I dragged my 50 plus pound espresso machine to Mike’s house yesterday with a hope to find the cause of my failed machine.
Scott, a local coffeegeek showed up to help. With two brilliant minds, they figured out the problem of my machine. They tugged and followed the wires, multimeter tested the components and they determined that the solid state relay (SSR), an electrical switch, had gone bad. It was a great feeling when I heard the heating element roared back to live with a temporary connection.
From my understanding of the issue is that the corrosion around the SSR caused it not able to dissipate heat properly and that ultimately fried the SSR. All I need now is to order a replacement and connecting the wires to the corresponding terminals.
I can smell and taste the sweet espresso already...Guys, thanks for your help...
Posts
6 comments:
I'll just be relieved when I see you post a picture of a shot pulled with the repaired machine.
Oh, and remeber- do as I say (unplug the machine), not as I do (give myself a little zap by thinking just having it switched off is enough) :)
Great news, Steve! Looking forward to hearing about you enjoying your espresso again. :)
Mike, I ordered the replacement, and sitting here waiting for it to arrive. I am sorry to give you some gray hair...: ) Note to self, unplug the machine first...
Nina, Thanks! Just hope I remember how to pull shots..
I burned out my first SSR by hooking it up backwards. They don't like that. SSR's get quite hot on the first load of the machine.
In the Oscar you'd end up putting on a little heat transfer paste and stick it on the metal firewall. If you hook it up wrong or it gets too hot you'll know. Mine was getting too hot the first place I mounted it and I learned what the emergency valve on the boiler did haha. I ended up making a little metal plate and attached it there.
Glad the issue is found. That's the hardest part of most trouble-shootings.
-a
Yeah, it was hard for Mike to diagnose my espresso machine without seeing it. I bet he was more happy to see it came alive than I did...One question about the thermal paste, does it get harden, and will it be hard to remove if I have to replace SSR again?
Nah, thermal paste stays pasty for years. Eventually it turns into more of a putty which can still be scraped off. At worst after a decade it turns more into clay but even that chips free. It's the same stuff you put on a cpu where you mount a heatsink to help in the heat conductivity.
Post a Comment