Need help, loud noise when making coffee

[dac72]

I recently moved and I am finally getting around to setting up my Vivaldi II at my new house. However when I go to make my first shot there is a very loud noise coming from the machine when I activate the group head. It stops as soon as I stop the pour but restarts if I try it again. The steam arm seems to be working properly and I can pull hot water from the spout OK as well. However, after enough water is pulled from the hot water spout and machine try to refill itself the loud noise starts again. So it appears to only happen when the machine is pulling in fresh water from the flojet. I have double checked and my flojet and it appears to be working properly. Does anyone have any ideas for me to try? Thanks in advance for any help/feedback you can provide.

Thanks in advance,
David

[MDL]

The symptoms you describe imply that the noise is only heard when the pump is running. Therefore I presume that you either have a pump problem, a motor bearing (could be caused by a leaking pump seal) or a restriction in the flow to/from the pump. My comments don't help you much but that is all that I can say based upon the information that you provided. I had my pump start making noise after about 3 years of use. You can order a pump from the manufacturer in CT for less than $100 (including shipping). This is much less than ordering from any reseller of the parts.
Good luck,
Mark

[chas]

That's definitely the sound of a rotary pump starved for water. If you have access to an in-line pressure gauge, insert it between the FlowJet and the machine and see what the pressure is when you hear that noise. Also, you might try bypassing the flowjet and try pulling water straight from the bottle and see what happens.

[chas]

David, I see you posted another copy of this in the VII Q&Q area. I have deleted that post since responses are appearing here and we don't want a duplicate thread going.

[dac72]

*** Problem update ***

First of all thanks for your feedback.

So after trying all the things mentioned in everyones replies (e.g. confirming in-line pressure,testing the flojet with a bucket of water, bypassing the flojet) with no luck and frustration I decided to power everything off and goto sleep and try again the next day. Upon waking up this morning I reconnected everthing the way it was at my previous home, powered it up and waited for proper temps and pressures to build. During the heating process I heard it hiss several times like steam and pressure was escaping and building, but nothing out of the ordinary and not concerning. Then I finally pulled my some hot water from the spout waiting for the pump to pull in fresh water and the noise was much much more faint and eventually disappered completely. After trying this several times I decided to pull a few espresso shots and everthing seems to be operating perfectly normal now with no aweful loud noises.

So should I still be concerned and presume there is an issue lurking under the cover waiting to return? Or could this possiblely be an issue related to air / pressure block that was isolated to bringing up the machine for the first time after sitting unsued for several months? Again, thanks in advance for your feedback.

[chas]

Glad it was an easy "fix". I didn't even think to mention that option since it almost never happens with the VII.

[Endo]

I guess the vane pump needed to be bled of air (or primed) before it would function properly? Is that normal? (I don't know since I have the painless vibe pump version).

I wonder if the life of the vane pump has been shortened by running it dry? I hear they don't last too long (as in minutes) when run in this dry state.