I bought the machine in July this year and up to now it has been trouble free.
For the past few days I have noticed some condensation on the glass of the pressure gauge and status display on my first Elizabeth. I have also noticed that when the machine is not being used but both boilers are on the pump runs intermittently for a few seconds.
Today there was water leaking from the two front corners of the casing above the drip tray. When I removed the water reservoir the bottom tray was full of water.
I removed the top cover to look inside. There was no sign of any water leaks but the whole inside of the casing was covered in condensation.
After watching for a while with the machine switched on again and the top cover off there is are bubbles escaping from the steam boiler via the large brass valve projecting diagonally forward from the top of the steam boiler which vent back to the reservoir and a lot of condensation in the larger tube from the top of the steam boiler. There is some condensation in the small tube from the steam boiler to the steam valve but no apparent movement when the steam valve is closed. After running off about 400 ml of hot water via the hot water outlet the bubbles stopped but recurred once the steam boiler was back up to its normal temperature.
The steam boiler temperature is set to 140C.
I can see no sign of leaks from any of the high pressure (small) tubes or the joints in them or the joints of the various valves to the steam or coffee boiler.
I assume the problem is caused by steam venting back into the reservoir and escaping into the casing if the vent tube is not submerged in the water in the reservoir although the leak seams very slight at the moment.
When the machine is heating up from cold there is quite a bit of noise from the boiler. Is this normal?
I am using very low calcium and residual solid water and flush the machine once a week.
After I had removed the top and dried off as much of the condensation as possible I left it off until this morning and dried off all the condensation as far as I could.
This morning, unfortunately, there was still some staining on the inside of the glass of both gauges but the inside of the machine was dry. I replaced the top and made some coffee. I left the machine switched on.
I looked again after about 21/2 hours and found that both gauges had a lot of condensation and there was water dripping out of the bottom of the machine at the back. I removed the top again and there was a lot of condensation on the sides . I could not see any sign of any leaks at any of the fittings on top of the steam or coffee boilers or at any of the joints of the tubing. I found that the end of the fill tube in the water tank had split, no doubt from being in the hot water in the tank although I don’t think this should have happened as it was not very hot. I removed the water tank and found a lot of water in the tray underneath it. The tank was covered in condensation and the water in it was quite warm. The outside of the casing at the rear left corner, next to the steam boiler, was quite hot.
Can you suggest a cause for the problem and a solution I could deal with myself before I return it to the supplier?