The S1 Cafe - Helping Your Espresso Dreams Become Reality

Hi

I had my mini now for about 2 years. The SB started acting up. At start up it would heat up and fill the SB a few times. It would over fill and the water would come out from the safety valve (depressure valve located right behind the water fill sensor). It would heat up and go over 1.35 bar (about 2 bar). I tried to lower the pressure by turning on the steam wand. It would spew out water and the steam is very uneven (e.g. with water spewed out intermittently). The pressure would go down but it would start to fill with water again and be at about 2 bar again. Also overfill again and water comes out from the safety valve again.

I checked my vacuum valve and also replace the teflon tape on it. That did not seemed to help much. It would be fine for a day and then it would start to overfill again. I noticed it does this from a cold start up (e.g. cool down overnight and start up in the morning).

Does anyone have any ideas? Is it related to the control board (e.g. electronic issue)?

Thanks for your input!

Hi,

I had a chance to ask Chris' Coffee concerning my issue with overfill on the SB. They told me that I need to push in the autofil probe located right behind the vacuum breaker. The probe is bent 90 deg (elbow). Roger from Chris Coffee told me to push until the start of the probe elbow is touching the plastic white holder. Also he said to tighten it with a wrench. Sometimes the probe "walks" out over time.

I did it and it seemed to work.

Thanks.

I had an issue with my 3 year old VII; my Flo Jet pump would not turn off and steam was pouring out of the steam boiler's pressure relief value. So, I shut the VII and Flo jet off. My course of action was to seek a solution on the S1 Café website forum. I quickly and easily found this post, read through it and came to the conclusion that my issue was the same.

So, I proceeded to loosen the upper nut on the auto fill probe (the 90 degree elbow) on the steam boiler and then pushed "until the start of the probe elbow is touching the plastic white holder". I then re-tightened the nut, turned on the VII and the Flo-Jet. I am happy to report that the issue was solved. The VII and Flo-Jet are back in action!

My thanks to this post/poster and the S1 Café website - a great resource for a great espresso machine.

Todd