S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

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mzimmerm
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S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by mzimmerm »

Hi,

I have a S1 Mini Vivaldi II.

The pump is not coming on to fill the boiler with water. So far the only things I have done is removed the fill probe to clean it and removed hoses to the boiler and blow through them to confirm there were not restricted.

Any thoughts on what I could try next?

The pump does come on for water out of the group head but not for the hot water or anything on the boiler side.

Thank you
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chas
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Re: S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by chas »

Easiest thing first. Did you inadvertently hit the Boiler button and turn it Off? It's not hard to do since the Boiler button is right next to the On/Off button. The red Boiler lamp should flash while heating or stay lit steadily when it is up to temp.
Chas
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mzimmerm
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Re: S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by mzimmerm »

Thanks for the reply.

The boiler button is flashing on but I disconnected the hot wire to the element because the boiler is empty and do not want to turn the element on with the boiler empty. If I hook the element up it will start to heat up but the pump does not turn on to fill.
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chas
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Re: S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by chas »

Easy Check #2:

Did you follow this procedure from the User's Manual?

4.4 Filling the Water Tank
1) Remove the drip tray (1)
2) Remove the water tank (4) and fill with soft water to ensure against mineral
buildup in your boilers
3) Replace the water tank (4) and the drip tray (1)
4) Insert the plug into the 110V AC socket, the On/STBY light (22) starts
flashing. (Stand-by mode).
5) Press the ON / OFF (27) and Hot Water (23) buttons simultaneously. During
this stage, the control lights EMPTY and On/STBY (22) blink while the pump
runs
6) Once you see water coming from the group (10), release both buttons. The
unit is now in Standby mode with the On/STBY light blinking. You have now
primed the pump and filled both boilers with water.
Chas
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mzimmerm
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Re: S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by mzimmerm »

OK. I just performed the "prime procedure" as outlined in the manual.

I installed the hot wire back on the boiler element. I powered the unit on and waited for the brew element to come to temp. I then switched the boiler on and red light was flashing. It flashed for about two minutes and tripped the GFIC breaker (15A). The boiler was still cool to the touch. I took a meter and the element has 10 ohms of resistance and tested for 115 volts at the element terminals and there was voltage.

Sometimes when I unplug the unit and plug it back it will trip the GFIC outlet regardless if the boiler is turned on or not. I know this is not a faulty GFIC outlet because I have tried several outlets with the same results.
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chas
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Re: S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by chas »

Next you should unscrew the cover from the back of the steam boiler fill solenoid so you can access the wires. Pull them off, if necessary, so you can put an AC voltmeter across the contacts. See if you are getting 110VAC or whatever your line voltage is across the leads when the boiler should be filling. Both this solenoid needs to be energized AND the pump should be running when the boiler should be filling. I am not sure if the pump will run even if the solenoid valve is not opening or not. If you are getting line voltage at the solenoid, you should here a distinctive click when the solenoid is energized.
Chas
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Re: S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by mzimmerm »

I unhooked the fill sensor (red) wire and the pump started up. I grounded it out and the pump turned off. I believe I just have a bad fill sensor.
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chas
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Re: S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by chas »

The fill sensor is just a metal rod so there is not much to fail. It should have a teflon sleeve between it and the body of the steam boiler to insulate it from the steam boiler so that any/all conduction is just through the water. What you are seeing now would occur if that sleeve is not in place at all or not correctly positioned.

It sounds like when you removed the fill probe for cleaning you either did not replace the sleeve at all or mispositioned it.
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Re: S1 Mini Vivaldi II - Boiler not filling with water

Post by mzimmerm »

You are correct! It was some corrosion in the connector block attached to the fill probe. I cleaned it out and re-stripped the red wire and it works as it should. Thanks for your help. Mike
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