guitarboyled Senior Member Joined: 3 Oct 2009 Posts: 25 Location: Montreal Canada Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Sun Dec 26, 2010, 9:33pm Subject: Nuova Simonelli Oscar... HELP
I just bought a used Oscar and I'm having some problems with it.
My past machines were all Saeco with the presurised portafilter therefore I'm new to let's say "less forgiving machines".
Q1- Is it normal for water to intermittently stop coming out of the group even when the pump keeps running.
It's probably related to this issue but it takes a minute to poor a shot with standard grind barely pressed and I noticed the bypass tray under the spill tray fills up fast. Is this a pump problem or some sort of valve not acting up right?
Q2- It seems the vapor is extremelly hot, I only have a few seconds before the milk boils. Is this normal?
Q3- Is it normal for the vapor knob to turn non stop when I turn off the vapor?
Q4- Where would be the cheapest place for parts (the plastic casing is cracked) NS Italy, NS USA, a dealer, etc.?
No, this is not normal. It sounds like the machine may have some blockage in the line (i.e. scale or maybe coffee sludge builup in the group). My guess is that it probably is not pump failure because it is intermittant and a fading pump would just fade and stop. Some form of blockage might explain also why you're getting so much bypass to the drip pan.
guitarboyled Said:
Q2- It seems the vapor is extremelly hot, I only have a few seconds before the milk boils. Is this normal?
Yes, it's normal. The Oscar is a very strong steamer. You might want to plug a couple of the holes in the steamtip to slow it down to make it easier to texture the milk. I have used toothpick pieces to do this in the past, but my experience is on other machines so be careful to make sure you can remove the toothpicks easily and that they can't get up inside the steam wand.
guitarboyled Said:
Q3- Is it normal for the vapor knob to turn non stop when I turn off the vapor?
I use Cafeparts.com most of the time, but I don't know about parts for NS machines so much. If you can't find it there you might check out espressoparts.com for harder-to-find items.
guitarboyled Senior Member Joined: 3 Oct 2009 Posts: 25 Location: Montreal Canada Expertise: I live coffee
Posted Mon Dec 27, 2010, 10:38pm Subject: Re: Nuova Simonelli Oscar... HELP (update)
UPDATE UPDATE UPDATE
The water actually pours out non stop of the group when the machine is just started (cold) but it intermittently stops once the machine gets hot.
And I was wrong about the bypass... there's actually no water going to the drip pan. I don't know if the water simply stops feeding to the group or if it's sent back to the boiler.
Once hot, the machine has a hard time pushing water through the portafilter with even an average fine grain (that my Saeco wouldn't have problems with).
Last test I did, there was absolutely no water pouring out of the portafilter and coffee was barely tampered.
The pump seems to work ok when the machine is cold.
Is it a pump problem, a 3 way valve problem or a sensor problem? Is there something I can adjust or does some piece need to be replaced?
If you're machine is not equipped with the Sirai pressurestat, it might be a good idea to switch it out for one. Opinions are that the sirai is a much better build quality and not prone to over pressure/failure problems.
This just happened to my Oscar today - the steam knob would turn and turn with no stop although the valve did still open and close. It was disconcerting not knowing whether the valve was really shut off. Pulling off the steam knob showed the problem - the brass set nut had come loose. Tightening it with my fingers brought the on and off stop points back.
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