AgtSmith Senior Member Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 15 Location: Mississauga, ON Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sat Mar 23, 2013, 6:30am Subject: Potential problems with Vivaldi II S1
Hey all,
I may have a few issues with my S1 and need to know if these are issues, and if so, how they might be fixed. I did some searching but came up blank.
- When I pull a shot, the pressure goes into the red (about 12.5 bar). Is this normal? I don't recall noticing this before but maybe since we moved I've become a bit more attentive as my machine and grinder have their own room now :) I am not sure what the pressure while pulling a shot should be... My water pressure is about 25-28 coming into the machine.
- When steaming milk I get a lot of bubbles. Now I never used to and I haven't changed my technique or milk used. What would introduce large bubbles into the milk? I can actually see them form around the nozzle when I sink deep into the milk. It is most noticeable when the milk gets around 120-130. What's more interesting is it happened for a while, then when we moved I obviously had the machine off for about a week, and when I turned it back on and used it, it didn't happen. Now after 3 weeks or so it's happening again. I wonder if it could be water or perhaps the nozzle needs to be cleaned? I plan on doing some work on it today but I wanted to see if anyone else had some ideas.
zedex Senior Member Joined: 31 Jan 2010 Posts: 126 Location: B.C Canada Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Spaz v2 Grinder: vario
Posted Sat Mar 23, 2013, 9:30am Subject: Re: Potential problems with Vivaldi II S1
Hi Agt. Pressure should be around 9 bar. You can adjust this inside the machine. As for the steam nozzle, i would say you might have a leak at the steam tip where low pressure steam leaks around the tip causing large bubbles. Your mains pressure is probably a bit high. I think i have mine about 20lbs. The only place this will effect anything is your pre infusion where it will be at line pressure.
germantownrob Senior Member Joined: 2 Dec 2007 Posts: 2,007 Location: Philadelphia Expertise: I love coffee
Espresso: Duetto 3, A Dead Oscar Grinder: Vario-W, Preciso w/Esatto,... Drip: Brazen Roaster: Diedrich IR-1, HT B
Posted Sat Mar 23, 2013, 10:05am Subject: Re: Potential problems with Vivaldi II S1
Adjusting the rotary pump to set it where you want is not a big deal, I have my pump set around 8.75 bar for a shot and 9+ bar for a blind.
Steam, anytime I encounter problems I poke the hole(s) in the tip to clean any milk crude, almost always solves my problems. Scale build up can cause performance issues, on my old HX I would bump the Pstat up to compensate until the next descale I would do.
DavecUK Senior Member Joined: 21 Sep 2005 Posts: 913 Location: UK Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sat Mar 23, 2013, 2:43pm Subject: Re: Potential problems with Vivaldi II S1
You mention you moved, so probably the water pressure in your new residence is greater than that in your previous residence. The balanced bypass can only accommodate smallish changes in water pressure you would be likely to experience in a single location. You might want to check what your mains water pressure is and fit a pressure limiter, if it's much above 3 bar. limit to about 2 to 2.5 bar for these machines.
AgtSmith Senior Member Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 15 Location: Mississauga, ON Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Tue Mar 26, 2013, 7:19am Subject: Re: Potential problems with Vivaldi II S1
Thanks all. I adjusted my water pressure to 20 PSI (I have a pressure regulator) and also adjusted group pressure to slightly under 9PSI. I'll have to adjust my grind now, but I'll work on it over time.
I still seem to get bubbles in the milk despite cleaning out the tip. I'll give it a more thorough cleaning and perhaps order a new seal for it.
AgtSmith Senior Member Joined: 23 Nov 2005 Posts: 15 Location: Mississauga, ON Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Tue Mar 26, 2013, 11:33am Subject: Re: Potential problems with Vivaldi II S1
I set it back to about 25-26 PSI after doing some more searches. Seems good now.
In the end I think I need to crack my machine open and do a really good descaling and cleaning. I think there's some buildup somewhere that I can't get to easily. I ran the steam for a while and it seemed inconsistent... it would sputter a bit every 3-5 seconds. Drops of water would come out and the steam didn't seem all that dry.
I'll have to hunt for some threads on thoroughly descaling and cleaning the S1.
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