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My Silvia tried to kill me.... well kindof.

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  • iamtakai
    replied
    Its IR peak, so non contact. The contact K-type thermocouple shows 116C off the standard thermostat at peak.


    Now has the little PID tucked up under there. Waiting for an Auber box to put it into long term, but the hacked up $2 jiffybox from Jaycar will work for now.

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  • blend52
    replied
    Originally posted by iamtakai View Post

    Oh yeah, the boiler is working, ~77deg on the IR thermometer at peak.
    I missed that comment earlier.
    Why only 77deg at peak ?
    Is that actual boiler temp or water temp from the group ?
    ( my Silvia boiler surface temp at peak was 115 deg C . ..measured by TC probe)

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  • iamtakai
    replied
    My Silvia tried to kill me.... well kindof.

    Well it is alive again. No ground leakages sofar. First coffee tasted good.

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  • iamtakai
    replied
    Yeah. Ive checked all the terminals, and given the ones which felt loose a bit of a squeeze with needle nose pliers.

    Oh and since i had it open i figured i may as well PID it too, so i have the PID hanging out in a Jaycar jiffy box for now, until the nice Auber instruments box arrives (was going to do it internal, but all the horror stories of overheated PIDs turned me off.

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  • blend52
    replied
    If you find & fix the root source of the problem,..there will be no charred terminals to monitor !

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  • iamtakai
    replied
    Monitoring the blackened charred remains of crimp terminals

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  • blend52
    replied
    Originally posted by iamtakai View Post
    Tempted to ....whip up a transparent cover for the machine
    That way i can monitor it. )
    I dont know what you hope to see , but there is not a lot of action in there ..no moving parts, no flames, no steam.. etc.
    you would be better off with either a digital temp probe on the boiler, or/and a power meter (ammeter) on the supply socket.

    ..but I suppose you could use a IR thermometer gun through the perspex ???

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  • iamtakai
    replied
    Well i have an earth leakage/RCD on the power point for the coffee machine now, so that should fix that.

    Tempted to grab a sheet of perspex at bunnings and quickly whip up a transparent cover for the machine like this:


    That way i can monitor it. (without the gauge)

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  • CafeLotta
    replied
    Originally posted by iamtakai View Post
    Well so far so good, tested for earth continuity, none found, have now replaced the crimp connector with a standard crimp on insulated one, and testing it with an RCD as well.

    Currently it has gone through 2-3 heat cycles fine.

    Oh yeah, the boiler is working, ~77deg on the IR thermometer at peak.
    Recently bought a Silvia as part of a package with a grinder I wanted. When first tested the brew button worked fine, the hot water worked fine and the steam button seemed to work fine until part way through heating when my safety switch / earth leakage switch tripped. Tried a second time same thing. Boiler was fully primed both times.

    Spoke to a couple of people in the know and they had the same opinion which was the element most likely had a small crack in it. Probably caused from overheating by the original owner due to running the boiler dry or leaving the steam switch on with a low water level. The crack either opens up as the element heats or is higher up and comes into contact with the water as it heats and expands/boils.

    Either way when the element internals come into contact with the water and short out, it causes my earth leakage protection to trip.

    If this is the same issue you have then without earth leakage protection it may have caused the overheating/melting at the terminal?

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  • iamtakai
    replied
    My Silvia tried to kill me.... well kindof.

    In Vic. And even when they installed the smart meter there was no impetus to upgrade to current standards

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  • Vinitasse
    replied
    Originally posted by iamtakai View Post
    I do have an RCD for all household GPOs, and the garage GPOs.... at the house i own, 800km away. Unfortunately i cant dictate the same for a house im renting, and even then only for a year.

    Actually, in many states you CAN dictate that an RCD is installed in your rental property as some states require these safety devices to be installed in all rental properties. So the question is... which state do you reside in?

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  • iamtakai
    replied
    I do have an RCD for all household GPOs, and the garage GPOs.... at the house i own, 800km away. Unfortunately i cant dictate the same for a house im renting, and even then only for a year.

    Leave a comment:


  • spin_addict
    replied
    My Silvia tried to kill me.... well kindof.

    Sorry to sound like the fun police but you should really have an RCD ( ELCB) installed to cover all your household GPOs.
    Your incident could have easily ended much much worse.

    Leave a comment:


  • iamtakai
    replied
    Actually pretty sure the conductivity through to the casing of the boiler was from a big long blob of carbonised nylon which was contacting both the boiler casing and the terminal. It looks to have been flash severed at some point, and its probable that i didnt actually get a full 240v (certainly didnt feel like it, had that before).

    Certainly none of the rest of the machine is showing any residual current, just ground connectivity.

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  • Beanz.
    replied
    As you received a shock via the portafilter it seems unlikely that this is simply a loose termination arcing and causing the connector to overheat.
    It would also seem unlikely that the terminal came in contact with the case but if it did there would be clear evidence of an arcing point on the case that you could see.
    If the wire is going to the heating element, (I am not familiar with this machine so assuming from notes above #7, it certainly looks like the end of the heating element), it could be that the element is faulty and at some point inside the element it is shorting to outside sheath causing excess current to flow. Depending on where within the element there is a fault would depend on the load created in the fault condition as part of the element will be in the circuit. The fault could well be intermittent and probably temperature dependent so get it checked by someone who has the correct test equipment to determine if there is a breakdown inside the element

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