Vivaldi S1 damaged flow meter error

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ERB324

Vivaldi S1 damaged flow meter error

Post by ERB324 »

I just picked up a used Vivaldi V1 S1. It seemed to be in good shape except for being a little dirtier than I would have liked. I tested the machine before I purchased and everything worked perfect. I was cleaning the group head tonight and decided to run the machine after to clean up some buildup I removed. For testing purposes I just had the water hose in a 1 gallon Poland Spring bottle. I have a flojet and accumulator on the way. I was running the machine somehow the hose came out of the water for 20 seconds or so. I quickly placed it back in the bottle. After running machine a few minutes later the water flow seemed low and shortly after the damaged flow meter came on. I have the machine turned off now and am not sure what to do. I have looked on the board a bit but haven't seen the same issue as mine.
ERB324

Re: Vivaldi S1 damaged flow meter error

Post by ERB324 »

Surprisingly my problem was solved today. My flojet came and I hooked everything up and low and behold the pressure quickly built back up and now is working perfectly. In my research I did find out I have the ese pod adapter installed which I am glad I realized. Now I just need to wait for all my replacement parts and I should be up and running shortly. I just need to decide if I am going to attemp to descale the boilers. I know the prior owner was not using filtered water.
Futahaguro
Espresso
Posts: 60
Joined: Thu Apr 14, 2016 8:20 am
Location: Minnesota

Re: Vivaldi S1 damaged flow meter error

Post by Futahaguro »

I will comment on this since I am running my machine from a container at the moment and it works fine. This problem is a pump losing its prime. When you try to draw water it is pumping air within the water so it cannot pump the water. It usually happens when you remove the water source and let the line drain and then put it into a non-pressurized water source like a bucket. It can take a few tries before the pump is primed and it can pump again. There is a check valve just after the pump that will keep the water in the brew circuit, if you look at the parts diagram, but the output line on the pump can take some time to get the air out. When it is hooked up to a pressurized source it will compress the air so it will prime much faster, if not instantly. This is why most people say that you cannot, or should not, run from a non-pressurized source because of cavitation concerns. However, if you dig around in the forums you will find a post where someone spoke with a tech at Fluid-o-tech as well as Procon and they both said that you can run them from a container just fine. FOT supposedly can draw vertically 3 feet, which I think is called a 3' head pressure, and Procon said 6 feet. If you make sure the water source level is above the pump level you should not need to worry about it. I am going to add a check valve at my water container just to avoid the the air in the line if something happens and I need to pull the hose from the container.

Chris' Coffee said that they will not warranty a machine run from a non-pressurized source so keep that in mind. Also, running the pump dry and/or running the pump without adequate available water flow is a big no-no.

Just to be more specific to the question, since I digressed, I run the brew button a few times and then let it sit if it doesn't prime. Sometimes I run the single shot (5sec) a couple of times and then the double shot (25sec) or maybe a few single shot tries. I have heard that it primes better cold so try it right away.
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