The S1 Cafe - Helping Your Espresso Dreams Become Reality

Just a week and a year old and the triac and heating element blow. Chis offered to pay for the parts if I returned them to him at his cost. Problem is I did not know this and so I don't have them. I am not sweating it as it was only $60 of the total. I actually paid 133 for the parts. The rest was for travel and labor. Good thing I found someone in the Bay Area who could do the repair. The company name is Simec and the owner is Silvano. His number 925-680-6936 in case anyone ever needs an SF Bay Area repair.

Oh well, the espresso is flowing again.

BTW, if you haven't tried roasting your own coffee go to www.sweetmarias.com and try it out.

Pretty strange that they both went. Since they're directly connected, one probably failed and took the other with it.

Has anyone ever changed the triac on their own? This seems to be easier than replacing the steam boiler element which I hope NOT to be doing for a long time.

THANK YOU SO MUCH for the name of this repair shop. Not 10 minutes ago my 13 month ols S1 made a very loud pop, hissed then spit steam. I ran to the kitchen and noticed the temp guage was at the end of the red.
First thing i did was log onto this site, found this posting and called Silvano. Believe it or not, he is going to try and come out TODAY and if not, first thing tomorrow morning,
You're my hero :)

It's pretty easy to change the sensor on your own and I think the part is around 45-50 dollars.
...but what you're doing is a good option if you don't want to open the machine yourself.

3 hours after i placed my panicy service call, La Spaz is back up and running!
The Italian (yep) tech replaced the heat controller - he said the sensor seemed fine. While he was here, he also replaced the rubber gasket (i already had the part) in the expansion valve curing the perfetual leak as well as stuck in a new group head gasket.
I have to say i couldn't be happier with Simec's service! The tech said Simec' is a La Spaz distributor and they also keep parts in stock. Good to know for those of us on the West Coast.
I'm pretty handy, but make a point of not playing around with anything that needs to be plugged in. My husband has had the expansion drip leak on his 'to do' list for 4 months. I think this was $$$ well spent

Are you in the East Bay?

Yep - in Lafayette. As the Simec tech said 'we're conveniently right in your backyard'. Simec's is in Concord - VERY convenient pour moi...plus it will keep me off my husband's back should anything major go amiss. i can't tell you how comforting that is :)

I figured you were in the East Bay because I know someone who tried to get him to show up in SF and he didn't make it out there. This was in reference to another brand of espresso machine so maybe he likes to work on Spaziale machines only.

My guess is i was on his way home though i got the impression they respond very promptly to repair calls. I was told the owner lives in Walnut Creek...wonder if he'll make emergency weekend house calls?
The tech mentioned the La Spaz's are very user friendly for repair - said alot of the restraunts and coffee joints in North Beach have them.

They're EXTREMELY user friendly to repair, a lot of us on these forums are espresso mechanics on our own machines.
I hear that the Spaziale machines aren't as flakey as the La Marzoccos. I can't confirm that since I've never owned one of those, they are rather spendy...I wouldn't mind one in my kitchen.
According to one tech, he's very busy thanks to La Marzoccos going down all the time.