# aaah. water not heating!



## brookes (Jul 20, 2010)

Hello,

Hoping someone can help. I have a Kenwood espresso machine which was stopped heating the water. It still makes steam however, and otherwise appears to be operating normally. Pump still works, but cold espresso is created.

I know some might say [myself included] buy a new/better machine, but that isnt about to happen anytime soon so I would be grateful of any diagnosis, ideas of components likely to fail, tips, suggestions, or 'how tos' for diagnosis or repair.

I have had a look around and found spares available but need to know which parts to replace. I see that it has both 90C and 135C thermostats. It also has at least 1 thermal fuse. Is this likely to be a single fuse on the heater? In which case I could rule out a failed thermal fuse as steam is still being produced.

I am assuming a couple things here:

- there is only 1 water heater? [im new to this]

- steam is being created so the heater is still working

I am then thinking that the 90C thermostat has gone...

Any thoughts anyone? Im rapidly getting withdrawl symptoms =/ [twitch]


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## ChiarasDad (Mar 21, 2010)

Hello and welcome! Also, aaaack! That's a miserable problem to have indeed.

I agree, it sounds like the 90C thermostat has gone bad, but it's hard to be confident without more details on the machine. If you have a model number someone might be able to dig up a service manual for it. And yes, it is most likely a single-boiler machine.

If the 90C thermostat isn't too pricey, I would go ahead and order it, on the principle that the worst that can happen is it not entirely correcting the problem.

In the meantime (assuming it is a single-boiler machine, which is a pretty safe assumption) as long as it can steam, you can still make your espresso. Just turn on the steam switch long enough to get the water hot enough for espresso, but turn it off before it gets to steaming temperature, then draw your shot as if the machine were operating normally. It will likely take a stopwatch, a pad of paper, and a few tries to figure out what the right timing is, but once you have a sense of it you should be able at least to mitigate your withdrawal symptoms until the new part comes.

Addendum: before turning the steam switch on, turn on the espresso pump for a few moments to ensure the boiler is full.


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## brookes (Jul 20, 2010)

Thanks for the welcome.

It's a Kenwood ES426. A service manual would be great!

Most of the spare parts are cheap so it should work out a better option than replacing it with a similar machine. Does anyone have any knowledge of electrically testing a thermostat to see if it is still operational?

ps - thanks for the emergency caffeine tip, I had mostly got there, but pre-filling the boiler is probably a good idea! =)


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## brookes (Jul 20, 2010)

This fault was intermittent for the passed month or so until last week... then it become full time.

So i got out the multimeter and some tools and decided it was time to dissect the espresso machine.

Surprisingly my machine is now working again, and you can see the photos and explanation here:

http://flickr.com/gp/o-o-o/961R9n

Hopefully that might help anyone else having problems with a faulty thermostat [a temperamental one], or anyone wanting to take apart a basic Kenwood machine.


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## CoffeeMac (Oct 29, 2010)

Hello Brookes

Good photographs - the basics look similar to my little Delonghi. The two thermostats and thermal fuse are mounted with the same sort of clip. Did you notice that the thermostata are thermally coupled to the tank with a soft paste, maybe simply high melting point grease. Anyone know what the paste is?


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## DomesticEspresso (Nov 7, 2010)

Hi CoffeeMac,

The paste is just the same heat resistant paste which you find in computers etc.. You can buy it in PC World or high street hardware stores like RB Distributors and places like that.


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## CoffeeMac (Oct 29, 2010)

Many thanks

Just found that Maplins sell a small tube for about 3 pounds. Great forum!


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