New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

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kav

New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by kav »

I just recieved a Vivial S1V1 used (produced in 2006).
I finally had it plumbed in today with a filter and pressure regulator valve.
I've now come across a few problems.

1) I added the S1V2 dual gauge to the machine. The left side of the guage (portafilter) is working but the steam side (right) does not move at all.

2) The water coming out of the water spout was initally quite grey. I ran about 15 cups through and though the color is improving that are a ton of tiny little black, grey, green particles. I don't know if I should just keep going or if this means I need to do a complete teardown of the boilers?

Thanks.
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chas
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Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by chas »

It sounds like the boilers have a lot of scale and they were left dry for a while which caused a lot of the scale to flake off as it dried out.
Chas
LM GS/3 & LaSpaziale Dream v 1.25 (US 120V)
Mazzer Kony E, Customized Rocky
Hottop P/B
kav

Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by kav »

Would you recommend a complete tear down of the boilers to clean them? Or just keep running water through the machine? Are there instructions on how to do this?

Also any recommendations on the none functioning steam pressure gauge?

Thanks.
Endo

Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by Endo »

kav wrote:Would you recommend a complete tear down of the boilers to clean them?
Yes. Definitely.

Probably some junk stuck in the gauge lines as well. Hot water and steam wand lines may be blocked as well.

Here are some useful descaling and restoraton links with photos:

viewtopic.php?f=57&t=872

s1v1/S1Boiler.php

http://www.s1cafe.com/viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1091&start=0

http://www.s1cafe.com./viewtopic.php?f=35&t=1359
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chas
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Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by chas »

I imagine one of the links in Endo's post makes this clear but always be sure you have replacement gaskets on hand whenever you open up the boilers. the worst part of the steam boiler overhaul may be to dig out / scrape off the old gasket.

In the interim there is one thing you can try and that it is to drain the steam boiler.There is a brass nut that protrudes from the steam boiler through the bottom of the chassis. You will need to disconnect the water line and either raise the machine up high enough to remove the nut and place a drain pan under it or you can usually straddle the machine across the kitchen sink (my preferred option). If there is a fair amount of scale, after the nut is removed, you may be surprised that no water comes out. This is because scale is covering the opening. Just poke a screwdriver through to break a hole in the scale crust.

This will at least get most of the flaked off scale out of the boiler before you pop it open. The amount of scale that comes out will give you an indication of how bad off the boiler it. If you see a lot of scale you may want to temporarily reconnect the water line after you replace the nut, let the steam boiler refill, then drain again and repeat until the water runs out pretty clean.
Chas
LM GS/3 & LaSpaziale Dream v 1.25 (US 120V)
Mazzer Kony E, Customized Rocky
Hottop P/B
kav

Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by kav »

Thank you both for the great info!!

I jumped in last night before realizing I didn't have the gasket needed. The steam boiler was actually pretty decent there was a little scale. I used a brush and pad and most of it came right off. I filled and drained it a few times till the water was particle free..

Now I'm going to tackle the none working gauges. I installed a V2 dual gauge on my machine. After turning it on for the first time with the new gauge, the Steam boiler pressure stays at zero. The brew pressure will go up to the green zone but will drop back down to 3 and even when the machine was off and take apart still stays at 3. I'm not quite sure how to approach fixing this one since the gauge is brand new.

The next issue is that on my test run yesterday, the volumetric dosing was not working. Both buttons would keep giving an unlimited amount of water. I suspect that the previous owner had at least one of them set so I'm going to take apart the flowmeter and hope that this fixes this problem.

Any thoughts on the above - particularly the gauge?
kav

Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by kav »

Update.
Checked and cleaned the group selenoid valve and the flowmeter using the instructions from this site. Removed the gauge, cleaned around the connection.
Left all the body clading off and turned it on. I'm surprised how much quicker the whole machine including the boiler heats up now.

The gauge has started working again on both the group boiler and the steam boiler.

Now the new problem is that when the steam boiler started getting up to temperature - pressure was still way down, the normal pop off valve started sputtering but the connection besite it (with red wire long metal rod going into the boiler - Part 7852) started sputering and leaking a large amount of fluid which within 1 min had already leaked a few large puddles onto the counter.. Any thoughts on this??
kav

Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by kav »

Update, I called Chris's coffee who told me it is probably a loose fill sensor or potentially the fill sensor was not in the right way. I've made the adjustments.. I'll update shortly.

