My Lelit Bianca died....

thusband

I woke up this morning and my machine wasn’t on. I have it on an automatic switch that turns on so it’s warmed up when we get up. There’s nothing wrong with the switch or outlet. I thought maybe the plug to the Bianca came loose but it’s solid. It’s just dead. Something internal? I have no idea where to even start looking. I don’t even want to think about boxing this beast up to send back to Bella Barista. They’re three hours away so popping in with it isn’t practical.

I’ve had it for almost five years without a problem. Anybody have any ideas where I should start looking? I’ll send Bella Barista an email but, of course, it’s Saturday.

Back to my old Aeropress I guess.

edit: I forgot how good the old Aeropress was.

Anyway, I plugged the Bianca in again and it came on! I get a warning that there’s no water but that’s because I had removed the tank so I could take the top off. I was going to check the boiler switches thinking perhaps they tripped or are faulty. Could the boiler safety switches be the cause? I’ll need to know the cause or I’ll be wondering if it’s going to happen again.

MediumRoastSteam

thusband - how confident, given the machine is now back to life, that it wasn’t the switch or the socket?

If it wasn’t, then there must be something inside the machine. If it was a thermal fuse or something of the kind, it’s possible, but I am not sure how they are wired… I’m not sure if it would switch the whole machine off and not only the boiler.

Anyway, if it is indeed the machine, I’d do a thorough check for loose wires or signs of damage, starting from the mains socket of the machine and working your way inside the machine.

thusband

Yes, thanks, it very well could have been the switch or socket and I just missed it. It now seems to be running as normal. I brought it up to temperature and then opened the hot water to drain the boiler so the pump would kick in. It did as normal so I’m going to leave it and see what happens tomorrow morning.

Tal

Look for leaks. Perhaps over heated connections (plastic plugs will brown).

I’d also check your smart plug (assuming it’s smart rather than just a timer), and see how long it was on before it decided to “trip”. My tapo plug shows the power draw on a time Vs power graph.

Might give some clues!

Does it have an auto off safety feature if any conditions aren’t met? I.e water tank too low, could be a dodgy sensor for example?

I’d be logically going through all of the circuits personally.

DavecUK

What sort of plug does it have…has it got one of those clip over a euro plug things?

thusband

DavecUK

I’m in England and purchased it from Bella Barista so standard UK connections I believe. Here are a couple of photos. That wall adaptor is a Salus Smart Plug which connect to Home Assistant which runs the daily on/off schedule. I didn’t see any errors in HA.

DavecUK

It could be that the switch temporarily lost it’s internet connection and didn’t turn it on?

thusband

Thanks Dave. Yes it could be but when it didn’t come on this morning I unplugged the smart switch and plugged the Bianca directly into the wall outlet and it didn’t turn on. I pressed the power button several times too. I think I would have seen something in the logs if the switch was acting up.

I’ve been testing it several times today and the smart switch is working so we’ll see.

Really weird.

DavecUK

thusband Really weird.

It does sound strange and really points to a loose wire on the high power side, cord, plug receptacle in the back of the machine. If this is the case and next time arcing occurs, you might get some burnt connectors and/ or tripping of the RCCBO/MCB in the fuse box.

I would check the locations I have mentioned for any signs of overheating.

Elcarajillo

Check where the cable leaves the ‘socket’ inside the machine, I have seen two machines fail at this point, one was my own. !

thusband

Elcarajillo

Thanks, I’ll do that. It fired up on schedule this morning but I’ll still

need to poke around.

Adrianmsmith

thusband are you confident it wasnt just the iec lead not fully seated in the machine (the kettle lead).

Ive had many a site visit just to push one of those fully home after being told “weve checked all thr connections,”. 😎

thusband

Adrianmsmith

That certainly could have been the problem but the morning it occurred I double checked. In fact I pulled the lead out and plugged it back in with no effect. Later that morning it seemed to magically come back on and since then it’s been fine.