanks so much for the input. I appreciate the clarification Brady, because as I was descaling the boiler, I was thinking to myself - "I need to be doing THIS as regular PM?!"

I did take apart the group heads and soaked them in descaling solution, and espresso cleaner. Needless to say, after over 24 hours, the gunk finally came out. I'll be working on the water pathways, as you guys are right, it's probably got some stuff in there as well. 

I have another question though, how do I stop a water leak? I reinstalled the boiler in the machine, and as you're looking at the machine, there are two large nuts and bolts on the top, backside of the boiler. Sorry, I don't have a picture. It's where one of the pipes connect from the grouphead to the boiler. Anyways, I've tightened it as much as I can, and water finds a way to drip out of the threads. Can I use thread sealer or sealant tape?

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Scott on October 4, 2012 at 7:06am

No tape or pipe dope (if that's what you are thinking).  Those are compression fittings and will become damaged if over-tightened.  And they threads don't make the seal.  Take them apart and clean the threads with a wire brush until they are shiny.  Also clean up the end of the pipe as well, just be careful.  Make sure to use two wrenches, one for back pressure on the static fitting.  

Also, I didn't see what number of groupheads, but it could be you switched the pipes from different group heads and the pipes are not seating.  

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by mariposacoffeeroastery on October 4, 2012 at 8:09am

Thanks Scott. You know, I never thought about possibly switching the pipes. I'll try that as well. Thanks!

Scott said:

No tape or pipe dope (if that's what you are thinking).  Those are compression fittings and will become damaged if over-tightened.  And they threads don't make the seal.  Take them apart and clean the threads with a wire brush until they are shiny.  Also clean up the end of the pipe as well, just be careful.  Make sure to use two wrenches, one for back pressure on the static fitting.  

Also, I didn't see what number of groupheads, but it could be you switched the pipes from different group heads and the pipes are not seating.  

• ▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Brady on October 4, 2012 at 11:32am

I agree with Scott. If water is leaking where the copper line joins that tee then just disassemble CAREFULLY clean all sealing surfaces, and reassemble. I like 0000 steel wool for the compression ferrules and seats, used very carefully of course. If you go with a wire brush make sure you use a brass one so it doesn't scratch things up too much. Even green Scotch-Brite is too aggressive for this, in my opinion.

Are you certain this is where it is leaking? There are a couple of o-rings (02280011) at the base of that tee where it screws in to the heat exchanger cap. I've had to replace those before because of a small leak. See page 11 of the parts schematic if my description isn't totally clear. Good luck.

• ▶ Reply

▶ Reply to Discussion

• ‹ Previous
• 1
• 2
• 3
• Next ›
• Page