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stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

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  • stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

    Well my trustworthy and great work horse ECM giotto premium has been playing up a bit recently so i decided it was time to either a: Buy a new machine or b: fix it and give it a good clean up.
    The machine is just on 5 years on and in that time has been on from morning till bed time everyday.

    The work horse

    After lots of dicussions with Chris from Talk coffee i decided to give it a shot and fix it.

    Parts i will be changing are pressurestat, anti vac and control box.
    will also give at a complete descale.

    Today i decided to pull it apart, i also decided to try and document it best i could, so if anyone else is in the same situation, they can try to tackle it themselves.

    Word of warning however, you do this at own risk.

    So on with the show.

    My machine was already cold, if its hot, i recommend you let it cool down, would also pay to empty the boiler the night before.

    Once the machine is cold, take the water tank out and remove the top, its only 4 screws holding it in place.

    Looking in from the top

    you can now take the back and side pannels off.
    They are held in place by 2 bolts on top per side and 2 bolts per pannel underneath. You just need to undo the bottom bolts a little and once the top ones are out, the pannels just slide out.

    completely open

    following are some more pics with names to most of the parts you will find inside.

    Parts list one
    Parts list two
    Parts list three with boiler removed

    Here is a pic of the boiler, you can see the amount of gunk that has built up over the years. It is very hard and crusty.
    Most of the connectors from the plumbing work is the same.

    Boiler

    to remove the boiler is fairly straight forward.
    The is only one bold underneath the boiler holding it in place. The other things holding it there is the plumbing work.
    so undo all the plumbing work, and the one bolt under the boiler and she will come out easily.
    At this point its even easier to get tot he pump and anything else hidden down the bottom which may need replacing.

    Finally here is a pic of the heating element. Chris, talked me through measuring it to make sure it is ok.

    Heating element

    Tomorrow i will throw all the brass pipes and the boiler into a bucket full of descaling solution and give them a huge clean up.
    Once that is done, i will replace the parts that need to be replaced and put my baby back together again.
    I will try and take more pics again to show just how clean we can hopefully get this machine.

  • #2
    Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

    well i figured since i have the machine apart i may as well pull off the group head, steam wand and hot water wand to have a look.

    Good thing too as these also look bad.

    group head 1
    group head 2
    hot water tap

    they are all currently soaking in some backflush solution at the moment

    Comment


    • #3
      Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

      great pics JohnA , please show pics of the cleaned parts and putting back together.

      Comment


      • #4
        Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

        Thank you Dino

        I will indeed show before and after pics.
        Will then show it getting put back together again, hopefully in a little more detail

        Comment


        • #5
          Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

          well here is all the piping that will be soaked and cleaned tomorrow

          pic 1
          pic 2

          and here is the group head and wand cleaned up. May give the group head another soaking to see if i can get a bit more gunk off

          Group head clean
          steam wand clean

          Comment


          • #6
            Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

            Well the postman arrived early this morning with my spare parts and cleaning products

            the parts i am changing are

            Electronic module
            anti vac
            pressurestat


            Now before i do that, it was time to clean all the plumbing work and here are the results.

            clean parts
            clean boiler


            Now the fun begins, putting it all back together again.

            1st step was replacing the electronic module It was a simple job, just did wire by wire copying from the old one. Once wired up just a little bracket holding it in place



            2nd step. Putting the group head back in
            as you can see there are 2 boltd holding it in place. One on each side, then the plumping work holds it even more securely.

            3rd step refitting the steam and hot water arms. Again very simple job, held on by one nut

            4th step, put the boiler in place. but first you may want to fit the larger brass fitting on the bottom right hand side to make it easier later on.
            once that is done then fit the boiler in place, but do not bolt it in just yet, do the plumbing first.
            Here it is all connected.

            5th step: add the parts on top of the boiler and wire up as shown here

            now its time to test. I have a couple of small leaks so will run out a little later on and get some tape. Other then that it seems to work just fine.

            Will report back again once its complete

            Comment


            • #7
              Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

              Nice work John,

              Its looking better than new!

              Chris

              Comment


              • #8
                Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

                "I have a couple of small leaks so will run out a little later on and get some tape."

                You could use pipe sealant instead if you wanted. I think it is much better.

                Here is some useful info: http://www.loctite.com.au/int_henkel/loctite_us/binarydata/pdf/lt1475b_DoItRight.pdf

                I got loxeal 18 10.

                Comment


                • #9
                  Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

                  Just a thought John as its all going back together. You may want to consider pulling the valve handles off and giving them a lube. They tend to get pretty squeaky.

                  You could also do the group lever and if you want to go the full shebang, pull down the valves too?

                  Chris

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

                    John may be in the running for a Nobel Prize by the end of this....

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

                      thanks for the tips regarding the leaks.
                      I think the problem is i also need new washers. I still have a very slight (read, 1 drop per minute) on one connection, even with the teflon tape on there.
                      Will take the machine to work with me tonight, they have washers there and loctite as suggested by damian.

                      Chris, one step ahead of you mate, all handles greased, as i did have a squeak on the steam one.

                      cremachine, not sure on the nobel prize, the opportunity came up, have point and shoot camera so wasnt hard to document it.

                      Hope it can help others looking at pulling apart their machine

                      Once again though, id like to say a very big thank you to Chris for all his help regarding this venture.
                      Hope i wasnt too much of a pain with all my questions

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

                        I figured before i shut her down and let it cool down for the trip to work tonight for the final touch ups, i would make myself a cup of coffee.
                        After all, i do deserve one, one would thing after 2 days of working on my baby.

                        Well what can i say, its like its just came out of the showroom, the lever operation is not super smooth, and as for the steam handle, cannot remember it been so smooth with the way you open and close it.

                        The first 2 cups went straight down the sink, and figured i would drink the 3rd one...

                        ah, i am in heaven again.

                        Hopefully it sees me through for another 4 or 5 years now, but i dare say i will upgrade prior to that and keep this one as a back up machine

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

                          Great job JohnA - well done !

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

                            Thanks Dino

                            well the saga continues.
                            the copper washers also needed replacing. The original ones seem to have thinned out and dont stop the fitting were it need to stop. So now when you do up the fitting it no longer aligns with the piping.
                            Luckily at work last night, they had copper washes, so was able to replace them all, only to discover a small pin hole in one of the smaller copper pipes

                            Comment


                            • #15
                              Re: stripping and cleaning an ECM Giotto

                              Originally posted by JohnA link=1226281235/0#13 date=1226447881
                              Thanks Dino

                              well the saga continues.
                              the copper washers also needed replacing. The original ones seem to have thinned out and dont stop the fitting were it need to stop. So now when you do up the fitting it no longer aligns with the piping.
                              Luckily at work last night, they had copper washes, so was able to replace them all, only to discover a small pin hole in one of the smaller copper pipes
                              A little braze work should fix that John...

                              I have a bloke who can do it if you need one.....Sounds like youre in the home straight!

                              Chris

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