Water dripping from bottom of steam boiler

[szrir]

Hi everyone,

I've had my S1 for about a week now, but it has developed a leak. Water seems to be coming from the nut below the steam boiler. When this happens the pressure gauge starts going nuts and the boiler keeps refilling.

It seems to be a constant drip. I've unplugged everything and turned off the water. I've tried powering it all up again, but when it comes up to temp it happens again.

I've already emailed Chris (Chris Coffee), and thought maybe someone here had some ideas.

Thanks in advance...

[chas]

Are you talking about that big brass drain plug that sticks down through the bottom of the chassis?

If that's what it is and you haven't tried to tighten it, give that a go. Otherwise, I'd recommend a call to Chris Coffee first thing in the morning. You'll probably need to talk to Chris ( the tech, not the boss). Chris seems to me their main S1 guru. This doesn't sound like something you can resolve via e-mail.

[szrir]

Thanks for replying,

The plug is tight, I think it's an electronics problem. The pressure gauge keeps hitting 2 bars, and if I don't bleed off steam, water begins leaking out.

I'm also getting a mix of steam and water from the steam wand.

I've emailed Chris, and believe it or not he's actually reading e-mails on Sunday. That's pretty awesome if you ask me.

I'll keep you posted on the outcome.

[chas]

Definitely let us all know what the final resolution is. It'll probably happen to others of us sooner or later. There's a pressure release valve on top of the steam boiler. This is supposed to be the only place that "leaks" if the pressure gets to high.

The group boiler uses the expansion valve that drains into the drip tray if its pressure gets too high.

It certainly sounds like there is something wrong in the loop between boiler temp sensor and the PC board boiler shut down mechanism. Or maybe the boiler pressure is just adjusted too high. Not sure if this is adjustable. If so I've never seen anything about how to do it. I've never seen mine go over about 1.25bar.

[Barry]

Szir, I will be stunned if Chris the tech can't tell you exactly what the problem is and how it needs to be fixed. He pulled an S1 apart in the shop to work with me on fixing a problem with the main switch circuit board. Turned out to be a bad (cold) solder joint. I was able to fix it on my own. The big question will be can it be fixed without going back. Please let us know the outcome.

Regards,
Barry

[chas]

Szir, any resolution yet? I assume by now you either figured it out over the phone or you're boxing it up to ship back...

The good thing about the fact that Chris phone service is so excellent is that, if you are the least bit mechanically inclined, most things can be figured out and repaired without shipment back to the Nachtrieb mothership.

As a matter of fact, I am not aware of anyone who's had to physically return a unti for repair. Here's hoping you can keep up the tradition!

[szrir]

Sorry for the delay in getting back to everyone, I was on vacation.

Last Wednesday Roger and I spoke and he thought the problem was the probe in the steam boiler. He shipped one out, and it arrived the next day, I replaced it but unfortunately the boiler kept leaking.

Roger is going to speak to Chris this afternoon and I hate to admit it but I may be the first person to ship back his S1 for repairs

Chas, thanks for this forum. It's great to have all this support!!!

[szrir]

I'm back in business!!!!

The machine unfortunately had to go back to Chris Coffee, but Roger found the problem.

It turned out to be a metal shaving caught in the inlet solinoid valve. The shaving wouldn't let the valve close all the way, allowing water to keep filling the boiler.

Now it's back and I'm ready to start going through some beans.

Thx for all the help,

George

[chas]

I've heard of people with other new machines having trouble with metal shavings, too. At least you only had to ship from New Jersey.

It seems like it's always something with this Italian equipment when first purchased. In my case, boith my S1 AND my Mazzer Mini-E worked backwards. The S1 was fixed within a couple of months via a replacement controller board. The Mazzer Mini-E had two cables reversed on its controller board. You'd think anything other than an extremely minimal final test would have caught these issues.

[Barry]

Sigh.....what we need is German engineering with Italian styling. This became clear to me when I had to remove the pannels to get at the circuit board that the LED's were on. German QA would have either had better solder joints or picked up the defective board. Getting all the pannels aligned and screwed back on after fixing the solder problem was quite challenging. It didn't have to be that way.