Scalex is heavy duty! Pretty hard to get the taste out after though
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Another Boema Restoration Thread
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Well I am incredibly close to having the boiler back in and the machine fired up, just awaiting on the new element from Boema and the boiler is having its last descale bath.
This is the first machine I have owned with a rotary pump. As the machine has been sitting in storage for about 6 months (was left with a boiler full of water) I am wondering if there is anything I should do to ‘prepare’ the pump for use?
I am leaning towards pulling the procon out and giving it a quick bath in a citric acid/water solution regardless, is this advisable?
Thanks in advance!
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Ha, that element did not survive!
Rotary pumps, not played with them.. presumably it is not seized. You could pull it apart and clean it out, making sure all the vanes are moving and sealing, check and lube bearings if you can get to them, strip, clean and lube the bypass spring and plunger. Definitely worth looking under its cover.
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I would just check the pump for free movement, sediment or any other foreign material.
Look for any sign of leaks, etc and if all this is Ok, you could rig up a temporary suction and discharge pipe/hose, run the pump to make sure it provides plenty of volume, runs relatively quietly and nothing overheats.
Don't descale the pump, it is not necessary mate.
All the best,
Mal.
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I saw a rebuild post about rotary pumps. The vanes had worn down and were no longer reaching the pump body. (Maybe on HB forum). Mals mentioned flow check would show if any problems there.
It's a bit more complex than I thought. Go with mals recommendation. Leave it together if you can...
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Thanks Jackster and Mal.
My late night research also indicated they are reasonably complex and should never be pulled apart, am in the process of working out a way to perform a flow check (pump is still
connected to pressure stat and other parts of the line) - could I rig some plumbing that would in effect be in place of the boiler or does the pressure stat need the pressure of the boiler else it tells the pump to not engage?
Like this:
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Reasonably confident however I don’t have a spare 240 plug or switch which is the only way I can see I would be able to rig up something to power the pump, this is mostly why I was hoping to leave it all in place and just test with some water flow if that’s possible?
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Actually, think I have this sorted. Was able to bypass the line to the pressure stat (nothing like your kids trying to murder each other to strike up the rage needed to undo a fitting that was otherwise stuck).
So now I have just water line going into the pump and a line going out that I will feed into a bucket which is also what the pump will be drawing from. In theory I can just hit the boiler fill button and the pump will engage right?
Also confirmed that I can freely rotate the pump by hand so looking promising that should all function as expected!
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Boiler is nearly ready to go back in, awaiting on the new element. If I hadn’t snapped the heat exchange tee piece when pulling apart the machine I could have had the boiler back in now and simply slotted the element in from the side... oh well.
The scale situation is much better, not 100% but I don’t think I can take this any further (and maybe my eagerness to use the machine is weighing on this effort a little):
Not being so keen to fork out for a whole new steam assembly just to get a better tip I noticed the steam tip was a 1/8 female thread, just so happens that the Vibemme Domobar shares this sizing for the steam tip so I have repurposed the Domobar steam tip whilst I rebuild that machine also. For future reference the 2 and 4 hole versions of this tip can be had from Coffee Parts for under $20
Once i I have it all back together I will post some before and after pics
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We have a large industrial ultrasonic cleaning bath in our workshop using a specialist descale solution, and even it won't clean a boiler better than you have managed there, so I'd probably score it above 98%!Originally posted by Dimal View PostLooking good solace...
Re: the Scale situation, so long as there is nothing loose in there, should be fine and from the looks of it, you've achieved about 98% which is definitely a pass mark...
Mal.
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