Hi espresso machine gurus,
I picked up a Boema Classic single group head machine for $120 and was told it should be in working order. Good news is the power comes on and the boiler and pump are working. I am not knowledgeable of the inner workings, but as far as I can tell, the problems I’ve found so far are:
The pressure release value is always releasing pressure. The brass parts on the outside of the boiler near this valve are going green so I assume this has been leaking for a while. It’s only a small amount of steam escaping and the pressure seems unaffected but it is noisy.
The steam wand is releasing a small amount of steam even when turned all the way off. We are assuming it’s the valve/washer inside the pipe but that’s only a guess.
Water is pouring out all around the sides of the portafilter and the portafilter seems to turn further to the right than it should. We replaced the seal in the group head but that did nothing. Is this a worn collar?
There also may be an elecrical problem in that it tripped the surge protector a couple of times but that hasn’t happened the last two times I powered it up.
The portafilters were rancid, thick, black.... Like they have never ever been cleaned before. It was disgusting. I can’t put espresso machine cleaner through the machine yet because of the water leak, but I assume the internals are disgusting. There were visible signs of calcification on the outside of pipe connections inside machine but I’m afraid to descale. I read the sticky about descaling heat exchange machines and im definitely not in the ‘confident’ category though I’m sure if my husband and I put our heads together we could figure things out. I just don’t want to spend much on this meaning we will have to do all restoration ourselves.
So thanks in advance for any advice you can give about what we should do.
I picked up a Boema Classic single group head machine for $120 and was told it should be in working order. Good news is the power comes on and the boiler and pump are working. I am not knowledgeable of the inner workings, but as far as I can tell, the problems I’ve found so far are:
The pressure release value is always releasing pressure. The brass parts on the outside of the boiler near this valve are going green so I assume this has been leaking for a while. It’s only a small amount of steam escaping and the pressure seems unaffected but it is noisy.
The steam wand is releasing a small amount of steam even when turned all the way off. We are assuming it’s the valve/washer inside the pipe but that’s only a guess.
Water is pouring out all around the sides of the portafilter and the portafilter seems to turn further to the right than it should. We replaced the seal in the group head but that did nothing. Is this a worn collar?
There also may be an elecrical problem in that it tripped the surge protector a couple of times but that hasn’t happened the last two times I powered it up.
The portafilters were rancid, thick, black.... Like they have never ever been cleaned before. It was disgusting. I can’t put espresso machine cleaner through the machine yet because of the water leak, but I assume the internals are disgusting. There were visible signs of calcification on the outside of pipe connections inside machine but I’m afraid to descale. I read the sticky about descaling heat exchange machines and im definitely not in the ‘confident’ category though I’m sure if my husband and I put our heads together we could figure things out. I just don’t want to spend much on this meaning we will have to do all restoration ourselves.
So thanks in advance for any advice you can give about what we should do.

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