The continuing story of my broken espresso machine

They may not look like much, but these two pucks of coffee signify the first time that espresso has been poured in this house. The first time I've been able to pull a shot of espresso at home since we left Vancouver.

We have been without the Wega for over 6 months now. 6 months! If we were still in Vancouver I could just walk the 3 blocks to JJ and pick up coffees, but we haven't had that luxury here. Three blocks from here gets us a McCafe, and we weren't going there!

So we've been making do with an Aeropress and a Hario woodneck pour-over. They're good, but they don't get you espresso. They also take quite a bit more time, and fussing about. There is no satisfaction of watching that first stream of espresso drop from the spouts, thick with promise. I"m not knocking the Aeropress or the Hario, I just miss my old morning ritual. I miss hearing the familiar sound of the pump kicking in as I lay in bed, my old pre-alarm so that the Wega would be hot by the time the real alarm went off.


Finally, we are one step close to getting back to the good old morning ritual. The machine is up and running, but there are still a few kinks to work out before I'll be able to run it all day like I used to.


As you can see, there is still a leak in the boiler. It's just a small crack, but it's a leak. So I'll be taking the boiler out again. The good news is everything else seems to work just fine, and I can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel!

The boiler is back

Peter dropped off the boiler on Thursday afternoon. Beautiful welding job, looks better than new. You wouldn't even know that there had been big gaping holes in it.

Today I spent a few hours putting it all back together. It took some doing, working in such a tight space, but I eventually got it all hooked up and plugged the Lyra in and powered her up. The pump came on, and I watched the welds carefully as the boiler filled. Everything was looking good.

And then I noticed the water pooling beneath the machine. There was another leak, and I eventually traced it to a busted pipe leading from the boiler to the group head.

So, still no espresso. I will have to take the Lyra apart again. And this time I will have to take the group out as well. From what I could see, it looks like this isn't the only rupture in the pipe. I guess I should have checked the rest of the machine while I was getting the boiler repaired. Lesson learnt.

The first step to getting espresso in our house again

Today, I finally made some time and went down into the basement to remove the boiler from the espresso machine. It's been sitting down there since that fateful day in May when I discovered it did not survive the move from Vancouver.

The photo below shows the boiler still in the machine. You can see where one of the brass couplings has popped off. That is the hot water on-demand heat-exchanger. Water in it must have froze in transit, and the ice blew the top off the stainless steel flange where the coupling fit in. The coupling is still screwed in to the flange. The flange just isn't in one piece any more. The same happened to the heat exchanger next to it, which runs to the group head. In this case. the flange is split, but not completely blown off.



Here is the Lyra with the boiler removed.



Finally, a look at the boiler itself. The markings are my own, just so I don't forget where everything goes. I still have to put it all back together, assuming it is possible to weld the damaged bits.


I'm not going to get my hopes up, it's more like an interesting project now. I'll keep you posted .