Death of an Espresso Machine (Part II)

Two weeks ago I told a story about my home espresso machine The Coffee Bloke: Death of an Espresso Machine. Just over a week later I finally got hold of a new spring and valve from the machine supplier. Once again out came the screw drivers and socket set and several hours were again spent trying to return it to working order. Late into the night I could finally plug it in and test it.

I made sure that the water tank was completely full, as the boiler would be empty and would need to be flushed out. I turned on the power and, just in case there was a loose connection somewhere, stood well back.

The light came on and water started to move into the unit. Although the boiler wasn’t up to temperature, I turned on the pump to help move out any trapped air.

A couple of minutes passed. Then I began to see a fine trail of white smoke coming out of the brew head. I couldn’t work out what was going on. The pump was still running so why was there any smoke?

There was a container underneath the brew head and I touched it. It was much too hot. Quickly I shut off the power and began to remove the tray and the cup I had from underneath the brew head. Then I lifted the machine up and began to lay it on its side. Bad idea! Water flowed down the front of my trousers! Note to self, before you lift the machine up to lay it on its side remove the water tank at the rear of the machine!

After removing the filter head I tried to unscrew the valve unit but it was too hot to touch. I waited a few minutes for it to cool down. In the meantime I cleaned up all the water off the floor

Once it had cooled down I could begin to understand the real problem with the machine. The old valve had failed because the thermostat on the machine was not longer working, not because of wear ‘n’ tear as I had thought.

So a week and a half after the original operation the machine has flatlined. No longer will it be able to be a deliver a rich dark espresso, instead its future is to become landfill in the espresso machine graveyard.