leaky safety valve and/or sight glass
The leak came about when I changed the seals on the sight glass; a
rather complex task and, in my case, expensive too (in that I broke 2
sight glasses in the process). I had to change the seals because there
was leak on the lower seal on the safety glass. (FYI, the first sight
glass I broke was due to clumsiness. I grabbed the glass instead of the
frame in handling the machine. The second was due to tightening the
lower nut too much and cracking the glass).
Anyway, I eventually changed the sight glass seals without breaking
anything (hallelujah!) and upon reassembly and firing up the machine I
now got steam coming from the safety valve. Given the safety valve was
not leaking before I changed the sight glass seals I know the problem
doesn't lie with the little rubber gasket in the safety valve. But to be
sure I changed this as well, retightened the seals around the top and
bottom of the sight glass, and upon firing up the machine, the safety valve
was still giving off steam and eventually causing condensation to drip
down to the bottom of the machine. Not good. Since I have made a
pressure gauge to fit the cremina I then check to see if the pressure
was too high, but no, it is fine, well under 1 BAR. Therefore, too high a
pressure in the machine isn't the reason for the safety valve leak.
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