Thanks everyone!
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chas
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Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by chas »

Looks like you're making progress. A couple of comments. If the brew pressure gauge reads 3psi when the water is connected and the machine is off and cooled down, this is normal. You are reading your water line pressure. 3bar is about 45psi which is typical. If on the other hand the gauge reads 3 psi when the water line is disconnected and the machine is cooled down, you have a bad gauge.

The part that should sputter on the top of the steam boiler but just for several seconds as the boiler comes up to full temperature is the vacuum relief valve. It opens up to let air in when the boilers cool and then closes again as it heats up. This device is notorious for getting fouled with mineral deposits. Fortunately, it can be removed and soaked in solution to clean pretty easily. Often when the temp is at the point where water is sputtering out you can push down and/or pull up on the pin in the middle and get it to seal. Worst case a new one is about $8.

If that's not the problem, the vacuum breaker is sealng properly, and water is really from the water level sensor then it sounds like either the seal around it at the top of the boiler is bad or maybe just not tight enough.

One thing I noticed when I was descaling my steam boiler was that a lot of mineral deposit builds up on the bottom 1" of the water level sensor rod due to the fact that this part is constantly in and out of the water as water is drawn out and refilled. Hopefully you noticed this and cleaned it when you had the boiler open. Since the top of the rod determines how high the boiler fills and this is critical to proper operation, hopefully you got this put back with the rod pushed down to the proper depth.
Chas
LM GS/3 & LaSpaziale Dream v 1.25 (US 120V)
Mazzer Kony E, Customized Rocky
Hottop P/B
kav

Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by kav »

Update. It is officially up and running. I took the better part of the day to do it though. Everytime I fixed on thing another thing came up.

Offical list of what was just done after pluming in the system: (each one seemed to pop up)
1) Installed new dual gauge, backsplash, disassemble and clear dispersion screens.
2) repair damaged burnt wire on boiler
3) opened and descaled steam boiler and element - heats up much faster. (BTW I used sensor safe automotive gasket maker - temporarly)
4) fixed leaking breaker valve
5) fixed overfilling steam boiler - the plastic tube inside was not slid all the way up and the pressure fitting on top was loose.
6 ) Re-install gauge after blowing out the line to fix a none working guage
7) Tried to program automatic dosing but kept giving large quantities of water
8) Checked and cleaned group selenoid and flowmeter - did not fix automatic volumetric dosing
9) Disassembled and cleaned impeller on flowmeter - Fixed the dosing issue (thanks Chris's service Dept)
10) Checked expansion valve setting - and adjusted the group pressure.
11) fixed very difficult leak above the fitting for the group pressure fitting.
12) dryed out a wet electrical board above the fan - after a little accident when I forgot to turn off the water line
13) adjusted loose steam arm, cleaned screen on the water dispensor and wiped everything down before reassembling
14) I know there is more but I can't remember..


At the end of this, one of the water fittings started to leak a little (which thankfully was an easy fix). It was too late to actually make a cup but knock on wood, it seems to be working with no visible leaks!!

Thanks to all the posts on this site and the advice from a few!!
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chas
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Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by chas »

I was going to mention #2, I figured while you were taking all that apart you'd notice if the wire was burned. It seems that moisture gets into that connection and corrodes the wire periodically. It happened often enough to me that I finally purchased a bag of those crimp terminals and always checked that wire every time I had the machine open for any reason.

Shortly before I sold it, I had switched to some terminals I found that have an integrated a shrink wrapped section at the end so there is no exposed wire. However, I sold it before I had the chance to see if those actually lasted longer.
Chas
LM GS/3 & LaSpaziale Dream v 1.25 (US 120V)
Mazzer Kony E, Customized Rocky
Hottop P/B
kav

Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by kav »

here are the pictures.
Image
Image
Image
kav

Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by kav »

The steam arm on this machine does not have a rubber handle on it. It does get very hot, so I don't think it is the none burn arm.
Can I buy a rubber handle for the arm somewhere?
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chas
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Joined: Wed Jun 02, 2004 11:52 pm
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Re: New to me Vivaldi S1V1 problems

Post by chas »

Chris Coffee will probably send you one. They don't have them on their website. I now have a GS/3 on which I replaced the No-Burn Arm with a 3rd Degree Steam Arm. I thought the rubber sleeve was too small so I ordered a larger one from Espresso Parts and now have two back-to-back. You can find it by doing a search on the EP site for Steam Arm Sleeve. It looks like the one you need is backordered so you're faster choice might be to call Chris Coffee.
Chas
LM GS/3 & LaSpaziale Dream v 1.25 (US 120V)
Mazzer Kony E, Customized Rocky
Hottop P/B
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