Our service has Wheels

We recently added a new member to the Great Infusions Service team...

The Scion XB is a super economic cargo utility car.

It holds as much packing peanuts, boxes & bubble wrap as a small pickup....

I can easily store my service gear in the rear hatch without folding seats.

Averaging 30 mpg... I Love That!

Separated At Birth

Pasquini will not admit it, but the Livia 90 is made for them by Bezzera.

Both of these came in with flow meter errors and the Livia had a shot expansion valve.

Check out these views:

They appear different with Pasquini wrapped in Stainless & Bezzera in Plastic panels.

The top view shows same boiler layout:

Side 1 shows control box (same gicar) and relay (same finder)

Side 2 shows same placement of p-stat & same flowmeter...

Dialing it in

What you see in this photo is a nice tool of the trade.

The gauge displays the accurate brew pressure at the group.

The digital thermometer displays the group temp.

I adjust the expansion valve for brew pressure & the pressure stat for temperature

for about max Bar pressure 10 & temp 200 f.

This portafilter fits several machine groups.

For those with different portafilter sizes I have PSI gauge

& thermometer attachments.

Retro Rancilio Home Unit

This Rancilio Audry came in for repair and consignment. It had been used for a few months when new and then shelved so it was amazingly clean and original. It did need a new pump and set of gaskets... But once fixed it ran like a champ.

The jobs that come to me...

The subject is an old worn out Conti, originally sold through Illi distributer and now parked hopelessly in an Ethiopian restaurant. Not working at all - no heat, water flows mysteriously into the drip tray from behind the groups and 1 group has a trickle while the other is dead. The group that has a trickle leaks everywhere. Group gaskets are petrified. When it did heat up it emitted a steaming sound from inside.

Why would anyone service this unit?

Well... The owner seatbelted it into her car (on its side) - leaking water onto the seat - with her little boy along for the ride - and drove 4 hours because no-one in her area would touch it... I couldn't refuse.

Work:

replace burnt heater

rebuild both groups

rebuild 1 flowmeter

rebuild 1 opv strangely placed in front of the refill valve

replace overheat safety valve and level probe

old heater was leaking directly onto the poorly situated motor which grew some strange green fuzz.

All of the gaskets I tried to order were for newer models and was not able to find parts for this older one. ended up using pavoni europicola boiler gaskets on the group head. Used old worn o-rings with teflon and locktight to fuse the groups onto the boiler. Not pretty but effective.

After all of that - it works. That is the best I can say for it.

eeww, that's nasty

I had a Fiorenzato espresso machine in for service this week. The Fiorenzato has a decorative curved body panel that wraps the 2 sides and back of the machine... It looks cool! It also leaves a gap on the underside of the unit that can allow VERMIN into the espresso machine - And the vermin might decide to use your espresso machine for a crapper... After vacuuming u the crap, I found typical scale & foul group head. Descale, replace level probe, vac valve & needed saftey valve. Plus a vigorous group cleaning...

Giott - oh - no

Poor little Giotto...

Hard times. Hard water. Pic's show fittings have mineral build up... Needs to be totally descaled. Strange leak at heating element leads and also building effervescence will require new element as well. Pump is fine. Can't test the P-stat until I get it cleaned up and heated up.