Help with second hand iberital L'anna

[Ratters]

Hi All

This is my first post and I have read a lot to try and get further with my problem but do not really have the confidence or knowledge to carry out some the work..

I have recently bought a second hand l'anna 2005 and when it turned up it was really grubby inside so i have cleaned the outside and inside physically and i know that i need to backflush several times in addition. Which would be the strongest cleaner for the job?

The main problem appears to be that the group head seems blocked and running very slow and with not a lot of water.

From another post I saw that it would be a good idea to take the shower screen out but i am really struggling to get it out.

Is there a thread on this or does any one have a good method, so far i just seem to bend the outer rim of the shower screen

Im sure this is not the only problem so does anyone know of any good engineers around manchester if I need a pro service??

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[dr.chris]

Where to start? Apart from welcome to the forums and I am sorry I havnt got a pic of my pet rats handy in honor of your tag...

Cakeboy is the one with most experience - I am the one who probably goes on about Anna most until someone else with more knowledge sets me right. I have done a fairly full de-coke once but currently live in a soft water area so its not such a big problem for me. Scott at Happy Donkey is another good source of information (and spares)

Back flushing with puly caff is the starting point. Citric acid for descaling the boiler. I do have a full description of how to do this courtesy of Cakeboy which I seem to send out to everyone who comes along with another Anna. I also have a PDF of the english instructions from Iberital (found by the wife)- not that its a lot of use - and can send it out if you PM me an email address.

The good thing about Anna is that she is pretty simple to get into and pretty robust.

Shower screens. There are some stronger ones which seem to be hard to get hold of but its best to expect to wreck the thing in the course of removing it - so brute force is fine as long as you dont damage whats underneath

[Ratters]

Thanks Chris

So i have had a go at flushing the machine and the flow is significantly better currently the boiler pressure sits at around 0.9 - 1 bar on the meter. I have tested a quick shot and the coffee cam quite quick but also after around 7-8 secs, water came out around the group head and down the p/f handle.

Is this likely to be the rubber group head seal (which i removed and cleaned earlier ) or too much brew pressure

Again any help greatly appreciated

Thanks

[dr.chris]

There is a little (and very sensitive) screw on the far right hand corner that controls the boiler pressure (i.e. temperature). My pressure sits at about 0.9-1.0 but I had set it to about 0.8 which is what was recommended to me for domestic use.

As for the water coming round the group head - it depends. Assuming its coming out around where the PF meets the seal well I get that sometimes and its usually because the p/f isnt on quite tight enough. There may be other reasons- the one that comes to mind is the state of the group head seal, but its worth having another go or 3 before worrying too much. The seal goes hard with age and its performance does go down. Generally I was advised to replace it and the shower screen at the same time.

There are other threads on Anna around on the forum but please keep on asking questions if you think we can help.

Good luck and let us know how it goes

[CakeBoy]

I'm a bit late to this as ever, like the good doctor, we keep ours in the range 0.7-0.9 bar to prevent the shot temperatures getting too high.

One other tip, set aside plenty of time to descale. Done properly a couple of times a year is better than four half hearted attempts. Descale both the boiler and the HX. Chris has the instructions, I don't appear to have a copy

Chris, please would you send me one ...... I'm such a duffer!

[dr.chris]

This might be simpler I can always email it as needed - all the following is Cakeboy's work

Okay, the less complex bits first. We soak the wand in PulyMilk about twice a year and make sure the steam tip holes remain unblocked with a cocktail stick. As long as you are wiping and purging post steaming (and a quick splurge in a jug of cold water after that if you can) you should be fine. The wand will also get a further clean during the descale if you follow our method as below.

Keep an eye on the showerscreen and gasket. Pull and soak in cleaning fluid every so often. It can be a bit stiff but will come out - we use a small flat head screwdriver to lever it out gently by the screen edge itself. Some do better with spoons but that is a bit beyond us.

Clean the head with a grouphead brush after every use and wipe round inside the head groove with a bit of paper towel. Sometimes a cotton bud is useful too. Wiggle the clean empty portafilter with the head running after each use and you should stay nicely clean. Backflush with cleaning fluid once a week or so.

Once a month we empty and wipe the plastic water reservoir. don't remove the earth lead as it's hard to reseal it. Just pull out the container with the wire still attached, empty, wipe and rinse using a jug and a bowl. We change the filter you mentioned every couple of months or so, three at the most. You can see when it looks a bit worn. I would remove the metal clip that pinches the tube to the filter as it will rust. Our filter has never fallen off without it. Make sure the filter is laid on its side on the bottom of the reservoir container. Then drain down the boiler by emptying it via the hot water tap and allow the machine to refill via the reservior.

Right, now the harder bit: Descaling.

If you take off the right hand side panel as you look at anna, you will see a drain valve under her boiler. Scott supplied us with a metal tube and coupling to screw onto this. You can also get the same from plumbing suppliers. We use the tube and a bucket during the descale, though it is not absolutely necessary to drain right down. We do it because of the hard water here. I think it is good practice anywhere but not critical in soft water areas. The bonus is that the boiler can be completely rinsed after descaling to remove all traces of descaling compound.

