# La Pavoni Europiccola Resurrection!



## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

-WARNING, I got carried away. Also will have to be multiple posts due to 5 photo per post restriction. And sorry about rotation-

Part1

About a couple of weeks ago and after a few failed attempts at wining a bid on a Pavoni on fleebay I happened to be scavenging the depths of Gumtree for misspelled ads at 2am as one does. And would you believe it, there it was! An il pavoni europiccolo (a.k.a. La Pavoni Europiccola) for £50&#8230; in Leeds. Couldn't believe my luck. I texted, emailed and texted again, and all that before 8 am. Got a response eventually from a very obliging seller much to my disbelief and took it from there. Arranged for a door to door courier service with Parcelforce 48 which with a 10% off code came to just under £14 to London. It was one of the only courier companies that didn't have coffee machines on their prohibited list or excluded items and offered free cover up to £100.

I was of course very suspicious about the whole situation thinking id be left £50 + £14 poorer but the seller was excellent and packaged the item really well and despite being really busy managed to coordinate with me on this. (I count myself lucky on that front).

Now in terms of the machine&#8230;. well&#8230;. the photos presented it as this lovely old rusted ornament that may or may not hold water and with little chances of life, but I was after a project after all so right up my street. Thank you @jimbojohn55 for the pre and post-guidance and @coffeechap for sharing his passion about levers.









Upon opening the box and getting past the first whiff of rust I examined the contents. Some rust, bit more rust, scaling, neglected, crusty, dull finish, strange aroma emanating from boiler (almost like pine resin) and a plug! So the first stupid thing to not do is turn it on right.. ? So I filled it, turned it on and flicked the switch.. It's alive, I'm alive and the house windows are still in place. That was until it started pressurising&#8230; and pressurising and then almost shaking. Steam and water started coming out of every part of the machine.

Switch off, pretend that never happened and jump onto theespressoshop website and fill my shopping basket.

So it turns on, it heats up but that's about it. I therefore ordered 1x group service kit containing all gaskets, seals and washers, all potential O-rings and seals for the other areas, a brand new brass piston to replace the manky plastic one, sight glass seals. I was now up at £90 in spares and that's pretty much just for seals and gaskets. Had to get circlip tweezers a few more spanners, as the 16mm one does not come in your standard pack, some sandpaper and brass brushes.


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Part 2

Time to open her up, so excited! Removed the group using 10mm wrench. Really easy, take off an inspect siphon pipe. Nasty, scaled, green, white, nobbly. Pry out hard, brittle shower screen gasket and chuck away. Shower screen was ok but put aside. Piston was disgusting, and gaskets were dry, leave aside. Remove circlip holder, perforated washer and seal. Throw away.

For the lever I removed the c-clips with the rubber end of my pliers and took out the lever rollers. In the bin.

Made up a hot batch of cafiza at 10g per 1L of water and soaked the group head followed by the portafilter and then the old components (plastic piston, shower screen and baskets for use as emergency spares). It fizzed away and after 15min a warm rinse and a polish (no creams just microfiber towel) it looked amazing.

Put it back on the boiler temporarily so I could fill with citric acid to tackle the scale. Used at 30g per litre of hot water and left for 1hr in the boiler filled to the brim. Could see the flakes coming off. I treated the siphon tube separately.

Gave it a second go with citric acid and then rinsed. Boiler looked perfect.

When you use citric acid on brass it will give a pink matted finish because dezincification leading to copper oxide reverting to pure copper. I therefore used the brass brush and polished the tube and the nuts till they were glowing like gold.


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Part 3

All went smoothly however, removing the steam assembly and the safety valve without removing the boiler was an absolute pain in the ass. There was loads of steam escaping at the steam pipe joint as it was loose and not much from safety valve. After removing I could see scale was in the way so cleaned it all up and then using a 16mm plumber back nut wrench and coming in from the grouphead hole I could access the M12 nut and washer. I secured it on for good.

The safety valve on the other hand was almost impossible to remove from its seat. Finally after using a 16mm hinged spanner from the inside I got there.

Turns out the spring was destroyed which is why steam could not escape.

Another order through for new spring and Teflon bearing.

Sight glass was easy. Loosen with 17mm wrench throw away old seals, washers and Teflon rings and replace with new.

