воскресенье, 25 сентября 2016 г.

ECM Casa IV espresso machine. How to fix boiler leak.

I bought this ECM Casa IV espresso machine in Gremany at the end of 2013. It served very well so far. But in the end of 2016 it started to leak. At first this leak was fairly noticeable but in short time it developed into considerable one. We dotn't have any official repair shops for ECM in Russia, so I decided to take a look inside in case I am gonna be able to fix this problem myself.
First thing you should do before starting disassembly is turn machine off. Disconnect power cord from wall outlet. I advise to do this in evening. In this case you have all night for machine to cool down.
Remove the machine's top tray, drip tray, water tank and portafilter. By the way, it is good opportunity to clean these parts!
Unscrew screws, holding machine's outer case. There are 4 screws at right side, same at left side and 2 screws at back side. You gonna need 3 mm hex bit. Remove outer case.


Check if it needs cleaning from inside.
At this time you can clearly see the machine's internal parts.


I pictured how the leak between boiler and group looks like. If you see something like that you definitely ought to continue.
Next you need to remove metal part, which covers boiler from top side. To do this you need to unscrew 4 screws at top side. You gonna need 2.5 mm bit. And there are also 2 screws at machine's bottom.


Unscrew big plastic nut, holding water tank socket.


Now you can remove metal plate. Check if it needs cleaning from dust or other dirt.
Before you start to work with wiring I advise you to double check if machine's power cord is disconnected from power.
Mark all boiler wiring connectors with numbers.


There is no need to detach black wires from boiler because there is common connector which allows you to disconnect black wire in the middle. And you definitely will not mix wires because black goes to black.
Plastic connector caps are very fragile because some of them degrade from high temperature. If you crush them to pieces - don't be upset. There is no great use of them here anyway.

When all wiring disconnected from boiler you can remove thermal foam insulation. Undo the Velcro and gently pull foam away.

Now you gonna need two adjustable wrenches to detach piping from boiler.


Gently unscrew all piping nuts. When possible - hold both parts of the connection with wrenches.
Remove adjustable pressure release valve.
Remove water/steam valve. To do this unscrew big nut from front panel. You may apply a small quantity of silicone lubricant to the back side of water/steam dispense lever.


Now you can remove screws, holding boiler piece and group piece together.


Be careful because boiler is filled with water and as soon as you pull boiler up water will start to pour out. I advise to use small bowl and towels to capture the water.

When boiler removed place small towel into group to soak remaining water.


Now you can see the cause of the leak. After 3 years of service boiler seal was destroyed due to high temperature. In my case it was leaking in several places around group. The seal stuck to boiler and group and ripped when I pulled boiler up.


This is how freshly removed boiler looks from inside.
In Saint-Petersburg, Russia, we have extremely soft water. So in all 3 years I never used descaler.
I prepared a little quantity of descaler and applied it to group and boiler.
Cleaning of group flange is easy because of chrome coating. Just rub it with cloth and everything will go away.
I decided to use sandpaper to clean boiler's flange. Take a sheet of high-grit, at least 240, sandpaper. Put it to flat surface like glass table. Add several drops of water and sand boiler's flange gently. As a result - clean and flat surface.


Now you gonna need new boiler seal. The dimensions of the groove are: outer diameter 80 mm, inner diameter 74.9 mm and depth 2 mm.
At first I decided to use common silicone seal.


But it was a huge mistake! Common silicone can't survive high temperatures. Only after a week it degraded completely. I had to disassemble the machine again and remove all that remained from this silicone.
Unfortunately this time I wasn't taking pictures.
My second attempt of making replacement seal prevailed (so far). I took medical-grade silicone tube I am using as spare knock box bumper. Using scissors I cut sort of square cord from this silicone trying to match dimensions of the groove. Then I put this cord to groove and trimmed length so the ends of the cord overlap by about 5 mm. Then I cut each end in ramp style so when overlapped these ends will be the same thickness as the other cord. This seal successfully withstands 10 bar pressure and high temperature.

Now you can put the machine together and check if you are lucky.

Good luck!

5 комментариев:

  1. The arrangement of the Stirling boiler is enclosed with brickwork. Here, the arrangement of bricks will avoid the heat dissipation in the surroundings.

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  2. Good job I find this blog is very interesting thanks for sharing the informative post with your experience.
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  3. Hi, nice writeup, thank you. What type of pump is used for Casa IV?

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