ACS Vesuvius Evo Leva

karl_kaefer

Hi 👋

I’m a happy Evo Leva owner for two months now. I usually let the Leva automatically start at 6 in the morning and I make 3-4 espressi per day. At 5 pm the machine is programmed to automatically go on standby.

In the last 1-2 weeks, the Leva starts very frequent pump activations while idling. I tried the complete shutdown with the switch, but it didn’t help.

My settings:

Firmware Version: 2.07

PID settings: unchanged (factory default?)

Group Temp: 93°C
Boiler Temp: 99°C

Room Temperature: 28°C

I’ve made a short video to demonstrate the behavior:

Do you have any tips/recommendations on how to get rid of the frequent pump activations (without turning off the machine)?

Thank you very much!

DavecUK

karl_kaefer

Either the machine is loosing pressure via the brew circuit (leak)? This could be slowly via the group.
The pressure stat is faulty
You tried to adjust preinfusion pressure but turned the little screw (deadband), instead of the one under the red cap.

LMSC

karl_kaefer Does the water drip when this happens? Please check if this nut is not too tight. It should be gently resting on the bottom PIN/Valve, which gets depressed by the little lever when you lock the lever.

karl_kaefer

Thanks for the replies!

DavecUK

pre-infusion settings haven’t been touched - I only adjusted temperatures via the menu

LMSC
Yes, water is dripping (with a slight delay) through the group
the nut is not too tight and sits gently on top of the pin

Based on your questions, I assume it’s a pressure loss via the brew group? How would I verify/fix it? Or should I contact ACS for further instructions?

Thanks again for your replies!

DavecUK

karl_kaefer if it’s leaking through the group inlet valve e.g. dripping group, there might be something stock under the seals. Best way to find would be to undo/open the valve (cold machine) and check.

Might want to drop Paolo an email for guidance

NelisB

I had a pressure loss at the level probe fitting of the service boiler. I tried to tighten it but the fitting broke. After replacing the complete probe with fitting pressure loss was solved.

Cuprajake

I thought some water was normal on these groups?

DavecUK

Cuprajake Not all the time, on warmup as water in the jacket expands, and perhaps after a shot. I took the OPs comments to mean it’s dripping all the time.

Cuprajake

Ahhh ok

LMSC

@karl_kaefer You may want to check if you are seeing any leaked water inside the machine. May be the brew circuit water is leaking externally.

Another thing is: When you pull a shot, does the pump start immediately to initiate PI or if you hear the brew boiler is getting filled first? If latter, it may be the brew circuit leaks as Dave said.

If this is the case, @DavecUK, I don’t know if the leak could also happen backwards from the brew circuit. If it can, the valve towards the pump is probably too hot to touch at idle. But, we can’t leave a leaking group, can we? Do you think the gasket requires a replacement? It’s almost a new machine but runs 11 hours a day.

May be, I am over thinking here. 😊

DavecUK

LMSC in an Evo, a leaking brew circuit will never drop boiler level as pump will always run to maintain pressure. Unless a major fault means the pump continuously runs, then it will time out..plus shut down the heating elements.

It’s so new, if the inlet valve of the group is leaking, it will be crud under a seal (probably).

It’s might be leaking inside, it might be leaking past the anti backflow valve, but really without a little bit more investigation the other person won’t know. He said it was dripping from the group, so really that’s the first place he should be looking.

LMSC

DavecUK in an Evo, a leaking brew circuit will never drop boiler level as pump will always run to maintain pressure.

Ahh. Thx

So, his video and comments are consistent with the the leaking causing the pump to run and then the leaked water finds it way to the group with a delay.

karl_kaefer

DavecUK

Today I conducted a more suitable observation:

roughly 1h after activation, the machine started the pump noises
the frequency of pump activations increases during the next 60 minutes from 3-4 minutes to one each minute
and most importantly: during all time (4h) no water leakage happened internally or externally or through the group head –> my observations from yesterday could be residue water from previous extractions dripping out

I’ve contacted Paolo for further instructions on how to proceed. Attached is
a look into the internals.

