Hi all -

Excuse the total beginner questions but I have a leak on a ~5 year old Vesuvius and am after some advice / guidance.

I’ve attached a couple of pics of the underside of the service and brew boiler.

I’m guessing the leak is coming from the brew boiler judging by the state of it in the close up… should I start by simply removing the element, cleaning this up and retightening it?

There are some deposits on the steam boiler as well - are these likely to be causing issues?

Alternatively any good recommendations for machine servicing around the kent / sussex area?!

Many thanks,

    jgf

    1. How much water is leaking
    2. Does it leak when warming up, or when running
    3. Can you indicate on the photos where you think it’s leaking
    4. How long has the leak been present
    5. Have you actually seen water from the bottom of the boilers, what may look like wet marks can actually be sealant.

    The boiler heating elements use an o’ring to seal, not a standard teflon gasket. The O ring must be replaced after removal and before refitting element. It shouldn’t be tightened very much at all.

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      Thanks for the super fast response Dave.

      I will try and prop it up and run it without the case on and report back with more info… but for now:

      1. How much water is leaking

        Quite a lot - last time I used it it was ~100ml (the contents of an ice cream tub lid I was using to catch the water) over the course of making two coffees back to back.

      2. Does it leak when warming up, or when running

        When running

      3. Can you indicate on the photos where you think it’s leaking

        Will do after further investigation

      4. How long has the leak been present

        About 12 months, albeit I’ve not been using it for the last 6 months because of the leak. It has got steadily worse over this time (obviously very stupid to ignore it… but life!)

      5. Have you actually seen water from the bottom of the boilers, what may look like wet marks can actually be sealant.

        No, will report back

      [Edit - updated to fix weird formatting]

      Ha ha, ok, I was completely wrong. Will try answering those again without jumping to conclusions!

      Turns out there is a tiny hole in this pipe (hopefully visible from the yellow mark, with the stream spraying out between the blue lines):

      Running from the brew boiler to here (pipe highlighted in blue):

      With the case off it was immediately obvious as much to the delight of my kids whose chairs I was using to prop the machine up, I got hit in the face by a tiny stream of water about 5 secs after turning the machine on.

      Any tips on replacing that pipe?

        jgf - Ebay is your friend - The joys of PTFE tubbing. Measure the outside wall thickness, the outer diameter and then calculate the inner diameter. You are bout to find that stuff on eBay.

        I’m not sure if this is advisable or not, but… I’m wondering whether a smear of a high temp silicone sealant - or dare I say… Just plain old silicone sealant - or even… a few turns of tightly wrapped Duck tape? - would do the trick in the meantime here.

          You might find there’s enough flex and length in the tubing to allow you to cut the pipe, and then remake the joint with the fitting. To do this the pipe should be pushed fully onto the fitting and then the round ferrule part screwed up fairly tight to actually slightly flange to pipe and make the fitting water tight.

          Otherwise advised eBay is your friend for high pressure PTFE tubing.

          P.S. if hx is on, turn it off, if hx is off, turn it on. This way then might be a chance of bypassing that part of the pipe, I can’t remember for sure the hydraulic diagram, but you may find one of the hx positions it bypass is that leak which gets you a temporary solution.

          Are you in the UK?

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          @MediumRoastSteam - thank you, I must admit I was also thinking about patching it up, although having waited this long to start to investigate I don’t mind waiting a bit longer to fix it properly.

          Next stupid question - does the tubing simply push onto a fitting then get locked in place by screwing it tight again or should I be doing anything else to ensure it stays in place properly?

          Sorry Dave - just cross posted - thank you. Yes am in the UK.

          I’ll have a quick go with the HX settings as well.

          Tried toggling the HX setting but still had the same issue.

          The hole is right in the middle of the length so I think it will be too tight to cut and refit. Instead will measure up and order some from ebay as suggested. Thanks again both.

          8 days later

          Quick update on this just in case it is of any use to anyone else in the future… I ordered some 6mm od x 4mm id tubing from eBay which arrived yesterday. Replaced the problem tube last night and touchwood all seems to be running smoothly again.

          Thanks again for your help - very much appreciated ☕