S1 smoking when turned on/when it heats up

[atpayne82]

A couple days ago, I noticed a funny smell (like something burning in the oven) and saw a little bit of smoke coming from the top of my S1 as it was heating up. I haven't tried pulling the cover off yet, mainly b/c I didn't want to just start unscrewing stuff without knowing what I'm getting into. Can anyone give me an idea on opening this thing up to see where the smoke is coming from?
Thanks,

[chas]

Check out the 2nd half of this post: viewtopic.php?f=28&t=986&p=11575&hilit= ... %A6#p11575

Then pull off the top cover (it only takes removal of one screw) and look straight down at the top of the steam boiler. See if either of the two wires connecting to each end of the heater element has burnt insulation. Depending on how bad it is you may not be able to see whether the wire is burnt until you pop the black plastic cap off the top of each wire. Which wire is the problem ought to be obvious as one of the two caps is probably partially melted and looks very deformed.

If this is your problem you may need to go to the hardware store and buy a couple feet of the same gauge stranded copper wire and some new crimp connectors. After having this happen to me a couple of times I finally purchased a type of the crimp connector that actually integrates a piece of heat shrink tubing around the crimp connector and an inch or so of the wire to completely seal it. I think what happens is that in the hot damp environment the copper oxides a bit, the resistance of the connection increases, then it gets hot and melts the insulation. This is very likely to happen as the boiler first warms up since the elements are energized for an extended period.

Electrically the connection often still works for a while but will eventually fail since it is overheating a bit with each use. The wire gets very brittle.

[atpayne82]

Great, thanks for the tip Chas! I'll take a look at it tomorrow!

[atpayne82]

When I opened it up, this is what I found:
Any suggestions?
Thanks

[GDK]

Chas was spot on the money. This is relatively easy to fix and no need to worry about. If the wire is long enough, cut the booth with the burnt wire section, strip the new end of the wire and crimp a new connector. Make sure the wire is still long enough and is not touching the boiler. If you want to be 100% sure this will not happen again, after crimping the connector you can solder the connection on top of that.

[chas]

Fortunately, in my case it was the same connection that went each time. One of the two connections is just a short ~4" jumper that terminates right next to the element connection at one end of the circuit breaker that's mounted on top of the boiler. That was always the one that burned on my S1. There is usually enough slack to cut off the bad part of the jumper wire once and reuse the wire. But if it happens again the whole jumper needs to be replaced. With one foot of wire and 6 crimp connectors one can make three of those jumpers. After the 2nd time it happened to me I always kept at least one spare around.

Unfortunately, in your case, I think it is the other wire that routes directly to the steam boiler triac board. So hopefully you have enough slack to reuse the existing wire as it would be much more work to replace the entire wire. If you do think you need to replace the whole wire let me know. I have an idea as to how I would go about it.

[atpayne82]

Great, thanks again for the help!

[JohnB]

Solder the new connections & do not put the rubber hoods back on. L/S used clear heat shrink tubing slipped over the terminal but not shrunk on the S1V2. This kept them dry but allowed heat to escape.

[Endo]

Similar pictures here:

http://www.home-barista.com/espresso-ma ... 15641.html

and here:

http://media.photobucket.com/image/viva ... pg%3Fo%3D7

[atpayne82]

Any idea where I can find a replacement black cover (like ones shown below)?

[Endo]

Why?

They will just trap moisture again and cause another meltdown. Try looking for these little white, solid plastic covers like on the newer models:

Hard Terminal Caps

mvivaldisteamboiler (2).jpg (167.91 KiB) Viewed 10393 times