davidjheath Senior Member Joined: 4 May 2012 Posts: 4 Location: Sydney, Australia Expertise: Just starting
Posted Fri May 4, 2012, 1:15am Subject: Need help with astoria rebuild!!
I have just bought an old/newish (not sure of the model) 3 group Astoria which was supposedly in working order., it was very dirty and was in need of a strip down and clean. I was very keen to attempt this and went ahead without checking that it worked first.
The whole project went very well with no hiccups other than removing the old gaskets. It seemed to be a straight forward task with the most arduous part being the cleaning. I have no experience in this sort of thing and my only help has been reading machine rebuild blogs and forums such as these, which so far have been very helpful.
I have power to the machine, the boiler heats up, the thermostat works and I am getting water through the steam wands(well steam through thiese ones) and water spout. I am not getting water through the group heads! This model is fitted with preset buttons which click once pushed (I assume this would be the solenoid) but no water comes through, just a low buzzing sound.
I'm not sure if this is a factor but I have no water pump and I am plumbed in directly to the mains.
Posted Fri May 4, 2012, 11:18am Subject: Re: Need help with astoria rebuild!!
No pump!?
I would start by going back to the brew solenoid, loosening the output pipe, and see if water is getting through the solenoid. I wonder is there is a one-way valve sometwhere that is not being opened by line pressure that the pump would easily overcome.
Posted Sat May 5, 2012, 2:39pm Subject: Re: Need help with astoria rebuild!!
As far as I know the only astoria machines that don't have a pump are lever operated.
Even without a pump you should be getting water thru the groups at line pressure. There are filter screens at the flowmeter inlets and in the top of the group. These often get clogged with scale because owners neglect to service their water softeners or change their filters.
cwatson01 Senior Member Joined: 20 Sep 2011 Posts: 72 Location: USA Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Sun May 6, 2012, 9:08pm Subject: Re: Need help with astoria rebuild!!
...no pump? When you brew on any group, what does your pressure gauge read? One side of the gauge reads steam pressure the other is pump pressure. When you are dispensing water from the groups the pump pressure should shoot up to 8-10 bars. If it doesn't, then you will not be able to brew espresso. You would get water from the group heads, but not enough to brew espresso.
Are you sure you don't have a pump? Its a brass pump connected to a grey metal motor on the side of your machine that your water goes into.
When it comes to water not coming from the groups, is the machine semi-auto or auto? You can tell by the dispense buttons. Does it have a single DISPENSE button for each group, or the programmable menu buttons single short/single long and double short/double long for each group? They'll be pictures of coffee cups. If you have the one button for each group, its semi auto. If it has the other buttons to brew a programmed single shot or double shot for each group, its automatic. I ask because there are different components in your machine for auto and semi-auto, and that information will help lower the chance of anybody giving you wrong information.
Look at your gauge pressure. If it does not go to 8-10 bars while dispensing water from your group heads, your pump has an issue. Check to see if you have one. If you don't then your machine probably came with an outside pump and motor. If it did then there would be another plug coming out of your machine that is supposed to plug into the outside pump motor. Check with the party you purchased the machine from if your machine really doesn't have a pump.
Really, until you get your pump situation rectified, there's really no point in continuing talking. Lol, sorry but if it has a button to dispense water, it needs a pump. A lot of astorias have outside pump and pump motors. Maybe the person you bought it from forgot to give it to you, or maybe you missed it in the machine.. but once we get that located we can help you fix your machine no problem. Im certified by astoria on all of their traditional and super automatics and do his for a living, rest peacefully we will get your machine taken care of.
calblacksmith Moderator Joined: 25 Nov 2007 Posts: 5,761 Location: Riverside, Ca, U.S.A. Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: ECM Veneziano A1 Grinder: Many different commercial Vac Pot: 40s era Silex Drip: Milita, Bunn&Curtis... Roaster: Cast iron pan, gas burner
Posted Mon May 7, 2012, 5:56am Subject: Re: Need help with astoria rebuild!!
There ABSOLUTELY should be a pump! You can NOT generate proper brew pressure without one. Many machines have the pump located EXTERNAL to the machine and if you don't have one, perhaps, the seller did not include it! This is a pretty pricy part and it NEEDS to be there.
More than likely though, there should be SOME water flow through the GH at line pressure but it would be very low. The volumetric system has a sensor to measure water flow and the brain in the machine should be sensing how much water has moved through the system and then turns the water flow off as well as the water pump when the proper dose of water has been sensed.
In real life, my name is Wayne P.
Feed the newbs, starve the trolls and above all enjoy what you drink!
l8nightCaffeine Senior Member Joined: 29 Nov 2011 Posts: 52 Location: Kalamazoo,MI Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Fri May 18, 2012, 5:51pm Subject: Re: Need help with astoria rebuild!!
hey did you figure out the wires yet? If it is 3 group its pretty safe to assume its 220v. hopefully you got a 220v pump? or one that can do both 110 and 220v.
As far as wiring, if its external you should have a second heavy duty (although not as large as the main power cable) cable with 3 different colored wires. (two 110v rails, and a ground)
you can simply Google the colors to figure out which is ground, they vary slightly between countries so keep this in mind.
I am unclear why your pump has 2 wires though... unless you somehow got a DC motor? ...AC (usually) has 2 'hot' wires and a ground or neutral.
...this is just what i learned while figuring out how to wire in mine...and why it was not up to code to make a 220v splitter to my stove, but still reasonably safe. (assuming 3 prong design)
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