Steam boiler not filling on Vivaldi S1

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StigThomsen

Steam boiler not filling on Vivaldi S1

Post by StigThomsen »

I've had my Vivaldi S1 for just over a year and a half now, running with filtered water. Until now, no problems.

However about a month ago I noticed that the steam boiler filling took longer and longer. Then one day I drew some hot water and the filling took so long, that the steam boiler switched off and the boiler lamp just started blinking. Looked in the manual and it was the boiler filling error. Did a power cycle and things worked fine afterwards.
Then the filling started taking so long, that when I turned the machine on in the mornings, it topped off the steam boiler as it normally does, but now even that would take so long, that it went to error mode.
During this whole time, the brew boiler worked just fine and kept a nice pressure at 10 bar. No problems there.

I studied these forums and found that most people had an issue with their gicleur valve. So last weekend I took my machine apart and found the gicleur valve. Took off the nut and then the posts said that the valve would come out ... mine is not going anywhere ... I can turn it, but it won't come out ... is there something I need to do to get the valve out, so I can see if it is the problem ?
And how do I adjust the gicleur back to the correct setting once I hopefully get it apart, cleaned and back together ?

Other posts suggest looking at the flow back valve (207 I think), which prevents pressure from the steam boiler to go out of the machine ... would that be a place to look too ?

All my messing with the valve had now closed it up so much, that I can't get any water through to the steam boiler anymore ... so any help is appreciated.

Thanks !!
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chas
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Re: Steam boiler not filling on Vivaldi S1

Post by chas »

Stig, I was the first one that had the issue and, in my case, it was that gicleur valve. Others since have had this happen and found their clogs to be in other places. In actuality, it can happen almost any place there is even a small flow restriction between the pump and the cold water inlet to the boiler. However, since messing with the valve seemed to make things worse, it does seem likely that your clog is there.

My problem - or rather when it got so bad I had to do something about it - happened with about the same months in use as yours. I hear that they have changed the design in new machines and may be using something other than a gicleur to restrict flow. Does the part you are trying to remove look like the circled area in the photos below, or different?

If different then you probably have the new design and you may want too start by removing the solenoid itself to be sure it is not clogged. If it does look like the photo below, then there are two ways you can get this out for inspection. The small, nubby part sticking out from the chrome nut is the actual gicleur. I don't recall if this unscrews with a wrench or a screwdriver. If you can unscrew this part keep track of how many turns it takes to remove it and tighten it back this many turns when you are done. The adjustment is not that critical. If it takes a few seconds more or less than optimal to refill the boiler it is not a problem. You just want to be sure that it does not take too long or dump cold water into the boiler too fast.

If this part is what you tried to get out without success, try the chrome bolt that the gicleur threads through. Removing that has the advantage of not changing the gicleur adjustment. It my case, once I removed that part it was obvious because there was a chunk of mineral deposit on the end of the gicleur. After cleaning, it took 10 seconds or less to refill the boiler.

If you can't get the gicleur out, remove the solenoid. Just unscrew that one bolt on top of the solenoid and pull it straight up. You can probably do this without unscrewing the power connector, but you can also do that if you need to or if you prefer. You can probably even see the end of the gicleur by looking straight down into the solenoid hole and you should be able to see the issue and clean it from there. I always assumed that removing the gicleur itself was easier than removing the solenoid but in your case, perhaps the solenoid will be easier.
gicleur.jpg
gicleur.jpg (76.68 KiB) Viewed 5076 times
Chas
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StigThomsen

Re: Steam boiler not filling on Vivaldi S1

Post by StigThomsen »

Chas, thank you very much for your thorough explanation and suggestions on what to do. For the record my machine looks mostly like the picture on the right. Fittings are brass instead of steel, and some of the other fittings also look a little different, but by enlarge it looks like the one on the right.

I've spend most of my Sunday noon time taking apart my S1 and troubleshooting. I ended up taking the whole valve system apart, finally got the gicleur out, just took a little more force than I thought.
Anyway, I got all the parts checked and cleaned, didn't find any deposits but cleaned them anyway. Also I blew air through any opening to check that nothing was blocked. All checked ok. So I put things back together and gave it a test, still no luck.
So I started to section things off a little. First I took of the hose that goes into the boiler and checked to see how much water was being pumped in. None it turned out. So I went backwards from there, is there water coming out of the valve, yes there was. Ok, so the problem must be in the connecting hose between the valve and the boiler. Took that off and my immediate suspicion was with the 90 degree fitting that connects to the boiler, as that is usually where you see the most mineral deposits.
I started by trying to blow air through the hose with the fittings on, as expected it was blocked. So I took off the fitting by the boiler and blew air into that, it was blocked, aha we have the guilty part.
Using a piece of steel wire I was able to scrape out some deposits from in there, and the top part of the hose also had some deposits. Afterwards I submerged both parts into some vinegar to get any parts I missed removed.
In the end I was then able to get things put back together and tested to see if water now came out of the end of the hose, and yes it did. So fitted the hose onto the boiler and now it all filled up in like 10 seconds. Perfect.

I does of course make me a little nervous about the state of my steam boiler, might not have been the best boy about getting my filter regenerated as often as I should, so this serves me as a reminder about the importance of that.

Thanks again for your help Chas.
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