Blackbirdman I haven’t contacted ACS since it is weekend. But I guess that would be a good idea :)
Yes, it sounds as if the brew boiler element may be bad, as I can’t see any obvious problems with the limit stat. It’s not a massive job to change it..BUT. If you feel competent, you can bypass the limit stat on the brew boiler and see if it trips the electrics when the heating element wires are connected. I can’t tell you how to do this, if you’re competent, you will know and take any appropriate precautions.
Doing this will tell you for sure whether you need to replace the boiler. I would recommend you ask ACS to send you a brew boiler with all the BASIC fittings attached, you don’t want to be trying to remove all of them and fit them on a boiler with just blank screw holes. They should understand this completely. I will be out there in a few weeks and will explain to them if they are unsure.
P.S. The elements are extremely robust, so it could be a manufacturing defect, the only other way brew elements can go bad is if when descaling, the brew boiler is drained and the machine switched on, the autofill runs to fill the steam boiler and the group lever is not opened to fill the brew boiler at the same time. If the brew lever is never opened, until you want coffee, then the heating element will fail at some point. This is because NO dual boiler machine from any manufacturer can detect low water in the brew boiler.
The limit stat doesn’t really work because there is no water in the brew boiler to conduct the heat to the stat, and the base of the heating element is the cold portion. Eventually it will trip from radiant heat, but it will take a long time and the elements are not meant to glow!
