Plumbing in a La Cimbali Junior R

[BigDooley]

Hi all,

I had a good look around a lot of forums and the advice seems conflicting and not very clear. I've had my Junior R for 3 years now, but filling up the tank by hand is getting a bit boring when we're busy and I was always told that I can plumb the machine into the mains. Easy for me to do that, but how and where to connect the water?

One post I read said that it was designed to work with the tank still attached - keeps it simple I suppose, but what happens to the old water in the tank?

I've taken some pics of the guts of the machine to see if someone can tell me what to do.

This first pic show two pipes with filters on the end that sit in the water tank when it's in place.



The pipe on the right disappears off to a round plastic device (see pic below) that presumably detects the presence of water in the tank and shuts it off if the pressure is too low?



The pipe on the right with the plastic filter on it goes to what looks like a little pump located underneath the boiler - see pic below:



If you follow the braided hose on the other side of this pump, it goes off to a brass T and a plastic pipe goes off to what must be a valve and thence to the boiler.



The other side goes around towards the front of the machine to another brass T. On the opposite side of this T is a pipe to connect a hose to (see the last pic)with a screw above it which, presumably lets water in or out of this pipe if you back off the thread.



Could this be where I connect my mains to and leave everything else in place? Or am I barking up the wrong tree and need to do something completely different (could this just be a drain for the boiler or something?) like just connect the mains to both the pump and the device for detecting the presence of water in the tank?

If anyone else has done this mod and could point me in the right direction it would be much appreciated.

[ausdb]

Hi BigDooley,

I am rebuilding a Junior D1 (plumbed in old school volumetric) as a project and found this parts manual on another coffee forum. Looking at it the internal plumbing is quite different between a plumbed and tanked machine. The easiest way to do it would be a ghetto plumbed in conversion as discussed here:
http://coffeesnobs.com.au/brewing-eq...mbing-kit.html
The biggest issue I see with doing that is the potential for disaster if the float switch fails which they also discuss, with the plumbed in version the boiler fill is solenoid controlled so it is reasonably failsafe but a leaky float valve means floodsville.

Where are you located? I'm in Perth and considering the quality of our water supply a tanked version almost seems a better option once you consider the cost of filtration to reduce hardness but I haven't had my machine running yet and I don't know how much water you tend to waste with flushes to keep the group temp under control. How much do you use brewing vs flushing?

[BigDooley]

The easiest way to do it would be a ghetto plumbed in conversion as discussed here:
http://coffeesnobs.com.au/brewing-eq...mbing-kit.html

Hi Ausdb, thanks for the reply - I'd already got to that point I think that a float would be simplest. I've found a small decent quality agricultural solid brass one - can't see it failing.

Where are you located?

We're on the East Coast of Tassie and have the softest rainwater you ever encountered.

How much do you use brewing vs flushing?

We're a little tiny boutique hotel and a single group machine is perfect for us - just filling the tank is a chore. The tank quickly drains and I'd rather not have to teach people to fill the tank a he t

[BigDooley]

Hi ausdb,

Thanks for your reply.

I had got to the point where I realised that the simplest way is with a float valve. I'm trying to source a good quality brass one rather than all those plastic ones on ebay.

We're based on the East Coast of Tasmania with the softest rainwater you ever did see, so never any sign of the dreaded calcium build up.

We use the machine in our little boutique hotel and so it gets used intensively for short periods and filling the tank is a chore, especially when the tank drains, the light comes on and you have to dunk the water sensor to reset it! Be great not to have to teach the staff how to fill the tank and the boiler. In all other respects a single group machine us perfect, not least in terms of space.

[b9drinker]

I've got a hybrid Cimbali M32 crossed with a Faema E98 running off the mains water.

We run a small tea room in England making around 50 to 70 coffees a day. On the underside there may be two connection points for hoses. One's for the mains in and the other for the waste pipe out from the tray and the back flush.

Mains inlet is on Page 3 part number 532-500-100, and the drain outlet is Page 3 part number 537-014-100 off ausdb attached pdf file. Don't know if the tank pipe(s) need to be disconnected - I'm sure the cables going into the tank will have to be. *Don't cut them in case they are needed though!

Hope this is of help

[BigDooley]

Ok, I put in a float and is all working fine, but the problem is that the metal bell that detects the water by pressure has always been a bit sensitive and I used to solve the problem by dropping it in the water. I can't now easily lift it past the float and have to unscrew the floaty every now and then to lift the bell high enough.

I understand you can adjust this sensitivity in the little round plastic brain by turning one of the screws. Obviously I don't want to disable it.

Does anyone know which screw and which direction?