Ive noticed that DIY and practical threads are of short supply around here, so ill post this up on the off chance someone finds it useful 

I picked up for very very little money, a two group CBC Royal espresso machine, which is the same company as BFC. I basically knew that everything that could possibly be broken was broken, but I figured it wasnt a significant enough amount of money to cry over if i couldnt fix it all.
So the symptoms were, no heat, no pump, no touchpads, no boiler fill, basically nothing worked.
So the first step was to see if the element was working. To do this, take your multimeter and measure the resistance across each part of the element. If you dont have a multimeter you can pick a cheapie up for less than $20. Depending on the power of your machine, and the amount of element prongs it has, the resistance should be somewhere between 10 and 50 ohms.

You can figure out exactly how much resistance each prong on your element should have from these simple fomulas:
(p=power i=current v=volts r=resistance)
p=iv
i=p/v (1)
v=ir
r=v/i (2)
subbing (1) into (2)
r=v^2 /p
Make p your elements total power divided by the number of prongs.
So anyway my element turned out to have the correct resistance and therefore was put into the "parts working" list
From there I just followed the electrical path, testing voltages as i went. Power was going into the machine, through the switch, through the pressurestat, but not reaching the element. Therefore the problem lay with the safety thermostat (between the pressurestat and the element). It had been tripped. Once reset, the element was now getting power.
On to the pump... The motor was getting power, as was the start capacitor, but it was not turning. I could hear the capacitor try to start the motor, and i could hear the motor humming, but no movement. This pointed to a stuck pump. Unhook the pump by undoing the clamp holding it to the motor and sliding it off. The pump was indeed stuck.
To free up a stuck pump, try soaking it in citric acid (it dissolves limescale) and then gently wiggling the shaft with a spanner to try and free it up. If no luck, soak for a few more hours and try again. If all else fails, give the shaft of the pump a few taps with a hammer, and try wiggling and soaking again. If the pump is still stuck after this, then its time for a new one. Happily, mine became unstuck eventually
After re-installing the pump, the machine now pumped water into the groups correctly, however only with the manual switch and not the touchpads. One touchpad not working could mean the touchpad was just broken, however both touchpads not working, as well as autofill not working as well means that it was almost certainly the control board that was the issue. So i took the thing out to examine it. After checking that there were no visual breakages on the printed circuit board, i decided to replace the two most likely things to fail; the capacitor and the transformer. the transformer on mine also had a bulge in it that i suspected was due to it imploding somehow.
$20 later from a place called element14 (i assume its okay to post this supplier since no sponsor, current or future, is likely to stock these circuit board parts) i had a new capacitor and transformer (myrra 44159).

To remove the old components from the board, i found that heating up the solders on one side of the component, while gently prying it upwards with your thumb, was the easiest way to go. Go from side to side until the component is completely removed. Once the component is removed, clean up the old solder with something called desolder braid. To use it, put the braided material on the old solder, and heat up the old solder through the braid with a soldering iron. When the solder turns liquid, the braid will soak it up, leaving your circuitboard solder free.
(my beautiful (not) soldering job)

install the new component by resoldering the connections and youre ready to go. Make sure you mount the capacitor with the right polarity (ie: positive on the capacitor to positive on the board).
Once re-installed, the machine works almost perfectly! i was lucky that the transformer was the only thing broken on the board. The only thing to do now is descale the rest of the pipes, because i think there is a blockage in one of the heat exchangers, since one group heats up much quicker than the other.
Hope this will be helpful to someone! Dont be afraid to give repairing your own machine a go. Dont forget: 240v can kill you so make sure to unplug at the wall when youre not testing voltages.


I picked up for very very little money, a two group CBC Royal espresso machine, which is the same company as BFC. I basically knew that everything that could possibly be broken was broken, but I figured it wasnt a significant enough amount of money to cry over if i couldnt fix it all.
So the symptoms were, no heat, no pump, no touchpads, no boiler fill, basically nothing worked.
So the first step was to see if the element was working. To do this, take your multimeter and measure the resistance across each part of the element. If you dont have a multimeter you can pick a cheapie up for less than $20. Depending on the power of your machine, and the amount of element prongs it has, the resistance should be somewhere between 10 and 50 ohms.

You can figure out exactly how much resistance each prong on your element should have from these simple fomulas:
(p=power i=current v=volts r=resistance)
p=iv
i=p/v (1)
v=ir
r=v/i (2)
subbing (1) into (2)
r=v^2 /p
Make p your elements total power divided by the number of prongs.
So anyway my element turned out to have the correct resistance and therefore was put into the "parts working" list

From there I just followed the electrical path, testing voltages as i went. Power was going into the machine, through the switch, through the pressurestat, but not reaching the element. Therefore the problem lay with the safety thermostat (between the pressurestat and the element). It had been tripped. Once reset, the element was now getting power.
On to the pump... The motor was getting power, as was the start capacitor, but it was not turning. I could hear the capacitor try to start the motor, and i could hear the motor humming, but no movement. This pointed to a stuck pump. Unhook the pump by undoing the clamp holding it to the motor and sliding it off. The pump was indeed stuck.
To free up a stuck pump, try soaking it in citric acid (it dissolves limescale) and then gently wiggling the shaft with a spanner to try and free it up. If no luck, soak for a few more hours and try again. If all else fails, give the shaft of the pump a few taps with a hammer, and try wiggling and soaking again. If the pump is still stuck after this, then its time for a new one. Happily, mine became unstuck eventually

After re-installing the pump, the machine now pumped water into the groups correctly, however only with the manual switch and not the touchpads. One touchpad not working could mean the touchpad was just broken, however both touchpads not working, as well as autofill not working as well means that it was almost certainly the control board that was the issue. So i took the thing out to examine it. After checking that there were no visual breakages on the printed circuit board, i decided to replace the two most likely things to fail; the capacitor and the transformer. the transformer on mine also had a bulge in it that i suspected was due to it imploding somehow.
$20 later from a place called element14 (i assume its okay to post this supplier since no sponsor, current or future, is likely to stock these circuit board parts) i had a new capacitor and transformer (myrra 44159).

To remove the old components from the board, i found that heating up the solders on one side of the component, while gently prying it upwards with your thumb, was the easiest way to go. Go from side to side until the component is completely removed. Once the component is removed, clean up the old solder with something called desolder braid. To use it, put the braided material on the old solder, and heat up the old solder through the braid with a soldering iron. When the solder turns liquid, the braid will soak it up, leaving your circuitboard solder free.
(my beautiful (not) soldering job)

install the new component by resoldering the connections and youre ready to go. Make sure you mount the capacitor with the right polarity (ie: positive on the capacitor to positive on the board).
Once re-installed, the machine works almost perfectly! i was lucky that the transformer was the only thing broken on the board. The only thing to do now is descale the rest of the pipes, because i think there is a blockage in one of the heat exchangers, since one group heats up much quicker than the other.
Hope this will be helpful to someone! Dont be afraid to give repairing your own machine a go. Dont forget: 240v can kill you so make sure to unplug at the wall when youre not testing voltages.








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