Hi All,
I have a 2006 ECM Giotto (Premium?) that I purchased about 9 months ago. When I first started using it the steam worked brilliantly and I was easily able to froth 300mL of milk without the pump kicking in. Unfortunately within a few weeks the machine flooded and tripped the house circuit breaker so I sent it back for repair. From what I can tell the pressurestat (Mater XP110), over pressure valve and boiler water level probe were replaced, along with the pressure gauge on the front (as it was very sluggish...). All has been working great since except for the milk frothing, which seems to have degraded (can't be certain whether it was like this from the repair or happened after). When starting to froth, the pressure drops down to ~0.6bar, then hovers there for some time and eventually drops slightly below 0.5bar when the pump kicks in, killing the steam pressure. Once steaming is finished, the pressure recovers quickly back to 1.1bar.
When the machine is idle, the boiler pressure on the gauge sits around 1.1 bar, and shoots up to 1.2bar when heating which appears to be normal.
After opening up the machine it appears that the new level probe is different. The new probe is inserted ~70mm when measured from the plastic sheath (where the red arrow is pointing).
Original probe
New probe
I pushed the probe in ~5mm to lower the water level, purged some water and frothed 250mL of milk several times. This seems to have improved, the pressure drops and holds at ~0.6bar, but the pump doesn't kick in which is good.
My questions are:
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
cheers
Dan
I have a 2006 ECM Giotto (Premium?) that I purchased about 9 months ago. When I first started using it the steam worked brilliantly and I was easily able to froth 300mL of milk without the pump kicking in. Unfortunately within a few weeks the machine flooded and tripped the house circuit breaker so I sent it back for repair. From what I can tell the pressurestat (Mater XP110), over pressure valve and boiler water level probe were replaced, along with the pressure gauge on the front (as it was very sluggish...). All has been working great since except for the milk frothing, which seems to have degraded (can't be certain whether it was like this from the repair or happened after). When starting to froth, the pressure drops down to ~0.6bar, then hovers there for some time and eventually drops slightly below 0.5bar when the pump kicks in, killing the steam pressure. Once steaming is finished, the pressure recovers quickly back to 1.1bar.
When the machine is idle, the boiler pressure on the gauge sits around 1.1 bar, and shoots up to 1.2bar when heating which appears to be normal.
After opening up the machine it appears that the new level probe is different. The new probe is inserted ~70mm when measured from the plastic sheath (where the red arrow is pointing).
Original probe
New probe
I pushed the probe in ~5mm to lower the water level, purged some water and frothed 250mL of milk several times. This seems to have improved, the pressure drops and holds at ~0.6bar, but the pump doesn't kick in which is good.
My questions are:
- During frothing on the Giotto, should the steam pressure hold at 0.6bar or should it be more around the 0.9bar level? As the first pressure gauge was very sluggish I didn't really notice what the behaviour was on the machine before it was repaired.
- What should the overall length of the probe be, and the insertion depth? I have looked at the replacement probes on coffeeparts and it is a 120mm probe, though this seems excessive and would drop the water level down lower than the heating element.
- Is there anything else that could be causing this issue?
Any help would be greatly appreciated.
cheers
Dan

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