What To Do With This Espresso Machine
 

Picked this up last night.

Sitting marked "FREE" on the curb in my neighborhood. I knocked in the door, the lady said she used to work with a cafe owner, he gave her the machine, she never used it, doesn't know if it works, etc.

I figured it might be repairable and anyway would disappear quickly if marked "FREE" on my curb.

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What do I have here? How do I test it? Where might a manual be found? Is it decent, or junk not worth testing/fixing?

I know zero about commercial espresso machines. Never used one. See them at the restaurant supply store, priced at $1K for a used one.

I think you need fingers, the espresso repair expert....

Quick flip in Craigslist. Hose it off, make it pretty, price it at $200 firm.

In case the second picture is too blurry, it is an "Elektra", made 1993, holds 8 L water, works at 1.5 bar, requires 220v (which I have in the garage and could have in the kitchen.

Looks sort of like model "F-S" here
Modern Models Commercial linea bar Elektra Espresso Machine

Parts seem to be available. No idea of cost. There is a sticker for a local repair service on the machine, too.

Ask Roses / Pitman / Boxer NW what they would pay for it? All are in Portland and buy restaurant equipment. You might be able to trade for something that is useful for you - like a 110V espresso machine.

Larry

Do you have the portafilters? Pretty much a brick without those.

220v ... good luck with that. Would be cool to hook it up in your garage though. Im sure you could find the portafilters for it if you looked around to make it a complete unit. I would be curious if it worked. To bad it not all brass .... polish it up and stick it on the counter for looks.

since you live in Orygun, you should convert it into a refinery to make your own bio-diesel

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A new one ain't cheap.

Ian

Is there a, perish the thought, Pelican Parts equivalent for espresso fanatics?

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I ran the 'commercial' model of that one for over 15 years at my parents bar in Spain .. a couple of gaskets here and there, one or two heating elements ... a real workhorse!

Very easy to work on. Send it my way if you don't want it.

A 58mm commercial portafilter to suit would cost no more than $50 each.


My first post on Pelican (long time lurker, still looking for that elusive perfect 911SC), but I thought I'd make it about something I do know about.. and that happens to be coffee machines. :)


Elektra is a damn good espresso machine, they're worth very good money new.. several thousands.

If the machine has no major components broken (boiler, elements, etc), you should be able to restore this for no more than $500, if you DIY it, including all parts.

Frames tend to rust on older machines, due to moisture and coffee grinds build up, but you don't generally find terminal rust on machines of that age.. usually you get that sort of rust on vintage machines. A strip down, blast and powdercoat of the frame would remove any surface rust and flaking paint and bring it back to new.

Exterior panels can be replated/repainted, but a lot of people like to just clean them up to retain the patina of them. Give them a good clean up, replace any missing fasteners, repolish the chrome using some polishing paste, clean the painted panels (use automotive polish if they're glossy) and be done with it.

The boiler is something not to be messed with... it will need a descale, so you'll need to disassemble it.. and 9 times out of 10, you'll strip the bolts due to the heat cycling they've been through. If you do disassemble it and descale it (in a commercial descaling solution), you'll have to be super careful with reassembly. If you do it wrong, it can go off like a bomb when its pressurised.

Electrics.. again, probably not something to mess with as the voltages are proper appliance voltages. Basically the solenoids and relays can stick, but everything else should be fairly sound apart from some crusty insulation (due to the heat), and a lot of cafe owners like doing DIY repairs to keep cost down. If you know what you're doing or know someone who does, go for it, otherwise get it checked by a pro.

The rest of the machine should be disassembled, components soaked in citric acid, and reassembled with new gaskets, rubbers and seals, especially the group heads (the round things poking out under the main control panel). These parts are readily available at any coffee service store, and there are heaps online (I'm not sure where to get them in the USA, as I get my stuff through my local retailer here in Western Australia). Service manuals and wiring diagrams are available on the net if you look around. www.home-barista.com is a good forum to start on, but there are dozens of resources out there.

www.1st-line.com is well known around the online communities, as is www.chriscoffee.com, both for parts and equipment.

A quick google search uncovered www.espressoparts.com and www.espressocare.com, the latter being an Elektra specialist.

It's not an easy task, but it can be done. I've done 2 machines now, and luckily both weren't too far gone, but they were still relatively challenging. I've also done PID controller retrofits on several Rancilio Silvia espresso machines, and helped a lot of my friends service and use their espresso machines, both auto and manual. It's a favourite pastime of mine.

This was the last one I did.. Expobar Megacrem (a popular Spanish machine). Electrics and exterior were good, just needed a really good clean, polish, and component descale.. plus a bunch of seals and rubbers. As good as new! A friend of mine bought it off me, he got a bargain and is extremely happy with the performance of the machine.

