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New member with a question

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:46 am
by Loggins
Hello everyone.

This is my first time to post.
I have a La Spaziale S1 Vivaldi which I purchased from Chris' Coffee. I've used it everyday for 2 years and love it.

Recently I've encountered a problem:
My steam wand stays very hot and continually drips. I emailed Chris and he said he suspected the steam valve wasn't seating properly.
Has anyone else had this problem?

I called Chris' Coffee and the technician said if I turned the steam on and off really fast it will usually blow out any foreign debris, but I tried that and it did not work.
Any suggestions?

Also, has anyone had foul tasting water come from their hot water? I was told to drain out the old water from underneath -- I did that and the taste improved. How can I be sure it's clean? What causes that and does it signify a problem? I have soft water here (Arkansas).

Thanks for your help.

CL

Re: New member with a question

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 9:13 am
by JohnB
Sounds like you will need to remove the steam shut off valve & clean it out. If you remove the cup warmer cover you can see the assy . I haven't had an issue with mine but I did have it off when I cleaned the boilers a few months ago. Pretty straight forward once you remove the knob.

As to the nasty steam boiler water: How often to you use it? How much gets flushed out daily? I haven't had any taste issues in the 10 months I've owned my machine but we do use the hot water tap daily. Between drawing water for my wifes tea, press pot brewing, cup warming & cleaning the p/f I probably flush out 2+ litres a day or more. Do you have a carbon filter on the water line feeding the machine?

Since its been in use for 2 years I'd seriously consider opening up the steam boiler & cleaning it out. Here's how I did it:
viewtopic.php?f=26&t=872

Re: New member with a question

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:03 pm
by Loggins
JohnB,

Thanks for the response and information. I'm going to try cleaning the shut off valve later today. Are their any instructions on this forum to do this?

As far as the steam water, I had cut down on its use. Also, Chris' Coffee said the overheated steam wand could have created a vacuum and sucked in milk or such leading to foul taste.

CL

Re: New member with a question

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 12:18 pm
by chas
I'm not aware of any step-by-step instructions on this site, but the exploded diagrams of the steam arm and valve in this PDF file should help.

s1v2/images/SteamArmAssy.pdf

I received this from Jason, one of the techs at Chris Coffee. If you get in there and find warn parts or gaskets you should be able to reference them by number from these diagrams to ensure you get the right parts.

BTW: I am moving this thread to the S1 Out-of-Warranty section.

Re: New member with a question

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:20 pm
by Loggins
Thanks. I'll let you know how it goes.

CL

Re: New member with a question

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 1:59 pm
by Niko
This happened to my S1 also.
Problem was operator error, I changed out the steam arm so many times that I left part #7579 slightly askew and the symptoms were exactly like you described them. Yours must've moved from use over the years and mine just got moved way too many times.

Re: New member with a question

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 3:40 pm
by chas
Niko, you're comment has me scratching my head. How could the part you referenced cause dripping when the valve is off, if the valve itself is working properly? That part is on the output side of the valve. I can see where that part could cause dripping from the swivel part when the steam is running, but with the steam off???

Which reminds me... mine IS dripping from the swivel when the steam is on and it's slowing worsening. Time to tackle that this weekend!

Re: New member with a question

Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2008 4:34 pm
by Niko
I'm only going by memory on this one :scratch: (which isn't very good sometimes).
I remember not putting the arm assembly back together "correctly" and I had those issues.
Funny thing is that I document everything on the machines, when and how much I backflush, change parts, etc..
I can check my notes but I'm pretty sure I didn't write this one down since it was my stupidity that caused this. :oops:
Then again...did I write the correct part # in the above post? It was the little round thingy below the spring :lol: the spring wasn't hitting it right.

You better fix that drip this weekend ;-)