Giotto Boiler pressure drop and other questions...

FrankA

Hi All.

I've been happily enjoying my Giotto for over a year now, so havent posted much lately.

Anyway, I have noticed recently that the pressure reading on the boiler pressure gauge no longer sits at or around 1.0 bar like it used to for the first year or so I had the machine. It is now at about 0.60 - 0.70 bar. I have done a backflush, so I am confident the machine is clean.
Since the machine is out of warrantly I decided to have a tinker with the pressurestat. I turned the brass screw in the direction of the '+' arrow and this certianly had an effect - but only in that the water temp of water coming out of the group is higher. No noticeable effect on the pressure.

Anyone have any advice on this ? Should I put it back like it was and have it looked at by a technician ? I think it should be possbile to sort this out - unless of course it is just my pressure gauge showing the wrong pressure.

While I am here, is there a steam tip available here in Oz  to fit the Giotto for steaming small quantities of milk ? The 10mm female tips do not fit - it needs to be an 8mm male tip. Or do I need to source one from overseas?

And finally I just upgraded to a mini Mazzer grinder. I am trying to get it to  (manually) dose 7-8mm of coffee but it doesnt seems to do it. I need to flick the doser lever twice to fill a single portafilter. Is it just that the adjustment is very coarse ? How many turns to make a noticeable effect on the doe quantity ?

Sorry for all the questions !

(my old faithful Nemox / LUX is on eBay is anyone is looking for a great little first grinder - took me a while to save for the Mazzer).

Thanks,
Frank.

Lovey

G'day Frank, You said that when you adjusted the pressurestat the water coming out of the group was hotter, but the guage didn't show a different reading. I would suspect that the pressure guage on your machine is faulty and giving you a low reading. There is a direct correlation between boiler pressure and temperature, so if the pressurestat was turnded up, and the water was coming out hotter, the pressure stat looks like its working. Can I ask how you determined that the water temp was hotter after you adjusted the pressurestat? See if you can get hold of a pressure guage and measure the boiler pressure and compare it to the reading on your guage. In relation to the steam tip, have you tried Coffeeparts? If they don't have one, they can most likely tell you where you can get one from. With the doser, I think that they only dispense the required 'dose' when the doser if full. If the doser is being used 'per shot', you'll have to keep thwacking the doser lever to empty the doser out. The repeated thwacking is very therapeutic   Hope this helps.

FrankA

G'day Frank, You said that when you adjusted the pressurestat the water coming out of the group was hotter, but the guage didn't show a different reading. I would suspect that the pressure guage on your machine is faulty and giving you a low reading. There is a direct correlation between boiler pressure and temperature, so if the pressurestat was turnded up, and the water was coming out hotter, the pressure stat looks like its working. Can I ask how you determined that the water temp was hotter after you adjusted the pressurestat? See if you can get hold of a pressure guage and measure the boiler pressure and compare it to the reading on your guage. In relation to the steam tip, have you tried Coffeeparts? If they don't have one, they can most likely tell you where you can get one from. With the doser, I think that they only dispense the required 'dose' when the doser if full. If the doser is being used 'per shot', you'll have to keep thwacking the doser lever to empty the doser out. The repeated thwacking is very therapeutic   Hope this helps.

Thanks for the reply Lovey. I measured the temp of the water coming out of the group the old fashioned way ... with a milk steaming thermometer. I just let water come out of the group into a glass and stuck the thermometer in before and after  adjusting the pressurestat. Not very scientific I know. The pressure gauge you are talking about - is that one of the ones that is on the group handle ? I think coffeeparts sells them. Cheers, Frank.

FreshCoffee2

Frank, the quickest way to cut to the chase is to take it to your nearest giotto service agent or other reputable commercial esp machine repairer. There a 2 or 3 different possibilities that really require domeone with technical expertise to sort out for you. Dont confuse boiler / steam pressure with water pressure. The gauge on your machine reads steam / boiler pressure, and a gauge on the bottom of a group handle measures the brew water pressure. They are entirely UNrelated and I fear if you purchase a gauge for your group handle it will be (for you) a waste of money that serves no purpose for you as a domestic user of the machine. Regardz, FC.

FrankA

Frank, the quickest way to cut to the chase is to take it to your nearest giotto service agent or other reputable commercial esp machine repairer. There a 2 or 3 different possibilities that really require domeone with technical expertise to sort out for you. Dont confuse boiler / steam pressure with water pressure. The gauge on your machine reads steam / boiler pressure, and a gauge on the bottom of a group handle measures the brew water pressure. They are entirely UNrelated and I fear if you purchase a gauge for your group handle it will be (for you) a waste of money that serves no purpose for you as a domestic user of the machine. Regardz, FC.

Thanks FC. I wasnt planning on buying one of those group handle pressure gauges as it struck me that it was gonna measure something different to the pressure @ the boiler. I am not sure what kind of gauge Lovey wasreferring to. I will probably end up taking it to a repairer. I did contact ECM in Australia and quite frankly they weren't too helpful. What would you expect a technician would charge me per hour to fix my machine ? Thanks, Frank.

FreshCoffee2

You would expect to pay around $80.00 per hour but how long it takes is dependent on what they find..the diagnostic process is usually the slowest, once you work out what's wrong the fix usually takes far less time...which is why most repairers these days have a "quote fee" that is payable even if the client decides not to go ahead with a

Lovey

I wasnt planning on buying one of those group handle pressure gauges as it struck me that it was gonna measure something different to the pressure @ the boiler. I am not sure what kind of gauge Lovey wasreferring to. I will probably end up taking it to a repairer. I did contact ECM in Australia and quite frankly they weren't too helpful. What would you expect a technician would charge me per hour to fix my machine ? Thanks, Frank.

G'day Frank, sorry about the confusion, I should have been more specific. I actually meant a guage to screw into the boiler to check against the guage on the face plate. My mistake