# engineer required - advice for astoria AL2 lever LPG machine please



## VWCafe (Jul 31, 2013)

Hi all. I am a newbie to the forum so please go easy. I am building a mobile coffeee van and have purchased a used (fairly old) CMA Astoria AL2 lever machine which runs on LPG and Elec.

I was wondering if anyone could offer any advice on finding an engineer (ideally based in the north of England) who has the skills to service the machine. Clearly being a lever machine, AND dual fuel puts it in a rare space in terms of finding a suitable engineer and I have heard that most engineers won't touch them because they are no longer used to working on them and/or dont have correct tools to work on them.

Also, how would I go on with getting a boiler pressure check done? Are there any gas safety engineers who specialise in espresso machines for the LPG side of things.

Thanks in advance fo any advice that can be offered. I guess I am just really looking for someone who can inspect it before use, and replace any parts that may need replacing, certainly from a safety perspective.

Best wishes coffee lovers!!!


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## coffeebean (Jan 26, 2010)

http://www.aiee.org.uk/

Give these guys a shout - there will be someone there who can help you out!

Andy


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## VWCafe (Jul 31, 2013)

Hi thanks for the tip. Tried a few local chaps on that site and it was those who advise it would be difficult to find someone. So back to square 1







. I have emailed aiee too. May have to travel further afield i guess.

Cheers anyhow fella.


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## coffeebean (Jan 26, 2010)

If it helps, I service my dual fuel machine myself but get a gas safe engineer to do the gas part and pressure testing. There isn't a lot to the gas components and apparently they aren't dissimilar to a domestic boiler!! One of my neighbours is a plumber and gas safe engineer so I asked him to have a look at it (he had never seen the inside of an espresso machine in his life!) and we found that the gas components were well within his expertise. Most espresso engineers are fine with electric machines but obviously not qualified to mess around with gas.


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