# Rocket Appartamento - low pump flow?



## jubarim (Dec 30, 2015)

TLDR: Does anyone here could tell me if this Ulka EX5 pump should be outputting more water that it is? It all started when I noticed the Appartamento took too long to fill the boiler after a move from Sweden to Brazil:

Results:
1. From the group: 170ml in 30s
2. Disconnecting the pump from the rest of the machine: 210ml in 30s.

Baseline: 
- An old friend's Fiamma - from the group: 370ml in 30s






For the whole story: see next post


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## jubarim (Dec 30, 2015)

The full story:

Part 1:
My brother bought a Rocket Appartamento and used it for 18 months before I visited him last February in *Sweden*. For a few days we pulled some shots, everything was normal.

He was packing to move back to Brazil, so I tried to empty the boiler, but no water was getting out of the tap - the steam was fine, we used it everyday. I found it odd, but after trying it for a few days, somehow it worked, but the water coming out of it was *grayish*







. I blamed the hard water.

We packed it in the original box and a few months later, we opened it here in Brazil. But when we powered it on, it took too long to fill the boiler. Too long... Most likely 5 minutes. I also noticed the water getting out of the e61 group had a low flow rate.

Part 2:
I friend came today so we could try to descale the boiler - we did that with citric acid.

We isolated the boiler at first, to descale only it, due to the grayish water coming out of it. We used a hose to fully get it empty and then filled it will the solution (2 table spoons per liter). Some really small dirty come out of it, but not much.

At least the water is clear now.

But I still think the water flow is very low in the e61 group and it takes too long to refill the boiler - sometimes if evens turns off the pump and the green light blinks (I believe it's related to the pump getting hot).

Could anyone here tell me if this is supposed to be normal? Thanks a lot!!


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## jubarim (Dec 30, 2015)

Also, the last one:

From what I get in EX5 charts, it should get more or less 520ml to 720ml with no pressure restriction on the output:


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

As you can see from the tables, running free it should discharge 525 -725 per min.
running @ 9 bar it should discharge 200 - 300 per min.
If as you say it has been used in Sweden I believe the water there is very hard= scaling.
You say you have descaled the boiler? just the boiler ? I think you need to do a full descale, maybe more than once. The scale will build up throughout the machine/ pipework / solenoids.
Remove the mushroom from E61 and check inside.


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## jubarim (Dec 30, 2015)

Yes, the water was very hard.

We started descaling only the boiler and then we descaled the system, but only once. Maybe I should descale more.

Do you think I should disassembly the pump and replace the orings and the small ball? They have kits for it.

I will clean the mushroom as well.


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## El carajillo (Mar 16, 2013)

It may very well need quite an aggressive descale. You could disassemble the pump and check condition
(it may also contain scale). For the cost of a pump I would replace it rather than refurbish.


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## jubarim (Dec 30, 2015)

I see. Yeah, the pump is very cheap. I will open it tomorrow and let you know, thanks for the info!


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## jubarim (Dec 30, 2015)

It turns out the issue was the pump: it was weak.

A friend borrowed a very old ulka pump he has and I replaced just as a test: the fill time got better and also the group flow.

So I ordered a new one.

In the meantime, during the tests, I broke the "deaerator" valve that's connected to the pump:










That's a really bad cost saving from Rocket... makes no sense a plastic one when the pump has a metal end.


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## jubarim (Dec 30, 2015)

I could not find much information about not having this valve, except the fact that some other machines doesn't (example: ECM Classika).

So we decided to leave it out until a future maintenance.

The machine is running fine without it.

Now the group output is about 270ml in 30s.


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