Mini Vivaldi II hot water sputtering out of grouphead - Help needed

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Tuk123
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Mini Vivaldi II hot water sputtering out of grouphead - Help needed

Post by Tuk123 »

Hello everyone,

A friend recently gave me his used mini vivaldi II as he upgraded to something else. He had it for 7-8 years and admitted to being neglectful on maintenance. There are 2 issues(that I am aware of, I am sure there are more...) that I need help on debugging and fixing. Some background, I am relatively new to the espresso thing. I know nothing about them except that I like to drink espresso. I am willing to learn, just need guidance from you folks.

The 1st issue is whenever I pull a shot at high temp, pressure drop and water start sputtering out of the grouphead. I removed both the screens and dispersion disk to confirm it's not the screens that's blocking the flow. I checked the pressure gauge. At lower temp, I am getting ~9 - 10. At higher temp, gauge needle doesn't move. I don't have those expensive scace device, but I read about someone using k type thermometer w/ styro cup. I tried it on mine, it appears issue start occurring when water gets to ~85c - 90c.

The 2nd issue is the steam wand. Whenever I turn on the steam boiler, tiny amount of steam comes out of the tip of the wand even though it's in the "off" position. I searched the forum and found a thread which described my issue: http://s1cafe.com/viewtopic.php?t=964
I tried bending the small bracket holding the lever. I was able to get the lever all the way down but still didn't fix my issue. Someone suggested replacing the o ring and even attached the assembly pic, but the pic is of the S1 and not the mini. Do they share the same parts?

I am hoping to get some feedback, order whatever parts are needed and spent some time fixing this during the holidays. I tried pulling a shot at low temp, it tasted really bad. Please help me so I can have some espresso over the holidays!! Thanks!
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chas
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Re: Mini Vivaldi II hot water sputtering out of grouphead - Help needed

Post by chas »

You need to look at page 4 of this manual for the diagram of the V2 Mini steam assembly: http://s1cafe.com/s1v2/V2%20Manuals/RIC ... %20NEW.pdf

It's most likely one of the gaskets labelled 219 or 221.

I'm still thinking about your boiler issue. That's a strange one. BTW: When you say the gauge needle doesn't move at higher temperatures, is it at 0 or some other reading?
Chas
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Tuk123
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Re: Mini Vivaldi II hot water sputtering out of grouphead - Help needed

Post by Tuk123 »

Thanks Chas for the assembly diagram, it's most helpful.

So my wife got tired of drinking sour espresso so she started reading up about backflushing. She told me she backflushed more than 20 times while I was at work today.

New observations:
  1. Previously at high temp after sputtering for some time, water stop coming out of the group head and all I hear is the pump running. The only way to recover was to let it cool down and then drain everything by pressing the hot water and on/off button. Now after backflusing, at high temp water starts off sputtering and then slowly transition to a strong flow.
  2. It looks like I am now getting pressure at high temp, though it takes much longer than at low temp.
  3. The highest temp reading I am getting is 92.5c and that's with +8c offset.
Follow up questions:
  1. Is it normal for water to sputter like that?
  2. Is it normal for pressure to build much slower at high temp than low?
  3. Granted I am using a k type thermometer to measure, but max temp seems low. What can I do?
I have uploaded some videos on youtube to better illustrate my issues:
Tuk123
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Re: Mini Vivaldi II hot water sputtering out of grouphead - Help needed

Post by Tuk123 »

Back to square one...

This morning I got it to temp and pulled couple of shots, turned out alright. Finished my breakfast and pressed the double button to clean the head. Nothing came out, no water, no steam, nothing. It seems to have sputtered out. I am now having a hard time recovering back. I let it cool down and tried priming the pump, no water. Unfortunately I had to step away so couldn't continue. I will have to trace back what I did previously to get the flow back. In any case, I took couple of videos and updated to youtube. Any ideas?
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chas
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Re: Mini Vivaldi II hot water sputtering out of grouphead - Help needed

Post by chas »

In spite of what you might have read about and tried to emulate for group temperature measurements provided in extremely old Forum posts, that styrofoam cup method is not accurate. It results in temps several degrees low. It appears that your high temp settings are causing a steam lock in your group boiler because your boiler temp plus your +8C offset is at or above 100C. I would suggest as a starting point a setting of 94C with no more than a 2C offset. I've never seen a properly operating V2 that had other than a -2C to +2C offset.

I bought a 53mm Scace device when they first came out, but I sold it when I bought my GS/3. However, I had actually come up with a different group temp measurement device prior to purchasing the Scace that worked pretty well. I don't think anything less will give you a good reading.

What I did was drill a hole in the bottom, middle of the single shot basket since I never use it. (If you don't have a single basket but have a spare double basket, that would be OK, too.) I then cut out a circular piece from a regular kitchen sponge to fit snuggly down into the bottom of the basket and poked a hole in the middle of it. * I then pushed a K thermocouple through the hole in the sponge, down through the hole in the basket and out the hole in the bottom of a portafilter. I unscrewed the spout so that it was a straight shot down and out from the PF.

Using this with a good quality digital thermometer, I did two flushing shots to get the PF up to temp and then took a reading. It worked pretty well.

* Actually since the connector is fairly large and the K thermocouple itself it quite small, I must have done this in the reverse order. That is pushing the TC up through the bottom of the PF spout, through the bottom of the single basket, then through the sponge. Before you lock down the PF be sure the TC is right at the top of the sponge. This emulates taking the temperature at the top, center of the coffee puck which is exactly the way a Scace works.
Chas
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Tuk123
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Re: Mini Vivaldi II hot water sputtering out of grouphead - Help needed

Post by Tuk123 »

Thanks again for the insight. You're right that the styro cup contraption is not accurate. I did as you suggested with my single basket and the offset I arrived at is +2C, which is exactly as you stated. The styro cup was showing a difference of 8C!! It's no wonder steam was coming out of the group head.

I have a separate issue and hope to pick your brain. With blind basket, the machine can maintain 9 bar. However when I pull a shot, pressure built up to 9 but then drop to 3 - 4 after a few seconds and never seem to get back up. I found an old thread with similar issue: http://s1cafe.com/viewtopic.php?t=1763

In that particular case, it was a faulty pump. You had mentioned then there might had been restriction in tubing between tank and pump. Do you have:
  1. Any illustration of where the tank and pump are?
  2. Which tubing should I inspect?
  3. Is there an easy way to tell whether the pump is faulty?
  4. If I do need to replace the pump and/or tubing, can you point out to me which parts I need to order from the catalog you previously provided? I assume some of the parts in page 7?
Once again, greatly appreciate the insight and help.
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