After hand polishing boiler and components with microfiber towel and changing every seal, washer ad gasket in sight (except for boiler base ones which are sitting in a packet waiting for next step) it came to reassembly. Easy enough, only pain is the gasket round piston even with the Dow Corning Molykote 111 and most definitely the steam pipe and safety valve internal nuts.

The electrics were perfect so nothing to worry about there. Now for the rust. I contacted spanglefish who specialises in restoring and powder-coating pavoni bases but no response. I decided to temporarily remove major rust with wet fine grit sandpaper and brass brushes. Minor pitting left but definitely no serious corrosion or sign of thinning of the metal.


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Part 3 continued


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Part 3 continues a bit more. I found these to be the trickiest parts to remove and replace. But all went to plan.


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

I am impressed with the quality of this resto - top job - going to be totally worth it


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Part 4

Currently looking into armourtex in east London who powdercoat bike frames to get a quote for sandblasting, powder-coating and treating. Hoping for sub £35 (actually just spoke to them.. probably >£100.. no chance). If any of you have any other options near London please share.

Other expenses, a 49mm Motta tamper, a single hole tip (huge thanks to @jimbojohn55), steam wand as original was missing, and additional portafilter to convert to naked (huge thanks to @coffeechap). (Need to find a lathe&#8230; )

So I filled with WE water, flicked the switch, tapped my fingers on the counter and waited for the bang. Machine was so silent J. 10min in and a t full pressure and not a leak in sight. Pressurestat was working perfectly and so was the safety valve. Couldn't believe the transformation! Now have my hand on a brand new looking shiny and fully functional Europiccola (with the exception of the base but that's happening imminently).









As anticipated, that was the easy bit. Try pulling a coffee, ha&#8230;

13.5g from the Ceado e37s into portafilter (set up for my Izzo), tamp normally, load, lift handle gently, pre-infuse for 8sec and pull down. Not tons of pressure felt and extract. Dark espresso barely any crema, what there was of it was really dark brown and splitting. Output about 33g on that one as I wasn't intending to drink. I did though. It was good! It was smooth, rich, fruity, and nutty. But looked awful, like really awful.

Anyway didn't want to change my grind setting on the Ceado so moved to the Baratza precisso and played. Ground finer and finer to the point where I was seriously considering cancelling my gym subscription. Same visual result. Dark, splitting, thin, dissipating crema. (Thought that may be residual Dow Corning Molkote 111 from the piston). Taste wasn't awful though.









Pucks came out in one piece, firm with very slight imprint of shower screen.

Only when down dosing to 12g did I notice the 2 divets on the rear left that was recently mentioned.

After reading bit more today I came to the conclusion that keeping the flow rate constant was more important than keeping the pressure constant as it eases off significantly half way down the pull.

I tried the coarser grind, loaded 14g from the Ceado, actually checked the dry puck with a 5p coin but didn't leave imprint. Should I dose more?

How easy/difficult should it be to pull down lever? Saw an excellet write up on HB with a graph pointing towards a 20lb-35lb pull being more than sufficient to achieve 8-9bar at the puck.

Anyway, today's shot 14g>29g was thick, salty, nice at first but left my mouth dry and with a lingering bitterness.

Also, I notice that when I pull the lever up to flush the group I'm getting the gush of water predominantly exiting through the front half of the shower screen (tried to show on the video, will be on the next post). Why might that be? All internal components are brand new so I really don't suspect blockage to be the cause. Also angle is out of the question as I tilted backwards and it did the same and I also measured group with spirit level.

Beans wise, they are my new Redemption ones (brazil+Tanzania) lightly roasted 10 days ago and which I have been using on the Izzo so I know I still have a long way to go. I would love for you to share your technique and tips.

Can't wait for the weekend because that espresso I had at midnight caused this write up (actually wrote at 2am..)

So final point, I absolutely loved pulling this machine apart and resurrecting it. It was relatively easy and I think any one with some patience could do it. But! If you think £50 is going to get you a gem, think again. I have almost surpassed the £200 mark in total costs and still have few bits and bobs to sort out.

These machines hold their value, which is in the £250 region for a used one, but spares don't come cheap so be prepared. I'd happily do it again though and can't wait to pull some great shots from it.