DavecUK

LMSC The Alpha machine (when it was working) was from old scrap parts and had a leaky group, so my pump used to run a little more often to “pump up the volume”

LMSC

DavecUK leaky group, so my pump used to run a little more often to “pump up the volume”

When you say leaky group, what needs changing Dave? Thx

DavecUK

LMSC When you say leaky group, what needs changing Dave? Thx

I can only think the group water inlet valve has some crud under the seal and probably needs cleaning.

https://www.espressoparts.com/collections/san-marco-la-san-marco-lever-group

It will be similar to this parts diagram, the group I have is very old and the clone group in the evo the valve is accessed from underneath, as there is just a pin at the top.

LMSC

Wow! That’s so many parts. Looks complicated but doable once we understand source of fault. Another for FAQ. Thx Dave

Edit:

Daniel didn’t have to access this inlet valve. I am not sure we can access it from underneath. I thought we will have to remove the bottom group from the frame.

DavecUK

LMSC You don’t have to remove the group.

DavecUK

karl_kaefer roughly 1h after activation, the machine started the pump noises
the frequency of pump activations increases during the next 60 minutes from 3-4 minutes to one each minute
and most importantly: during all time (4h) no water leakage happened internally or externally or through the group head –> my observations from yesterday could be residue water from previous extractions dripping out

OK some good information there…if it’s 1 hour after the machine switches on, then it cannot be due to pressure loss. The brew boiler is up to temp (and hence any small pressure due to temp) in 3 minutes. The fact you are not seeing evidence of leakage from the group or elsewhere in the brew circuit would confirm that. The one way valve, is another place where leakage back can occur and drop pressure…but that would tend to happen more when the machine is cold rather than hot.

There is potentially 1 other place where a pressure drop could happen, this is across the autofill solenoid to the service boiler….a little test you can try. Once the pump is activating once per minute, switch on the service boiler and set it to it’s maximum temperature…..does the frequency of activations slow down once the service boiler reaches max temp?

LMSC

karl_kaefer

Are they water marks?

trey_antipasto

Does anyone know how many of these machines have been built and are delivered/in use? Have 100 been built? 250? Just trying to a get a ballpark idea of issue rates. I know maybe this question can’t even be answered by this forum. Only ACS would be able to answer that if they are willing. Its just hard to get an idea of reliability by reading forums because generally on forums you get a mix of few enthusiastic users and then people who have issues.

(maybe DavecUK has some idea? )

CoyoteOldMan

DavecUK There is potentially 1 other place where a pressure drop could happen, this is across the autofill solenoid to the service boiler….a little test you can try.

It’s likely to be this… in as much as mine also does it (though not with the frequency of @karl_kaefer ’s) if the service boiler is cold. When both boilers are hot, there is no pump activation (at least, not for a couple of hours, then I got bored and switched everything off!).

Re: trey_antipasto ’s question on frequency of issues… here’s another factor. If it hadn’t been for this thread, I would not even have tested, and just accepted that - for whatever reason - every now and then the pump was activating for ½ a second. When (I noticed) it did it the first time, I went “oh, here we go; I wonder if I need to remove the famous C4”; I checked for leaks, and there were none, so I just forgot about it. The machine also stopped doing it… because I left the service boiler on all the time (we’ve been drinking a lot of cappuccinos since returning from Italy, so the service boiler is now on by default), but I didn’t connect the two things.

So, is it an “issue” or not? Not for me, but clearly for others it is.

karl_kaefer

DavecUK

Hey Dave,

I finally found the time to test a little bit and followed your instructions. During the first 10 minutes of heating up the service boiler, no pump activations were audible. After the service boiler reached 130°C the pump activations started :

3mins - 1 min - 1 min - 1:45 mins - 1:13 mins - 1 min - 2min - 1 min - 2:51 mins - 2:51 mins - 1 min

And so on it went back into the around 1 pump activation per minute cycle.

BUT Paolo messaged me right before he went on vacation to turn the pressostat that controls the preinfusion pressure ¼ turn clockwise (lower pressure). This magically solved the frequent pump activations for me (at the cost of lower preinfusion pressure).

I now have one pump activation per 30 minutes - after the machine is running for 4 hours. He also has the theory that there is a small leak - unfortunately, I don’t know where and he’s on vacation now :)

Additionally, I opened the group water inlet valve as you suggested earlier, but I couldn’t find any (visible) crud there.

Thank you again for your help - I very much appreciate any pointers 🙌

dfk41

LMSC Not water (it would evaporate with the heat). I believe it is sigilant.

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