ACS Vesuvius Evo Leva

dfk41

DAre I ask what the other 4 are for!

LMSC

DavecUK never actually put the 4 screws back in….seemed easier that way!

Agree. That’s what I have also done. 😊

LMSC

4 screws to remove the top, the 2 on the right to remove the top-side of the right panel. That leaves 2 more, which I think on the left top. If correct, they are perhaps to remove the steel frame to the right of the water tank. I am still not at home to check. May be, @danielpugh can validate, if he were to open the top this week end. Thx

LMSC

Service boiler doubts

We came home after 2 weeks; flushed 700 ml water from the brew boiler; flushed the service boiler twice (bring it to the set temp of 130C, switch off the service, switch off the machine). The full flush of the service boiler yeilded each approx. 860ml of water ; of course plenty of steam also came from the HW tap.

The manual says, the full flesh from the service should yield 1.4L. I had 61%. Is it normal?

Before and after steaming milk stat

Vesuvius tip - 3 holes
Weight of milk before steaming: 330g
Purges wand for 5 to 7s
Steam milk, about 40s seconds.
Weight of steamed milk after steaming: 3699 (39g of injected water).

The added water is rather large
The stream isn’t dry. It wet, although purged for 5-7s.
I do find a drop or two water dropping after purging. I wonder, if it requires a longer purge.

After steaming, I wipe the surface of the wand and do a very steam a glass of hot water for 2-3s in a cycle of 3-4 times.

I am wondering if there are any hidden issues with the service boiler.

DavecUK

LMSC 860 ml from the service boiler of 2.3 litre would only be a 37% boiler fill, there is no way your boiler could have that little water in it….and no way anyone could make a steam probe length error like that. They will all be precut for Minimas and Evos at the same length for about a 70% fill, it might vary a bit but not that much.

I suspect there is some error you have made, or the boiler wasn’t fully warm…purging needs to heat up all the pipes so nothing condenses in them when you steam…this means not purging until no water comes out but a bit longer. There should also be an expectation that once the steam boiler has come up to temp from cold, it’s still loosing heat at quite a rate for a while a things warm up, so you will be able to steam, but for max steam performance you may need to wait. It can also be why the purge bought out less water than you expect.

Set steam boiler to Max temp, let it come up to temperature wait 15 minutes, then try draining it….same for checking added water for steaming.

HVL87

LMSC The added water is rather large

Don’t forget that you’re steaming more milk than previous examples. In percentage terms you’ve added 11.8% water compared with around 8.2% on the Lelit machines. Maybe steam a similar amount to compare.

Also not sure what temperature everyone is steaming to.

I’ll be draining my Minima service boiler soon so I can measure the boiler fill level.

LMSC

DavecUK Thanks Dave. I believe the max is 131C+. I will check when she comes up next time.

Agree. The 860ml is too less a volume from the service. I didn’t believe the volume and thought there is no way the service fill can be that low. I also think we can’t lose the difference in steam.

That’s why I flushed two times from the 130C set temp and weighed the volume on a scale to rule out weighing error.

I will do at least the 15 mins waiting time once it reaches the temperature, do a full flesh and weigh. Like wise, will do a longer purge.

I am also aware, the volume of milk is higher.

Thx

DavecUK

LMSC Unless Paolo put the lower tube up further into the service boiler to void crud getting sucked in, like the feed from a petrol tank…but I don’t think so.

Hopefully an EVO owner can confirm what they get, if they have not already done so.

P.S. Because I don’t have a production machine, it’s very hard for me to help people with things like this and PID settings….plus Frankenstein is bust….I won’t fix it until I have parts to do all the other stuff withb the group, because to do anything on it…it’s both boilers out.

LMSC

DavecUK I fired up the service boiler again. Waited for 20 mins, did a long purge. Steamed a similar amount of milk. The water added after steaming is almost the same. The wetness of the steam has gone down significantly after a long purge, though it is not completely dry. I think it is mostly within a tolerance level or in an acceptable range.

After steaming, I allowed the service to stabilise and did a full flush. The volume is lower at 743.5 ml. There were plenty of steam oozing out of the HW tap along with water. I can confirm the volume is correct. Please see the picture.