We also have a short length (a foot or so) of single core electrical wire in a sheath. It is simply one core removed from a three core electrical flex. some electrical tape is also useful. The wire is used to control the boiler fill in order to overfill with descaler and get to anything that has formed at or above the water level. again not critical, but worth knowing. The bonus is that the inside of the milk wand also gets flooded with the descaling solution.

We use PulyBaby or similar descaler fluid for the HX (brewing) unit and citric acid for the boiler. The original choice of citric acid for the latter came about before we had a draining tube for the boiler and were concerned about leaving traces of descaler chemicals behind. It is less critical now we have the tube, though we continue to use the citric acid as it works well and is organic. The HX is easily rinsed so we go for the strong chemicals there.

Right, the method:

Turn her off, then remove the top (held on by 2 screws) and empty the reservoir. Dissolve a packet of PulyBaby or similar descaler (citric acid is fine as an alternative) in a jug of around three quarters of a litre of slightly warm water (to aid the dissolving). Fill the reservoir to the maximum level with the solution. Top up with water if the jug of solution is not enough.

You don't want this solution to reach the boiler, so before switching her back on it is necessary to short out the boiler autofill sensor. You will see a brown wire attached at the top of the boiler via a spade clip. Gently detach the clip from the spade and attach it to your piece of loose wire. We have a spade attached on each end of our length of wire for ease. The other end of the wire should be attached to the metal body of Anna. We simply stick it with electrical tape to the stainless top ledge near the front. This shorts out and disables the autofill sensor.

Turn Anna on and let her warm back up to brew temp. Then draw the fluid in approx quad shot volumes from the head at five minute intervals or so until the reservoir is nearly empty. This allows fluid to sit in the pipes and head for periods of time. Stop before the pump runs dry, don't actually empty it.

When the reservoir is nearly empty, turn Anna off. Empty out and thoroughly rinse the reservoir container. You will have to change the filter after descaling but don't do it until the very end. If you don't have a spare filter (Scott stocks them) or are not intending to change it, I would suggest removing it before descaling and replacing it at the very end. A decent rinse through under the tap is also useful. I don't expect you need to filter your water as we do, but it's still worth a rinse under mains tap pressure.

Okay, you them refill the reservoir and draw the entire amount straight through the head to flush it. We actually use two reservoir fills worth of water to flush. That is the HX descaled. Turn Anna off and replace the autofill sensor wire on the spade.

Now the boiler. Turn a hot Anna off and immediately drain the boiler water off via the hot water tap. Dissolve around three heaped teaspoons of citric acid in a jug of around three quarters of a litre of slightly warm water (to aid the dissolving). Again, fill the reservoir to the maximum level with the solution. Top up with water if the jug of solution is not enough. Turn on to position one to allow Anna to refill her boiler with the solution without her heating element coming on whilst she is still dry. You may need to supplement the solution with more water if the reservoir gets close to empty before she has finished filling up. Once full turn her to position to so she can heat up.

Once hot and full, quickly switch her off and remove the autofill wire from the spade connector leaving it loose (but not touching anything), open the steam valve and switch her back on. She will fill continuously (overfill actually) because the autofill circuit is open. You want her to fill the boiler completely with solution. As soon as the solution runs from the end of the steam tip SWITCH HER OFF and close the steam valve. Replace the autofill wire on the spade. Leave her off for around two hours to descale.

After two hours or so drain the boiler via the tap at the bottom. With a full reservoir switch Anna on to position one and allow her to fill. Once she finishes filling, switch her to position two and allow her to heat up. When hot, repeat the removal of the autofill wire, opening of the steam valve and overfilling until water appears from the wand tip. turn her off, close the wand and then drain the boiler from the valve underneath once again. This rinses her out - but beware as the water is going to be hot this time.

Replace the sensor wire on the spade again and then repeat the filling of the boiler on position one, heating up and drain to drinse a second time. We overfill on both rinses but you can choose to stop the fill at the normal fill level for the second rinse.

So you should now have a fully descaled and rinsed Anna who is switched off and has an empty boiler.

Now is the time to wipe out and rinse the reservoir container, change the filter (run it under the tap before attaching to the pipe) and refill the container with clean fresh water. This is the new water for making coffee/steaming. Make sure you have the autofill wire correctly in place, the boiler drain tap closed and switch her on to position one. Let the boiler fill (watching that the reservoir does not run dry in the process) and then switch to position two to heat up. We like to run some steam through the wand in a jug of cold water and draw off half a jug from the head. She is then set to go.

We descale three times a year on average - you might be okay with one or two.

I hope that helps. You can cut down the process by not overfilling the boiler with solution if you choose. You can also get away with draining via the hot water tap instead of the boiler valve, though I would then definately only use citric acid as the boiler will not totally empty and you'll have traces of solution left behind.

It all sounds a bit daunting at first, though I promise it is very simple once a routine is found.

[CakeBoy]

Many thanks