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Compak K8 Silenzio grinder, which I picked up at the same time as the above machine. Needed new burrs and a really good clean (coffee oils are a ***** to clean off). Compared it to the size of my old Rancilio Rocky grinder, it was MASSIVE.

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This is my current "ride".. brand new Izzo Alex Duetto II and Mazzer Mini E grinder, and associated accessories $4,500 AUD well spent!

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A shot of an espresso extraction through a naked portafilter on my Alex Duetto II (naked being it has no bottom, the spouts and base were machined off to expose the bottom of the basket.. used for showing coffee grind and tamp distribution)

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send it to Gogar

My wife would love this!

But a commercial machine like this is left on continually- 24/7. Otherwise there will be a very long wait in the morning while the boiler comes up to proper temp and pressure.

Quite a bit to know to make a proper latte- Easy to screw it up. Done correctly, the sugars in the coffe combine with the sugars in the milk on a molecular level.

A machine like this is not appropriate for just a quick cup of Joe once in the morning.

Lots of good info here and on the web about these machines. Restore it and use it!!

Welcome & thanks for posting, balistc. Would CLR be a possibility for descaling the boiler/pressure canister without having to disassemble it?

Gogar would be a good resource

Another idea is to put water in and just switch the bastard on.

Is there anything in it that applying 60 instead of 50 Hertz would cause a problem?

Re: What To Do With This Espresso Machine
 

Thanks for the welcome :)

Concentrated citric acid could be used to bathe the boiler (remove all fittings and leave it to soak for a day), but I'd not use CLR as its not really a food grade product, where as citric acid is made of lemons.

After soaking, flush thoroughly with clean water (boiled or deionised).

To properly descale though, it needs disassembly.

That being said, it might not be THAT bad, but I always assume the worst because the service history is unknown and we dont know if its had regular flush descaling throughout its life or not.

Ps citric acid turns your copper components a bright pinkish colour, as it strips all the tarnishing off.. so don't be alarmed once you see it changing colour :)

Thank you!

I'm going to fix it up. Took a peek inside, it doesn't look too bad, seems internally complete.

I won't use it for morning coffee. I imagine it as more of a dinner party thing, turn it on when folks arrive to be ready when it's time for espresso.

I'm actually thinking it could live in my dining room, in an alcove dedicated to drinks and after-dinner coffee. I can bring a water line and 240v there. If it polishes up nicely, that is.

A friend has an ex-cafe machine. His is a 3 porterfilter machine and he uses it as a home machine. Relax and enjoy it alot.

Especially, don't pull it to bits and fix it if it doesn't need fixing.

You're welcome :)

You definitely can't use it as a morning machine, unless you have a timer which turns the machine on at least an hour before you need to use it.. they take ages to warm up! As a dinner party machine and a conversation piece, its perfect, if you've got the room to keep it!

You'll need to plumb it in too, the rotary pumps inside won't run correctly without water line pressure on the inlet side (as opposed to the vibration pumps that consumer level machines have in them, they'll work fine without inlet pressure beyond atmospheric).. the machine water connection is 3/8", which is standard across all commercial machines.

As well as plumbing in the water inlet, you'll have to plumb the drain in too, again, they're not designed to catch water in the drip tray like a consumer type machine.. a rubber or clear plastic hose connected with a hose clamp to the underside of the drip tray (they have a little catchment box with a connection on the end to connect the hose to), and running either to your kitchen drain (same as a dishwasher), or to a bucket hidden under your bench which you'll need to empty every time you use the machine.

It's a good idea to run an inline water particulate filter at the very least, dual stage (water filter + water softener) is preferred as you won't have to descale the machine as often.. and descaling a commercial machine involves all sorts of trickery including manual fill of the boiler with the descaling solution i.e. its a pain in the ass to do it often.

Being a heat exchanger (HX) machine (basically a copper water pipe that runs through the boiler, with water inside the pipe that heats up due to the boiling water surrounding the pipe in the boiler), the less the machine gets used, the hotter the water gets. You need to do a 10 second or so cooling flush prior to pulling a shot, otherwise you'll scorch the grinds with water thats way too hot. Even when pulling shots on a HX machine, I'll do a 2-3 second flush before each shot just to stabilise the temperatures and get the consistency right.

Also.. what coffee will you be using?? Using pre-ground on a machine such as that is going to bring out all the shortfalls in the coffee. Pre-ground is generally stale and won't taste good! You'll want to get a grinder (doserless, as a doser grinder with the clicker handle on the front, stores ground coffee in the front and is made for high volume use only), and use freshly roasted whole beans to get the best results... basically, getting into this sort of coffee can be a slippery slope, just like owning a Porsche :D You'll then need tamps, knock box, jugs, thermometers, and the list goes on. It's so worth it though :D

No. Only really an issue if there is a motor involved.

Ian

Great info here!!