Short from boiler

[subieworx]

Hello

I have a Lucca A53 mini that I am having an issue with.

I have had this machine for 5 years with pretty constant issues of leaks, but nothing too difficult to fix on my own. Electrically the machine has been working well until last week. I was in there fixing yet another leak from a fitting off the top of the boiler emanating from a small plastic hose and noticed that the wiring on a ground wire that is apparently for the boiler fill probe had a length of insulation that was crumbling due to sitting on top of the boiler (why run a wire there??). I replaced a section of that wire and routed it around the boiler with some higher temp insulation, hooked the ground wire back up and started the machine. Boiler heated, leak was gone and all was well.

3-4 days later and it's time for another standard leak service as I can hear another fitting hissing so I take the lid off, identify the leak and fix it. Start the machine back up and everything seems fine. Put the lid back on and go about my day. Later that day I notice the lights off on the front of the machine. I check the fuse and notice that it is blown. I replace the fuse, start up the machine and after 3 or so minutes here a pop and the fuse is blown again. I take off the lid, replace the fuse again and this time watch to see if I can identify the noise I heard. Sure enough after it starts to heat I see a spark emanate from the fill probe at the boiler connection.

I then fired off an email to Clive Coffee to ask for their assistance. Their tech department gets back with me and says that the fill probe is a low voltage circuit and that it should not be possible to spark like that. They instruct me to take the fill probe positive wire and the ground wire and connect them together to see what happens...still shorts. Then then tell me to send the machine across the country to them or find a local repair place. That when I turn to the people here hoping for some knowledge on how to fix the issue.

Below is a link to a video of it shorting. It has happened so many times now that I have a nice black spot on the brass fittings for the fill probe to the boiler.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/M2zicffMZZ38ZtxF7

[chas]

The only thing I can think of is that the boiler's heater element is shot and is perhaps touching the fill probe inside the boiler (or the heater element is energizing the water inside the boiler exiting via the fill probe). In any case, if that higher voltage has gotten on to that probe you likely have also blown some parts on the controller board as well. This would likely take out the fuse as well.