Francis Francis I am having problems with my francis francis getting to temperature. I want to know where I can buy parts. I called illy on the east coast and they will not sell parts and it will cost too much money to ship it for repair. Does anyone know? My X5 won't heat up enough to froth the milk. It brews OK, but the lower light never goes off to indicate there's enough heat for the steam wand. I've read people's reports about sparks flying and so on, and while I didn't have that I did hear a little pop and smell a slight burning for a few seconds during my last successful frothing endeavor. I called Empire Fulfillment and the guy I spoke to distractedly told me (I think I was interrupting his game of Solitaire) to de-scale the machine and that would probably solve it. Nope. Did that--no dice. So, now what? I have to send it in at great expense and drive to town every morning & hunt for a parking space near Starbucks? Not pretty. But the worst part is I've only had this machine for maybe seven months. Does anyone know if this is likely a blown thermostat? And is sending it to Empire my only option??
Coffee Makers & Espresso... - FrancisFrancis! - X5 Espresso Machine
Answers & Comments
Yeah, no love lost to the sole-source send-your-machine-in-with-a-wad-of-cash "Empire Fulfillment" (how's THAT for an audacious name?)
Hard experience with my machine has taught me something about the design & I will know better than to get another F-F next time. At least I know Saeco will sell you parts if you need them, for instance.
Your machine is only 7 months old? That's kind of young for this, but you may have the same counterintuitive problem I did. I was convinced my problem was in my t'stat also until I did a bunch of testing and figured out that the real problem was that the element had corroded through. I can't find one other post where I detailed the test for this, but I'll summarize: if the element is corroded through, it will still heat, but not as well, and the thermostat is bypassed and irrelevant. **** design, yes. The "neutral side" of the element heating circuit would, after this corrosion eats through the outer shell of the element and exposes the actual resistance-wire, be through the boiler water, and then through the ground wire...not pretty, and makes me wonder what WON'T pass a UL inspection. If you plug your machine into a GFCI type outlet and it trips the interuptor, well, there's your diagnosis. If not, then your guess about the tstat was probably accurate.
If my tstat were bad, I would probably try replacing it with something very different and custom, like one or two Murphy "switchgage" dashboard-style gauges (google them - high-quality mechanical gauges that have built-in adjustable temp switches). You'd need to to some severe mods to mount and wire in the gauge/s as a repair - though there is room in the stock case where the tstat is now, just barely. (Hmmm...might be a new category in your local custom motor show...) Other options may be out there, but I wasn't able to easily find a two-temperature tstat when I googled around thinking mine was bad. Honestly, I think I would rather replace the element than have to come up with a tstat fix. But then again, replacing the tstat, you'd be able to correct the basic design problem, where F-F uses the tstat to switch the NEUTRAL side, rather than the HOT side. That alone should have stopped the thing from getting a UL cert.
Thanks for the information! do you have a link or a shop that can provide me with a new or replacement Coil/element? I'm desperate to fix my X5