The Rancilio one has been happily working for 15 years. But I never liked it. The face is oval instead of round. Every few years I pull out the old broken original from the closet (I never chuck out anything) but when I pull off the cover and look at the internals, I see it's beyond repair.
Last night I took it out again in vain hope. Inside it looks like an old fashioned wind up clock, with hairsprings, cogs, gears, and bimetals. But whereas a good clock has jewels in which gear shafts rotate, this has plain ole' brass holes, which have worn. And the key part, a link from the bimetal to the whole apparatus, was broken and I had made a piece from the wire of a twist tie.
What's worse, one of the gears was almost entirely stripped. Yep, the whole mess is beyond repair. Try getting parts!!
After some dismantling and reassembly, I gave up.
Bust I did notice that when I simulated pressure by moving the bimetal coil, everything somehow seemed to work.
So this morning I removed the Rancilio pressure gauge and re-installed this old piece of original rubbish.
Well blow me down! It works. A nice, round gauge, the way it should be. For how long, I don't know, but I'm enjoying it while I can.
