# My (ECM) Giotto Project



## PhilS

I don't (or at least didn't) know much about espresso machines, but have been happily using a Gaggia classic for about 5 years until I saw a Rocket Giotto and loved how it looked. But I couldn't justify the cost for a cappuccino or two a day just because it looked nice. A day later, I spotted a faulty ECM Giotto on eBay, all I knew was that it tripped the power when you turn it on. 5 minutes of research told me it was a predecessor to the Rocket Giotto, and so, knowing nothing about how a coffee machine works, I snapped it up for £150 and crossed my fingers that it would be an easy fix instead of an expensive paperweight.









After opening it up my first surprise was that it was a plumbed in model, which I didn't know existed! Setting about the repairs, the heater which was my primary suspicion checked out ok for resistance so I looked at the Giemme control unit. A ribbon cable inside was snapped off and a capacitor had also lost a leg so I fixed that but still the issue persisted. It turned out the heating element was shorting to earth, but only when under power. The next job was to figure out why the heater had blown, so I put a light bulb on the heater circuit and it showed the control unit was powering up the heater but not turning on the pump to fill the tank with water, hence frying the element. As luck would have it I found a replacement Giemme control unit for £40 and a heating element from Bella Barista for about the same. With these both in things were better, but now I had water pressure I got a number of leaks from various places (someone had already attempted to fix it previously it seems). I cleaned up all the compression fittings and used gas PTFE on the threaded ones and got everything water tight.

The next issue was no water flowing from the group, for this I looked at the solenoid valve that splits the water flow between the tank and the heat exchanger - it was seized up so I soaked it in descaler until I could manually activate it with a magnet then checked it worked with the electronic coil attached. Now I had water flow, but it all came out the OPV instead of the group, so that got a full dismantle and clean out, but it didn't fix the issue and blew a plastic water pipe open as I wound the OPV all the way in and created too much pressure. £2 of pipe later and I removed and dismantled the E61 group for a thorough clean. It turned out that there is a single pin hole in one of the top fittings that was scaled up and blocking all flow. I also spotted the group head gasket was still the original one and hard as rock so that got replaced too for a couple of quid from bella barista again.

Now I had heat and water flow so I brought the unit up to temperature and pressure to see what happened. The boiler pressure gauge didn't move, but there was definitely pressure in the unit. The gauge is a bit daft as it is a long thin pipe soldered in to the gauge. I figured it was blocked and tried various ways to inject descaler down the tube to no avail. I was heating it up to desolder the pipe from the gauge and heard a few popping noises - so thought i'd give it one last test before removing it all and it worked! The heat must have cracked open the scale enough to allow some air flow. This meant I could test the pressure - at about 0.8 bar the pressure release valve was opening before the pressure switch would activate, hence the tank never got to full pressure. Cleaning the pressure valve didn't work so I used some washers to add back in some spring tension that had been lost over the years.

And finally, after fixing far more than expected, but learning a lot...









It works! Total cost of about £250 (plus some time!) which I am pretty happy with.

I still have a few jobs to do:

- I need a find or make drip tray

- Pressure gauge seems to work OK but doesn't reset to zero - I might have to desolder the pipe for a proper descale.

- Need to fit a new boiler safety valve at some point

- it works great from a water bottle or Brita filter (better than having a tank I think) but I need to loop the OPV back there instead of the drip tray as it fills up quickly

- Give it a proper descale up it is up and running

- Relearn milk frothing. I had it great on the Gaggia but struggle with the 2 hole tip on this, it heats it up much quicker!

- Somehow test the group water temperature to set the boiler level sensor up properly

I hope this post might be of use if anyone else has a faulty one o is thinking of buying one. Let me know if you have any questions!


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## timmyjj21

Looks fantastic! Thanks for the post. My wife said your machine looks pretty...so approval for mine has occurred! As a possibility, I could laser cut a drip tray out of 3 or 4mm perspex with the drainagle slots/hole, etc all done for you. PM me if interested.


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## GCGlasgow

Nice machine and must be satisfying getting it up and running again.


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## h1udd

Excellent restoration !!! ... I love machines you can and have to bring back to life, it gives them a personality. I am sure coffee on my Elektra and europiccola taste better due to having giving life to them


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## Glenn

Well done Phil!