Tried Kayon mountain beans today instead through the Comandante hand grinder just in case. Pressure seemed right, it smelled of fruit it tasted quite good but again dark crema breaking away


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

Gulp - must do those tips this weekend or tonight even


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

Im wondering if the pressurestat is doing the business?


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Here was the first time I turned it back on after the re build. You can maybe see what I'm taking about towards the end with the water wanting to exit prominently through the front of the shower screen. Will get a better video over the weekend.


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

jimbojohn55 said:


> Gulp - must do those tips this weekend or tonight even


No rush whatsoever!!! Steam wand not arrived yet


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

I've now perfected my thermal regulation and dispersion screen cleaning method. Assuming you're removed the spouts from your PF, fill PF with cold water from the tap placing your finger over the whole to stop it draining out.

Place into group and quickly pull up on the lever so this water is taken up into the group. Pull up until first spits out then let the lever travel downwards without any additional pressure.

Do this before each shot.

Excellent work on the restoration.


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

fatboyslim said:


> I've now perfected my thermal regulation and dispersion screen cleaning method. Assuming you're removed the spouts from your PF, fill PF with cold water from the tap placing your finger over the whole to stop it draining out.
> 
> Place into group and quickly pull up on the lever so this water is taken up into the group. Pull up until first spits out then let the lever travel downwards without any additional pressure.
> 
> ...


Thanks @fatboyslim ! I did read about the ramekin filled with cold water draw which I actually tried last night and works a treat and also cleans the shower screen.

The increased flow through the front of the shower screen even though no coffee had been used in it since replacing everything is still a mystery. I'll spin piston and single 180 degrees and see if it reverses it towards back of shower screen.

And then the really terrible looking crema issue. Resolution deadline Monday. (I'm only kidding myself..)


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## Nopapercup (Nov 6, 2016)

Well done, looks great!

These are so sensitive to grind settings. For me it's not a workout pulling the lever. The best results are consistent pulls. I like the lighter roasts and depending on beans I fill between 12.5-13.5g and do a 2:1 ratio in around 20 seconds. I also find pre infusion varies on the bean from 8-15 seconds.


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Friday night update.

First to tackle the lopsided water flush through group I removed the shower screen (PITA) and also turned both piston and shower screen 180°C.

Result: no difference.. see video (





)

Maybe it makes no difference in functionality but would like to know if others with the pre-millennium version see this or get dishes which are quite so vigorous.

Second issue, the crumbling crema (main concern)

Gave the piston a clean to remove potentially excess dow 111 which could be acting as a surfactant and pulled 2 shots. One with 13g one with 12.5g.

Result: no difference. Still breaking apart.

Can see exact reports of it on HB

http://www.home-barista.com/levers/la-pavoni-crema-problems-t24311.html

http://www.home-barista.com/levers/strange-crema-from-la-pavoni-europiccola-t42668.html

I don't have to pull down that hard. Result was the same with 2 bean types and 3 grinders.

Maybe coarsen and dose bit more? (Think 14.5g is max with these beans).

I'll take piston out again tomorrow and wipe even more although there is barely any dow 111 on there :/


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

I think after a deep clean and rebuild. it takes a few days or so to settle down - typically I had a metallic taste for a few days. also If I remember correctly there was a weird cremma for a week or two - so possibly the spare grease working its way through?

will have a look at my shower pattern and get back

update - if anything mine has a little more water coming through the back of the screen!

further update - filled boiler fully - I'm getting a fairly even dispersion - however nothing like as quick or as powerfull as yours - ive got a gauge on mine and the pressurestat kicks in at 0.7 Bar - lift the handle and it goes up to 1.0 bar

I'm just wondering if the pressurestat is working right - its adjustable if its the 1997 - 2001 model, I'm thinking about all your seals being blown and previously the emergency valve being gummed up, might explain why its seals were blown if the pressurestat is out of adjustment - just a theory







my emergency steam valve never kicks in - mind you I haven't rebuilt that bit!

