Rancilio S26 no longer heats - Help?

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Rancilio S26 no longer heats - Help?

Postby JimS » Thu Feb 18, 2016 11:56 am

Our Rancilio S26 has developed a problem... The water heater no longer heats the water. Yesterday the heating indicator lamp started flickering & today the machine is cold. It still has power - pump operates when turned on etc.

My assumption is that the thermostat is faulty but don't really know for sure.

1) How do I tell if this is indeed the problem?
2) If it is the problem, then where do get a new thermostat in the UK?

Thanks,

Jim
There are three intolerable things in life - cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.
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Re: Rancilio S26 no longer heats - Help?

Postby bruceb » Thu Feb 18, 2016 12:35 pm

The best way would be to unplug the machine from the mains and measure the resistance across the heating element. If the resistance is very high (open) the element is burned out. To determine which other component might be bad you would need to measure voltage in different places and if you are not comfortable with 240 VAC it's best to leave that up to an electrician or espresso machine technician. The pressurestat could have failed (a good possibility considering you said the indicator flickered) or the overheat trip was activated. There are a number of possibilities. Please let us know if and when you find out what is wrong. Thanks and good luck. To the best of my knowledge The Coffee Machine Company in London is the importer for the UK and Bella Barista has parts.
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Re: Rancilio S26 no longer heats - Help?

Postby JimS » Mon Feb 29, 2016 5:30 pm

So the machine is resembling a dodo....... Element gone. Engineer reckons that there is major descaling to be done also plus a couple of other minor things. Probable cost £500+ - way more than the machine is worth given that it is ~19 years old with something failing every year or so.

Time to browse eBay and various forums to pick a replacement :roll:

If anyone knows of a used decent machine looking for a new home with the following attributes

Plumbed in rather than reservoir
Automatic if possible, but not a major killer if not
Large tank as used for other hot drinks regularly, although main use is espresso
Single group
Good if it looks nice, although the Rancilio S26 set a pretty low bar in this respect
Old is OK as long as everything functional (Our S26 was age 9 at purchase & lasted for 10 years with a couple of minor repairs)
Commercial machine OK (in fact preferred) as size not an issue & these tend to be more robust & engineered to last
Budget of £500
There are three intolerable things in life - cold coffee, lukewarm champagne, and overexcited women.
Orson Welles (1915 - 1985)
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