# Bezzera Ellisse confusing fault



## customcoffee (Jan 9, 2013)

Im having a problem with my Bezzera Ellisse and was wondering if anyone could shed some light on what might be happening?

The machine has a hot water spout which is volumetrically controlled by a button on the 2 touchpads. Each touchpad has a button for hot water which an be set to whatever you wish them to be.

Inside the machine I have noticed that the hot water spout has 2 feeds. A hot feed directly from the bottom of the boiler, and a cold feed which is coming from the output side of the autofill solenoid valve.

Obviously the idea of this is that once hot water is dispensed, the boiler is being refilled with water that it is losing at the same time.

The problem I am having is that over time the boiler is becoming too full and overfilling, it is almost as if more water is being put into the boiler than what is being drawn out?

I was wondering if there was a way to disable the fill valve operating with the hot water solenoid valve? Obviously I cant completely disable the fill valve because I still want the boiler to automatically fill.

Could there be another component causing this? Is it maybe a regular fault found with the Ellisse?

I notice there is a brass block were the cold water goes in and out, there is a grub screw which alters the temperature of the water leaving the hot water spout. Adjusting this grub screw makes little difference to wether the boiler overfills or not??

Any help or input anybody has will be gratefully appreciated.

Best wishes

Ryan


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## espressotechno (Apr 11, 2011)

If the boiler is slowly filling up & overfilling, even when the machine is idle, then the cold water inlet solenoid valve is "leaking". ie it's not closing fully. This is usually caused by either scale or grit.

It's possible to remove, dismantle & clean / descale the valve, which may cure the leak, but best to fit a new one.....it's not expensive.


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## customcoffee (Jan 9, 2013)

The thing is though that the fill valve isnt passing. It gets activated simultaneously to the hot water solenoid so water is replenishing the boiler as it is leaving the hot water spout.

I have a hose rigged up so can easily drain the boiler and have taken a few measurements. So if i take hot water from the hot water spout (for arguments sake say 100ml) the boiler is being filled with water the second the hot water valve is activated to the second the hot water valve automatically stops (the pump runs too)

so i then drain the boiler via a isolation valve under the boiler and I get 100ml out before the machines auto refill kicks in.

so i am taking 100ml out, all the time fresh water is going back in, the auto refill doesnt activate after the hot water dispense has finished, and i then take 100ml out before the auto refill activates.

So its almost as if i am taking 100ml out and putting 200ml back in which is the cause of over filling issue?

There must be some way of regulating how much fresh water goes into the boiler was the hot water valve is activated, in conjunction with the fill valve and pump being activated??


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## customcoffee (Jan 9, 2013)

could there be a jet or flow restrictor faulty/missing??


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## LeeWardle (Nov 16, 2008)

Normally when there is a cold water feed going into the hot water outlet it is there to level out the temperature of the water outlet - I ie it mixes in a little cold to avoid the spitting etc. There is normally an adjustable valve just after the (cold water) solenoid to regulate flow (and conversely temp)

Cold water should not be gong into the boiler form there. As EspressoTechno says, check the inlet, also is there scale in the boiler? If so the fill level resistor/(s) will also be scaled and cause the machine to over fill.

There is no flow regulator for the inlet, just keeps going until the water hits the resistor/(s)/probe at which point the intlet will cut off. If I remember rightly the ELise has two probes. One slightly lower than the other. When the water level reaches the upper probe the electrical resistance changes and cuts off the inlet.

It's going to be either Inlet valve leaking, scaled probes (resistors) or possibly the connector has lost connectin with one of the probes. (had this before after a customer had a spillage of milk) and worst case scenario a knackered PCB. The former more likely though. Just systematically work your way through the faults.

Lee


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## LeeWardle (Nov 16, 2008)

Oh dear, it appears I'm a stranger ha ha


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## espressotechno (Apr 11, 2011)

Just revisited this post:

If this problem is still unsolved, try cleaning all the electrical / electronic connections - especially the pcb connetors. Then clean all the earthing wire connections. If any component looks like it has a dodgy earthing wire, or looks like it needs one, fit a another earthing wire.

( A while ago, a Bezzera Elise 2 group auto machine was driving me bonkers with overfilling & touchbutton problems: Cleaning & earthing "everything" solved the problems !)


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## customcoffee (Jan 9, 2013)

it appears to of been a faulty hot water solenoid valve. i replaced the nucleus of the valve and there hasnt been a problem since. it seemed that more 'replacement' water was being fed back into the boiler than what was being drawn out of the hot water tap, hence the over filling issue.

all sorted now but thanks for all replies


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## Bean & Leaf (Jul 11, 2014)

the cold feed to the valve is to cool the water down as it comes from the boiler so ot dispenses at a cooler temperature (about 95 degrees) depending on the restrictor or adjustment valve as the water in the boiler is over 120 degrees.

the reason the boiler is overfilling is because the inlet valve is letting water through. nucleus and or seal faulty


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## customcoffee (Jan 9, 2013)

no it wasnt that, the hot water valve did also have a cold feed to cool the water leaving the hot water tap, but there is also a solenoid that activates the same time as the solenoid which activates to dispense water. the job of this other solenoid is to replenish the boiler so it always maintains boiler level.

the faulty part was the solenoid letting water out, it wasnt opening enough so more water was being fed into the boiler (via the other solenoid valve responsible for filling) than was being released (by the solenoid responsible for releasing hot water). the adjustment screw for water temp was also fine. i mustnt of explained properly in previous posts


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## espressotechno (Apr 11, 2011)

That's why I went off Bezzera machines some time ago - too over engineered on simple functions + expensive replacement electronics.


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