Thank you for sharing your fixes as well.

I'd like to offer you a Coffee Forums UK KeepCup - drop me your address so that I can send it out to you.


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## Jon

Lovely job - and well done persevering; glad it paid off.

I enjoyed reading your post (and it has encouraged me to never try to fix a coffee machine because I have no idea how you figured all that stuff out!)


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## PhilS

Thanks for the encouragement, I wish I had taken more pictures of the work but everything was done around our 2nd daughter being born and Christmas, so I could only work on it for 5 mins here and there in the garage when time allowed. If anyone sees an old machine like this i'd say go for it - I expected parts to be expensive and difficult to get, but pretty much everything (so far) is readily available for a decent price. I guess it helps that Rocket still make a very similar model today, but these machines seem to use a number of standard fitting sizes and parts are cross compatible.

As I said originally, I had zero knowledge or experience before taking this on. If you are mechanically minded they are actually pretty simple to figure out.

Timmy, I will send a PM regarding the drip tray now.


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## Grahamg

Superb thread. Don't think i could do everything associated with such a refurb, but I reckon if I roped the wife in she could plug the skills gap.


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## timmyjj21

Thanks for the PM, I had a spare few minutes continued on playing with my ideas...

Here is a drip tray based on my Gaggia classic and some google image searches for Rocket Giotto drip trays. 8mm hole diameter with 4mm separation.

18mm 'finger' holes at the sides and an 18x28mm vent hole near the back edge. I made a guess for the size needed for this central solenoid vent hole, so can change it how you like.

The 3mm thick tray can sit on a 15mm high box edge, making it 18mm high and flush to the existing metal edge. The tray can be glued to the box edge, or kept separate.

With acrylic, a gloss finish would scratch, while a matt finish would 'polish' through use. Nothing will be as durable as stainless steel!


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## Dylan

Fantastic, great job how satisfying to get a machine like that working again for such a limited cost.

Did you get a look in the boiler when you were working on it? If scale was a problem elsewhere there may be a fair bit hiding in other places.


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## Dylan

With accurate dims I can print you a new drip tray on my 3d printer. Can be smoothed and painted but will never match the machine.

You can also register for a website like lfspares who may carry the part, I think you have to play a bit fast and loose with the truth regarding your status as a business customer when you register.


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## PhilS

Hi Tim, thanks for looking in to the drip tray. Just let me get a quote for a laser cut stainless steel one before I give you a yes/no on the acrylic one.

Dylan, I guess there's no advantage to a 3D printed one over a cut acrylic one? Thanks for mentioning lfspares, never heard of them before!


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## timmyjj21

Sweet! Just checking...did you just need the top grill for the cups to sit on, or do you need an entire watertight remivable tray as well? I assumed the former...


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## dan1502

LF Spares don't list the part you need in the ECM section of the catalogue nor do they list Rocket as a manufacturer they specifically stock spares for. They might be able to get them if you email them but for single parts they can be quite expensive due to the delivery cost of £9.99 which is increased by £10 I think if the order is under £50 and 22% Italian VAT has to be added to the price. I checked as I've just placed an order and might have been able to add it on for you but I couldn't see the part. My order will be delivered tomorrow so probably too late anyway. You're probably best to talk to Bella Barista who might not be the cheapest but are generally very helpful or perhaps Rocket direct though they may just refer you back to a dealer.


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## PhilS

Dylan said:


> Fantastic, great job how satisfying to get a machine like that working again for such a limited cost.
> 
> Did you get a look in the boiler when you were working on it? If scale was a problem elsewhere there may be a fair bit hiding in other places.


I did flush the boiler out a few times (got a lot of flaky scale out!) and also put some generic cleaner and descaler in as well, but will do it again properly when I get chance although I'm not looking forward to that job as I can only guess it requires another strip down to drain the boiler afterwards...


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## PhilS

timmyjj21 said:


> Sweet! Just checking...did you just need the top grill for the cups to sit on, or do you need an entire watertight remivable tray as well? I assumed the former...


