# Musica water tank problem



## SimonB (Sep 12, 2013)

I've run into a strange problem, I filled up the water tank as usual but once put inside the machine it keeps telling me the tank is empty.

The Musica tank has a small plastic cylinder/barrel in the bottom right, I assume it's filled with air because it floats when submerged in water. The odd part is I take the tank out and it floats as you would expect but once put back into the machine it drops to the bottom. Sometimes it's sunk to the bottom when out of the machine but a few taps will usually fix that, I may be imagining it but it seems less buoyant than normal but it doesn't appear to be porous or to have a leak so I would have expected it to behave consistently (which it clearly isn't).

Considering how simple a mechanism this appears to be I'm at a loss to explain the behavior, I'm using Volvic with a bit of Brita filtered water and I haven't descaled the machine yet but I don't understand how that would affect how well the barrel floats.


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## CoffeeJohnny (Feb 28, 2011)

Will have a look at mine see if I can have some idea.


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## Ran1 (Oct 22, 2013)

I dont know the Musica Tank machine but it sounds like a similar system to a Rancilio S24.

Does your machine have a plastic tube connected to the plastic cylinder? If yes, check the tube for splits.


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## SimonB (Sep 12, 2013)

Ran1 said:


> I dont know the Musica Tank machine but it sounds like a similar system to a Rancilio S24.
> 
> Does your machine have a plastic tube connected to the plastic cylinder? If yes, check the tube for splits.


There's no tube that I've noticed, the little plastic barrel seems to have regained its buoyancy when the machine has warmed up and after I left it to dry overnight. Perhaps it's porous and needs to recharge? I must be missing something obvious...

I'll post some pictures tomorrow once I've emptied the tank (with the last of my jampit







).


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

Looking on/line at an exploded view of the Musica it appears that the piece in the tank corresponds with another one underneath the tank.I would suspect that this works in a similar manner to how elec/tooth brush charges without direct contact,, in your case passes power/signal.Sorry can`t be more helpful.


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## lukeap69 (Apr 23, 2013)

I remember that happening to me once when I had forgotten to fill the tank and the no water indicator lit.

Even after filling the tank with water, the no water indicator would not turn off. I had to turn off the machine main power off few times, the it normalised.

This may solve your problem.


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## SimonB (Sep 12, 2013)

Thanks for the replies!









This is inside the tank, that's the little barrel I mentioned, there's 2 plastic tabs on either side which prevent it from floating up into the rest of the tank.









That's the view from outside the tank, the hole is actually just where the plastic has been punched in for those 2 tabs stopping the barrel you can see from inside. It's hard to see but there appears to be two halves with the bottom one being darker.









This is inside the Musica, the bottom metal part which looks a like a button I think is the actual probe so when the barrel sinks to the bottom (as it should when there's too little water) it comes close enough to the probe and the machine reports an empty tank. I don't know what function the metal bar on the right provides.

So far I've had this problem only occur twice, as I mentioned the barrel appears sealed but it's behavior indicated this was either incorrect or the example of the kettle/electric toothbrush but that sounds like a complicated method for such a simple task considering there's little chance of the barrel rupturing?

The more I know the less I know...


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## mike.khan.140 (Oct 26, 2013)

The float will have a magnet in it. The metal bit in the frame beneath the tank is a reed switch, or possibly a hall-effect sensor. These are both activated by the presence of a magnet. The little metal bar is probably attached to a micro switch so the machine knows whether the tank is in place or not.

Sounds like the float has lost its buoyancy.


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## SimonB (Sep 12, 2013)

Sounds about right and the magnet would explain why the float would be fine outside and then drop once inside the machine.

Still not clear on why the buoyancy of the float would change, besides the two times I mentioned earlier in the thread it's floated to the top without an issue.


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