ACS Minima – No Hot Water and No Steam

A customer contacted us about his ACS Minima dual boiler espresso machine.  This machine was way past the warranty expiration and it has the optional wood knobs that are worn.  Their ACS Minima was not allowing any hot water from the hot water wand, nor steam from the steam wand to exit when either valve was opened. The customer confirmed the coffee boiler was getting hot. And, our customer confirmed the PID display alternately showed the temperature of the coffee boiler as well as the temperature of the steam boiler.  We asked the customer the following,

“With unit unplugged and cold, please remove top cover and press this black button. if it clicks, you are most likely good

https://1st-line.us/buy/acs-one0027/

Check for any loose wires and put cover back on

Take out reservoir and access the bottom port – three allen key screws. make sure both wires are connected to the heating element posts.”

The customer replied,

“Thanks for your quick response. The pid shows the actual temp and I can still adjust it up or down. I have it set a 126C for the steam. It does cycle between the group and steam boiler temp.

I have it plugged into a standard kitchen outlet. Just moved into the apartment, so I do not know the rating. See attached picture.

Until today, I had been running the machine on Crystal Gesyer water only. Today I filled it up with NYC tap water for the first time. As I said, I just moved here so I had the steam boiler empty for transport. I filled it using the soft start (no power to the element) as directed in the Minima manual. The group head is getting up to temp and making espresso as usual. When the PID says 126 on the steam, I open the valve and get just a few drips. Same with the water spout. No steam release coming out of the top.

The black button did not click when I pushed it. No loose wires under the boiler. The factory settings for the advanced settings were not what is recommended in the manual. I had myself never changed these. So I restored them to the factory settings.

At some point when I was making sure the heating elements were off for the refill, I think I got what looked like a “Psr” code on the PID display. But not since.

It seems to me that the boiler is full and is heating up. I can hear it coming up to pressure around 215F and then the vacuum seal closing around 225 or so. When I change the steam boiler temp I can hear the heating elements coming on and off. Strange. It almost seems like the valves in the faucet and steam wand are not in fact opening when I turn the knobs. I can’t imagine there’s a solenoid controlling them. Blocked by scale? But it seems even stranger that both would fail at the same time. It did come across country on a moving van last week and would perhaps have been in sub freezing temps.

Any help much appreciated. Also, the brew boiler is fine and making good espresso.”

The code shown on the display (Psr) resulted from the reset the customer performed. At this point, we knew the issue was in the valves and something may happened while the customer had a moving company move his belongings, including his dual boiler espresso machine, from one state to another state during very freezing weather. We asked him take apart the valve by removing the valve stems from each vale AFTER the machine was fully cooled down and unplugged from the electrical outlet. Our customer replied with a positive outcome,

“I took apart the valves for the faucet and the steam wand. Reassembled. Voila! Both are working, as is the boiler (which I think was never the problem). Thanks for your help. And patience.”