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Date: 19 Jan 2007 18:16:25
From:
Subject: Livia 90 Problem
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Hi everyone
My 4 year old Livia 90 Auto is sick and needs help. It started last
week when we heard the machine release a bunch of steam one day. After
a few days, it is happening all of the time. The pressure meter on the
machine goes to red and a bunch of steam comes out of the top, then it
the meter goes to green again. This cycle repeats itself for a while. I
can still make coffee if I dont let the pressure build up too much. I
think something is sticking in there and not turning off when enough
pressure is built up. Any ideas?
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Date: 20 Jan 2007 05:09:37
From: daveb
Subject: Re: Livia 90 Problem
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The "brain board" only controls the auto-fill and is as dumb and simple
as that suggests. It cannot cause overheat / over pressure.
and it is not likely to explode -- but you can damage seals and
electrics with all that steam and water running around inside!!!
Your MATER pressurestat is WAY way overdue to fail.
takes 5 minutes -- pull 2 leads, unscrew, install new.
(I know -- I'm changing out all that for electronic controls on a '90'
right now) He liked his new Vetrano so well . . .
call me -- I have 2 new MATERs on hand
d
877 286 2833
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Date: 20 Jan 2007 13:44:27
From: Ken Fox
Subject: Re: Livia 90 Problem
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<pabloreiter@mindspring.com > wrote in message
news:1169259385.034989.69920@11g2000cwr.googlegroups.com...
> Hi everyone
>
> My 4 year old Livia 90 Auto is sick and needs help. It started last
> week when we heard the machine release a bunch of steam one day. After
> a few days, it is happening all of the time. The pressure meter on the
> machine goes to red and a bunch of steam comes out of the top, then it
> the meter goes to green again. This cycle repeats itself for a while. I
> can still make coffee if I dont let the pressure build up too much. I
> think something is sticking in there and not turning off when enough
> pressure is built up. Any ideas?
>
It does sound, as Alan F. suggests that you may have a defective
pressurestat and that replacing it might solve the problem. What you
describe sounds as though the pressurestat is not cutting power to the
heating element when the temperature has reached the top of the "deadband"
and hence the pressure builds up until the "pop valve" (emergency safety
valve) releases the pressure. Assuming this is the case it is potentially
dangerous to use your machine and I suggest that you unplug it until it is
fixed. If for some reason the pop valve failed to work, you could end up
literally with an exploding boiler, something I have never seen but would
not want to witness in my house in any event.
There are other possibilities; the Livia has had some problems with its
brain board and perhaps the fault lies there. In any event, I get the
impression from your post that you are not particularly knowlegeable about
the internal workings of your machine. Working on this yourself would
involve working with stuff that is exposed to high temperature and pressure
water plus electricity, a dangerous combination. Assuming that you do not
have the facility to work on this machine yourself, I suggest you seek out a
qualified repairman or send the machine to Pasquini in Los Angeles for
repair.
ken
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Date: 20 Jan 2007 08:33:50
From: Coffee for Connoisseurs
Subject: Re: Livia 90 Problem
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>The pressure meter on the
>machine goes to red
Can only happen if the microswitch on the pressurestat isn't being
activated. Brain box doesn't have much to do with this. After 4 years the
diaphragm is probably either shot or scaled solid.
--
Alan
alanfrew@coffeeco.com.au
www.coffeeco.com.au
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Date: 20 Jan 2007 19:15:40
From: Ken Fox
Subject: Re: Livia 90 Problem
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"Coffee for Connoisseurs" <alanfrew@coffeeco.com.au > wrote in message
news:Otksh.3633$u8.2958@news-server.bigpond.net.au...
> >The pressure meter on the
>>machine goes to red
>
> Can only happen if the microswitch on the pressurestat isn't being
> activated. Brain box doesn't have much to do with this. After 4 years the
> diaphragm is probably either shot or scaled solid.
>
>
> --
> Alan
>
> alanfrew@coffeeco.com.au
> www.coffeeco.com.au
>
it probably isn't the brain box, but they appear to be a POS in these
machines from prior posts so I threw that in.
This is the part that worried me:
>"The pressure meter on the machine goes to red and a bunch of steam comes
>out of the top, then it the meter goes to green again."
sure sounds to me like the boiler is overheating and finally steam is
released from the top via the pop valve. The VB is not going to do that as
it is presumably sealed at this point (although, who knows, maybe he has a
faulty PSTAT and a faulty VB, both of which could easily come from using
hard water). In any event, even though many of us here could diagnose and
fix it in half an hour, he is not describing the situation in a way that
implies he is someone I'd suggest work on it himself.
ken
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Date: 20 Jan 2007 02:34:31
From: Coffee for Connoisseurs
Subject: Re: Livia 90 Problem
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New pressurestat time.
--
Alan
alanfrew@coffeeco.com.au
www.coffeeco.com.au
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