# Is my Piccino a write off?



## dannybless (Jul 20, 2015)

So I bought a used Fracino Picinno back in Feb this year. Love everything about it until about 2 weeks ago, I made a coffee that was undrinkable. Ruled out the group head water first, tried the steam wand and low end behold the water was discolored and it smelt very chemically. I've tried flushing the system through and eventually contacted fracino. It's suspected milk in the boiler and I'm looking at £275.00 shipped inc vat for a full service of the machine which is pretty crippling.

So I guess my options -

1.) Consider the machine a write off and buy another machine for the value of the repair ie a £275 budget

2.) Swallow the bill

Does anyone have any advice as the £275.00 for a machine I bought 9 months ago for £400 feels too much to swallow. Any other options? I contacted a local repairer I found on liminicoffee.co.uk who is local to me in Dorset but was told as it's more of a domestic machine it's a fracino job.

Any/all advice appreciated

thanks

Danny


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## GerryM (Feb 6, 2016)

Hi, My experience with Fracino is that they are very helpful.

Earlier this year Fracino charged £180 inc VAT as a fixed price for doing whatever was needed service/repair wise on a Piccino as far as I recall, that could be a bargain as yours has a fault. I dealt with Becky when mine was serviced in May and found her to be very helpful, maybe email her direct? Rebecca Maxwell <becky></becky>

I would have thought you could post it in to them yourself for around £10 plus the cost of packaging, my view is it's worth the cost getting it repaired at £180 as you'll have a machine that will be in tip top condition with the work guaranteed for either 6 months or a year (i can't remember which) and it will all be stripped down and serviced too.

Good luck, I hope you get it [email protected]>


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## Norvin (Sep 10, 2014)

Of course levels of competency vary greatly, but it doesn't look to be a really difficult job to dismantle and clean out the steam boiler and valve. The boiler is made of two halves bolted together. It looks to be only slightly more difficult than doing a similar job on a gaggia classic boiler, and plenty of people do that without problems.

Good luck in finding a solution.


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## Dylan (Dec 5, 2011)

Take it apart yourself. If you can use a spanner and take photos (a lot of photos) you can take apart and flush out a boiler.


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## AndyDClements (Aug 29, 2016)

I'd do as Dylan suggests, but then I bought my first moped in 3 cardboard boxes, as the previous owner had stripped it out to fix a problem, one that had been mis-diagnosed. I had to rebuild it with no manual (none existed) then diagnose the problem and strip it again to fix. So, I'm very much into the idea of pulling machines apart even if there is little guidance available.

A few considerations.

If you pull it apart and don't damage anything, is it likely to cost little/no more for Fracino to fix? That's a limit to how much you risk attempting it.

If you sold it now as-is, could you get more than £125, and get another second hand for the same £400 as you paid for this? If so, it's a slightly cheaper option that repairing, but you risk this replacement machine having faults.

If you pull it apart, but can't fix, could you still sell it for more than £125? Another thing that could limit how much you risk spending.

All depends how confident you feel but I'm sure that if you get stuck there would be some people on here that could help with advice in some way.


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## dannybless (Jul 20, 2015)

Thanks for all the replies! I appreciate the input. I've got some options to explore!


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

@dannybless Curious - when you say you flushed the machine, what do you mean? - also with living in Dorset have you used bottled / filtered water?

just keen to rule out that its not just a case of needing a big descale.


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## dannybless (Jul 20, 2015)

I've run descaler through the system and flushed 3 tanks worth through both the group head and the wand and it made no difference. The smell is still there albeit the water is no longer as discolored but the smell is still strong.


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