Just another theory, but shouldn't the emergency valve not be needed most of the time as the pressurestat would stop it getting that high? - anyone else care to add their experience?

http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/lapavoni_storia1_eng.htm

"La Pavoni who initially modifies the calibration of the pressure in an attempt to decrease the operating temperature of the boiler, with reducing the pressure from 0,8-1,0 atm. to 0,5-0.8 (1996)"


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

jimbojohn55 said:


> I think after a deep clean and rebuild. it takes a few days or so to settle down - typically I had a metallic taste for a few days. also If I remember correctly there was a weird cremma for a week or two - so possibly the spare grease working its way through?
> 
> will have a look at my shower pattern and get back
> 
> ...


Thank you! It's a 1998 model, haven't adjusted pstat yet, if anything, judging by steam power and force of flush it may be running a touch hot. Don't have any reason to think it's misbehaving but I will pull apart this evening. Would you turn ring clockwise to increase pressure and anti clockwise to reduce? Gauge might be on shopping list for calibration purposes..

I took out piston and shower screen once again just earlier and put in cafiza to get rid of all dow 111 and gave it a good scrub.

And you know what, pulled a shot and the crema actually looked passable! Got a really salty taste though, most likely underextracted. Will tighten grind up a notch.

I think you are right about needing time to settle in though. One more variable was that I just opened a new bag of the LSOL for that shot so freshness would have been different. I'll try with the other beans this evening and see if that's improved as well. Will try uploading a video.

Thanks again!


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## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

@christos_geo Did the steam wand and portafilter arrive ?


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

coffeechap said:


> @christos_geo Did the steam wand and portafilter arrive ?


Ouuuu! Didn't expect it to arrive so soon so only just checked and yes they are here! I see what you mean about the coloured chrome..

So I contacted the espresso-products.co.uk who can convert it to naked for £18 but unfortunately they can't do 49mm ones









Getting in touch with a friend with a lathe to see if he can help me out.

Thanks so much for sending @coffeechap.


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

will need a pillar drill and a 48mm hole saw plus an arbour - http://www.wickes.co.uk/Wickes-HSS-Bi-Metal-Hole-Saw-48mm/p/195615?CAWELAID=120135120000009537&CAGPSPN=pla&CAAGID=37524968212&CATCI=pla-89318279968&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIsq2v-Iv61AIVxp3tCh3utQ5KEAQYASABEgLJnvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Yet another update! And I'm please to say that the crema is back! (well, it was never there to begin with..but let's say it's here now)

After taking the piston out once again and removing all visible trace of Dow 111, I pulled 4 shots and there was no breaking, separation or dissipation of the crema leading me to believe that it was indeed the main culprit...

Tried light tamp, hard tamp, nutating tamp with a 13.5g dose. Output not majorly relevant this time as I was only troubleshooting crema, but the light tamp was the winner. Did a poor job of trying to film one of the attempts but it seriously ain't easy to do one handed. I'd avoid watching if you suffer from sea sickness.

Anyway, we're on to something, baby steps.


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## christos_geo (Feb 9, 2016)

Spot on @jimbojohn55 re pressurestat! Found some time today and thought I'd pull it apart









I feel my pavoni was running a tad hot but hard to tell without a pressure gauge.

Loosened the nut, 17mm spanner I think it was and check this out!! Now remember this machine had been meticulously descaled 2 weeks ago!

Turns out this area is impossible to get to just by descaling the boiler. So I used some high concentration citric acid solution and syringed it repeatedly through both parts for about 40 min.

I then connected tubing to the pstat and applied more solution with the syringe until I could hear the pstat clicking when I pushed the plunger.

Result, clean as a whistle.

Reassembled, left the ring at factory setting (mine isn't glued on so can freely adjust) and fired her up. All working fine although have no idea if I'm at optimal pressure. Think, it's running a tiny bit cooler but without the gauge can't tell which way to adjust.

Luckily it's coming on Wednesday, just when I'm off to the states







so won't get to play for another week.

Anyway, if any of you are descaling your second hand pavoni do not omit the pstat pathway! It will most definitely be scaled up.


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## jimbojohn55 (Jan 15, 2016)

Great to see the detail your going to get it fully sorted 10/10 a very pro job, first time ive seen the pressure stat tube being fixed - makes you wonder how many La Pav's are running at the wrong pressure, hence the need for the euro to have a gauge as well - if pavoni every read this thread for feckin sake start fitting them as standard on the europiccola !


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