Yes, only the former (luckily). The only adjustment your design would need is a hole for the OPV drain hole, which only the plumbed in models have. As per this picture: http://www.chipseng.com/uploadfile/Products/201102/6e738a85jw6dec3h1y127j(12).jpg and this picture: http://www.jetblackespresso.com.au/Portals/3/images/rocket-giotto-evoluzione-V2-002.jpg

Basically the centre hole for the group purge valve needs to go all the way to the edge.

From Google images, it actually seems almost all ECM Giottos have a wire rack for the drip tray. I can only assume that was standard as so many have it!


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## Dylan

PhilS said:


> I did flush the boiler out a few times (got a lot of flaky scale out!) and also put some generic cleaner and descaler in as well, but will do it again properly when I get chance although I'm not looking forward to that job as I can only guess it requires another strip down to drain the boiler afterwards...


Yea, I dont want to worry you too much but when you buy a machine that has significant signs of scale it is worth removing every component on the water track, and all the components of that component (i.e. dismantling the group) and properly soaking the lot in descaler (with care for the chrome on the e61). When you take the element out of the boiler you can usually get a god look inside and see what the situation is with scale, it can be anything from a lining on the walls to being able to scoop it out with a spoon.

Check this thread for inspecting the e61 mushroom here

See post #19 here for an idea of what scale is like at its worst in the boiler


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## Daren

PhilS said:


> Yes, only the former (luckily). The only adjustment your design would need is a hole for the OPV drain hole, which only the plumbed in models have. As per this picture: http://www.chipseng.com/uploadfile/Products/201102/6e738a85jw6dec3h1y127j(12).jpg and this picture: http://www.jetblackespresso.com.au/Portals/3/images/rocket-giotto-evoluzione-V2-002.jpg
> 
> Basically the centre hole for the group purge valve needs to go all the way to the edge.
> 
> From Google images, it actually seems almost all ECM Giottos have a wire rack for the drip tray. I can only assume that was standard as so many have it!


If it helps I'm happy to trace my tray on to paper and send it to you (Rocket Giotto v1). Like pretty similar


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## Jon

There's a R58 one on ebay at the mo. Not sure if they're the same?


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## PhilS

jonc said:


> There's a R58 one on ebay at the mo. Not sure if they're the same?


That's just what I need, but includes the main bottom part too, so is too expensive!


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## PhilS

Daren said:


> If it helps I'm happy to trace my tray on to paper and send it to you (Rocket Giotto v1). Like pretty similar


Thanks for the offer, it would be easier to actually just take a nice clean photo of the tray cover from directly overhead. I can then resize it to the correct dimensions and even convert to a CAD drawing etc. I will let you know if I need you to do that - thanks again.


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## PhilS

Dylan said:


> Yea, I dont want to worry you too much but when you buy a machine that has significant signs of scale it is worth removing every component on the water track, and all the components of that component (i.e. dismantling the group) and properly soaking the lot in descaler (with care for the chrome on the e61). When you take the element out of the boiler you can usually get a god look inside and see what the situation is with scale, it can be anything from a lining on the walls to being able to scoop it out with a spoon.
> 
> Check this thread for inspecting the e61 mushroom here
> 
> See post #19 here for an idea of what scale is like at its worst in the boiler


I did dismantle and descale the E61 group (in watered down vinegar) - it was the mushroom bit in your link that was blocked. mine was nothing like as bad as those photos and came up nice and clean (back to a shiny brass colour inside).

The boiler had some lose scale floating about, but again nothing like as bad as those pictures. I flushed out and brushed anything loose, and used a generic cleaner and descaler but I definitely wan't to do the boiler again now it is up and running. I just did it quickly before I had any idea if the machine would ever work again, then never got round to doing it again after.


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## Dylan

Did you get to see inside the boiler? It is a good indication of what the rest of the machine will be like, if it wasn't that bad thats a good thing!

Other than the group the other places where scale is likely to cause a blockage is the POV or solenoids, so if these are easy enough to access they may well be worth removing to check on and clean.


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## PhilS

Yep, I got inside the boiler and cleaned it out with an old toothbrush. Also had pretty much the entire water system apart and cleaned out including the OPV and solenoid.


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## jeebsy

Daren said:


> If it helps I'm happy to trace my tray on to paper and send it to you (Rocket Giotto v1). Like pretty similar


Tracing paper wouldn't hold a cup


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## Caz003

Outstanding work!!!


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