# Rancilio Silvia Ground GFI/RCD Tripping



## richardhx (Oct 2, 2019)

An otherwise Functional Silvia is on my bench.
It was blowing the electrics at a friends flat. This is a new place with ground fault protection built into the fuse board.

I have to assume that the element outer is cracked somewhere though not visible. The element itself is intact, heating and reasonable dc resistance for stated power rating. Boiler is the earlier one with integral element.

The element to ground gives different measurements depending on which way around I do it using a multimeter. One way 2M+Ohms (potentially a pass) the other way is a lot lower and definitely the reason for the fail. Which makes me think it would present almost as a diode leaking on one half of the mains cycle. A fail anyway. Maybe the Ceramic insulator turns into a semiconductor when wet. Mentioning here as a basic test with a multimeter could potentially miss this.

Looking for a new boiler, element, pipe, gaskets etc I think, assuming a newer boiler (&pipe) will happily sit on the existing hardware. They appear to have been sensible in that sort of thing.
Anyone got suggestion of best place to buy from?


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## richardhx (Oct 2, 2019)

Good to see how people do not always get a reply. Perhaps it looked like I had it all sorted out...
Anyway. Worth looking on this forum as found Frank at Ferrari- Espresso very helpful after looking around at parts. Definitely worth talking to especially as my first coffee machine refurb.

Gave the frame a refresh with some paint as well as new rubber feet. Cut out the old element and put in a new element in place of the braised or welded in one. wiring was in pretty good condition but replaced one wire for easier fitting. These coffee machines really need a filter inline from the water tank.

In future, I think I would recommend just doing the whole boiler swap out, though that would have gotten close to the price of a newer albeit still second hand version. I look forward to learning about the next coffee machine I have to take apart ( that one is going to be a plumbed in commercial one).


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