S1V1 steam/hot water problem

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mkc
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S1V1 steam/hot water problem

Post by mkc »

The background:

Circa 2004 S1V1 (and original owner). Has needed minimal maintenance (just a group gasket). Somewhat hard water for the most recent 13 years, then a year of storage, now 6 months of fairly soft water. We only run it for lattes in the morning.

The past 2 days I've been getting more water than usual when "blowing off" the steam wand before starting the frothing. Yesterday it just made me go "hmmm...." Today it was enough "more water" that it immediately brought me to the board. Also noticed more steam than normal out of the hot water dispenser (I use it to rinse the frothing wand at the end of clean up).

After searching and just general reading of a bunch of threads, I turned it back on to watch it and noticed the needle (round gauge) getting a little into the red. Normally it was dead on the line. There also seemed to be a little creep upwards in pressure as the machine went through a couple of steam boiler heat cycles.

It has not thrown an error nor do a see or hear steam or water where it shouldn't be.

I found this in reference to a Mini's problem:
chas wrote: Tue Oct 15, 2019 9:56 pm Spitting water in the steam is usually a sign that the boiler is overfilling but not overflowing. This usually happens if there is mineral build-up on the end of the water level probe or if the probe has gotten pushed up.
Would y'all say that should be our first line of attack?

Thanks,

Michelle
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chas
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Re: S1V1 steam/hot water problem

Post by chas »

I actually mentioned two issues related to the water level probe and they should be the first things you check. It does sound like the boiler may be overfilling.

Given how many years you ran hard water through it you should probably descale the boiler. Though at this point that would probably require a complete boiler removal, disassembly, and sand blast. Even a long soak in citric acid solution would probably not do enough.
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mkc
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Re: S1V1 steam/hot water problem

Post by mkc »

chas wrote: Tue Jan 07, 2020 11:06 am Given how many years you ran hard water through it you should probably descale the boiler. Though at this point that would probably require a complete boiler removal, disassembly, and sand blast. Even a long soak in citric acid solution would probably not do enough.
I do not disagree :-)

We'll see what the level probe looks like when we open the unit up. I wanted to make sure there weren't any other diagnostic things we should or could do before tearing into it. While we have a back up machine (a Silvia), I hate to have the S1 down for too many days.

Michelle
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Re: S1V1 steam/hot water problem

Post by mkc »

Well, does look like it was the level sensor lifting up, but we are going ahead with descaling and some parts repair - the water lines, in particular the steam wand line, looked like replacement was a good idea.

The boiler itself is surprisingly not bad, as is the heating element. There is some scale, but not hideous given it's never been cleaned.
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Re: S1V1 steam/hot water problem

Post by mkc »

All R&R'd. It was the level sensor, but since we had things apart, we also descaled everything, replaced steam boiler gasket, all water lines, anti-crush and ferrules, vacuum breaker, expansion valve seat (and calibrated the expansion valve, then set the boiler back to proper operating pressure. Should be good for another 15 years ;-) (only kidding! we got lucky)

Michelle
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