La Pavoni joys & sorrows by Francesco

"Life is too short to drink bad coffee... No matter how old you are!

But if you wanna buy a “La Pavoni”, do your calculations: 10 years of your life will be lost!

that is

everything that can happen by operating, distraction, inexperience or bad luck!

... IF THE RED LIGHT WILL NOT TURN ON YOUR EUROPICCOLA

If you have a Europiccola produced between 1995 and 1998, the red light does not turn on, because of the lack of the power wire of the lamp itself. Is it easy to spot if you are in this situation because one of the five contacts of the switch is free (on the bottom, at right). Is it difficult to justify such an oversight by La Pavoni and even more serious that the problem has been resolved after a few years. However, the recovery action is trivial, just add a wire between the pressurestat (1) and the free contact of the switch (2).

... IF LEAVE OPERATE  FOR LONG TIME

You must remember that these machines are designed for domestic use and not professional, it is assumed to be used just for the time to make coffee. If is it used for several hours, there are some nuisances

the wood cap can crack in several points, the plastic thread can partially melt	the plastic cover can deform

 ...IF LEAVE OPERATE WITHOUT WATER

Is one of the most serious neglect that you can do, at best the thermostat saves the heating element, but not always. But if there is not the thermostat, cannot happen more than you can see below
 

cover melted like a candle	heating element broken
drip tray deformed	sub-base melted

... IF NOT OPERATING FOR A LONG TIME

It can happen for various reasons, to put the machine aside, usually in the basement or garage without worrying about empty the tank and wiped up that sometimes stagnated under the plastic tray. Often the action of rust does damages irretrievable the base

drip tray very rusted	bottom of the base completely rusted

...  IF NOT MADE PERIODICALLY DESCALING

Depending on the type of water used and how often you use the machine, it is normal to form deposits, mainly limestone. You can easily descale the boiler, filling it with white vinegar and letting it act the time necessary (from several hours to several days). The limestone, if excessive, may clog the brass pressure pipe making it inefficient

	is it incredible but was working!

... IF HAVE A TEFLON PISTON

If you have a machine produced between 1996 and 2006, the piston is made of teflon instead of brass. It is not clear the reason for which La Pavoni make this choice but it is clear the reason why she returned to use again the brass piston: frequent loosening of the shaft of the piston and fracture after 10 years of usage, if you were lucky.

ithe piston can partially unscrew from shaft and avoid to flow water in the group	the piston is designed to break after a certain number of years of use

© 2010 Francesco Ceccarelli. All rights reserved.
Reproduction in any form without permission is prohibited