Unless the fill level is designed to be lower for reasons you had outlined, I am thinking the difference is lost in steam. Please see the water tank level — before (full tank) and after (say, 40% less). The Evo guide states the water tank is 2.7L.

If these two are not possible, I’m not sure what else could be the reason.

MediumRoastSteam

LMSC - just double checking… you only drew water from the tap, right? You didn’t by any chance open the steam valve AND the hot water tap, did you? So the steam you speak about is coming from the water tap at the beginning, correct?

Does the Evo have a service boiler pressure manometer? If so, what’s the reading at the start and at the end? If not, what’s the steam boiler temp when water no longer comes out of he tap?

LMSC

MediumRoastSteam

Great questions.

1: Only from the HW tap. Didn’t open both at the same time. After steaming, there was a very short fill as the pump kicked in. It might have lasted a few seconds.

2: Yes. The steam was from the HW tap, not only at the start, but throughout; there was hardly a steady flow of water. It has mostly been like that from day 1. It’s rare we get a steady flow of hot water without steam.

3: No. The service boiler doesn’t have a manometer.

4: When the service boiler is out of water, I typically get a lot of steam and a few drops of water. Sorry, I didn’t observe the steam boiler temperature.

I will fire the service tomorrow morning, wait for 15-20 mins, without steaming, draw water from the HW tap, measure the volume and temperature range, report back.

Thx

Edit :

The steam and hot water mix is like Spitting / sputtering water (steam, water and air). Is the service temp (130C) too high or trapped air ? This temp came as a default.

DavecUK

LMSC Water coming out of the wand at 130, will always flash of too steam condense in the wand ad produce spluttery water. It’s just that 860 ml sounds way to little unless Paolo changed something about how far the water tube pokes into the tank???

@Systemic can you check yours?

LMSC

DavecUK

Let’s wait for Patrick and may be other Evo owners to check theirs’. Pending, that, I will do a full flush tomorrow morning without steaming.

Perhaps, I can drop the temperature lower and flush, if it would help. I wonder what would happen if we were to do a flush after setting the service boiler to 100C? I am thinking, probably it will be closer to a litre and not 1.4L.

What’s the full capacity of the water tank please? Is it actually, 2.7L? Those pictures of mine shows the refill was certainly <50% - 40% to 45%, more like 1.1-1.2L.

Thanks Dave

DavecUK

LMSC What’s the full capacity of the water tank please? Is it actually, 2.7L? Those pictures of mine shows the refill was certainly <50% - 40% to 45%, more like 1.1-1.2L.

I don’t know, I don’t have a production machine, or low water detection…best thing is to get a measuring jug and see, what the volume difference comes out as.

LMSC

DavecUK Will measure and report. Thx

LMSC

Did a full flesh after running the service boiler for 15 mins from the set temperature. The HW gave me 760 ml. The service boiler re-filled 856ml of water to be precise. The difference of 96 ml was steam.

My friend, who also owns the Evo, advised me the flush cycle didn’t yield the full volume listed in the brochure. He thought it’s expected and is fine as we don’t want a syphon so far down that it can empty the tank easily…….

DenisS

In case of expediting/shipping is there a tap to fully drain the boilers?

DavecUK

DenisS In case of expediting/shipping is there a tap to fully drain the boilers?

No tap, there is a bolt, but I would advise just draining out all you can through the tap and then shipping…

Systemic

@Systemic can you check yours?

Before steaming, I purge for a second or two to clear any water before steaming milk. Steam boiler is set to 130c.

DavecUK

OK mystery solved. No one needs to do any more drain tests. My Alpha was different, and the system used on the Minima is different. In the production Evo machines the hot water is taken from a fitting on the TOP of the boiler, via a tube that goes down into the boiler. This is because for 2 reasons more room at the bottom and facilitating a choice of left/right steam water wands. It also has the advantage of not sucking crud into the water valve when descaling etc.. I just found this out from Paolo.

The boiler still has a 70 ish % fill for good steaming, but the hot water will stop once below the level of the pipe….which clearly goes down about 65% of the way into the boiler (rough man math)

LMSC

DavecUK Thanks Dave. Appreciate your findings So, the re-filled volume of 856 ml is correct, is it not?

It also means, there will always be about 0.5L water left in the service boiler, is it not ? If correct, with the left over water, how does the descaling would work please?

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