We’re back on the workbench this time assisting home brewer, Deborah, with purchasing a new-old Rancilio silvia! Deborah isn’t new to home brewing espresso, having owned a Gaggia Classic prior when she lived in Australia, and a Breville Oracle that she shared with her family back in Singapore. The Oracle had some leaky gaskets causing shorts when turned on – which we’ll cover in another post for fixing.
We helped Deborah with her second hand purchase of a Rancilio that we found on online. The Machine was pretty well kept in its exterior, but it there were a few parts on the interior that needed adjusting.
The first thing we got to was cleaning and servicing the group head. It seemed that there was minimal maintenance done to the Silvia. The group head was caked with old carbonised coffee.
Sludgy…
Mmmm.. Cakey Coffee Crystals..
Satisfying! Breaking carbonised coffee from the group!
After breaking any hardered coffee and cleaning off any sludge, we got to flushing out the entire group with Cafetto’s backflushing detergent. Hopefully that got rid of any more oils and sludge. Remember! It’s important to backflush your machine regularly:
- Regular backflushing helps to remove built-up coffee grounds and oils from the inner workings of your espresso machine.
- Without regular backflushing, these substances can clog the machine and affect the quality of your espresso shots.
- Backflushing also helps to maintain the overall cleanliness of your machine, which is important for both aesthetic and hygienic reasons.
- Keeping your machine clean will also extend its lifespan, saving you money in the long run.
Here’s how lean the main plate was supposed to be! (We removed any other chunky carbon right after!)
After servicing and cleaning out the group head, we moved on to fixing the steam want. The Silvia was leaking out of its steam wand pretty badly due to a broken steam closing gasket. The gasket itself helps seal the steam wand and prevents steam from escaping, ensuring that proper frothing of milk. In this case we removed the steam wand and found the gasket to be severly deformed from being overly tightened. While its intuitive to seal your steam wand by closing the knob to its tightest setting, this tends to deform the gasket and reduces its life.
We obtained a replacement part from a local distributor for just $5! And proceeded to change out the gasket (this was of course done a couple weeks later after assessmnet.
The steam valve extracted from the Silvia. This is a relatively simple step of removing the machine’s pipings.
The old steam closing gasket. Notice how the rubber is torn on the 10-12 o clock. Also the shape of the gasket currently looks more like a plug.
Comparing the old gasket and the new one. It supposed to be a flat shape!
Newly replaced parts!
With all parts working fine there after, we proceeded to make out final tuning – adjusting the OPV to make sure the machine was extracting at 9 Bars.
And that was it! The Silvia was ready to go. We hope you enjoy your new machine Deborah. As home brewers, here at Dodeca we love nothing more than taking an old, neglected espresso machine and bringing it back to life. It’s always a satisfying feeling to get a machine running smoothly and serving up delicious espresso drinks once again.
If you have an espresso machine in need of some TLC, don’t hesitate to reach out to us. We are always happy to answer questions and help out however we can. Whether you’re a coffee shop owner looking to fix up your commercial machine or a home barista in need of some guidance, we’re here to help (or see how we can). Drop us a line and we’ll be happy to assist with your refurbishing needs!
Big thank you to Tim for helping me through the whole process of acquiring the machine to fixing it all up! Can’t live without my morning cuppa