Laranzato espresso machine adventure.

While waiting for the replacement pump for my home espresso machine to arrive I was watching Craig's list for a used replacement (at the time I wasn't sure I could repair the Precisia).  Much to my surprise, Easter sunday there was an add for a single group professional machine.

It was a potentially great deal, so notwithstanding it being Easter I called and told the seller I wanted everything.  We made arrangements to meet Monday.

When I got to the shop, it turned out that the Bunn coffee maker was 240v.  Since it wasn't useful to me, I left it but took everything else.  Fortunately, I'd brought tools since the machine was plumed in.  About an hour later I'd de-installed it, paid, put it in my car (should have brought a hand truck as it weighed well over 100 lbs), and was on my way home.

The machine is a Laranzato Club Me.  A bit of investigation revealed that this was a private label for a Promac Club Me.  Promac is a reasonably well regarded repackage of Rancilio.  This one is a slight variation of the Rancilio S27.

So I've got a commercial machine to overhaul and put into service.  Here's what it looked like when I got it home.

The face exactly matches the S27 with the hot water and steam reversed.  This machine has a missing steam wand.  There was a rather odd contraption in its place, also broken, that mixed milk drawn from a pitcher with steam.  I'll have to buy a replacement steam wand.

Face details

I removed the covers and here's what the insides look like.  Rather more than the home machine.

Some further disassemble showed that both the hot water and steam valves showed some signs of rust. 

Steam side valve with signs of rust

  

Hot water valve with signs of rust

The underneath of the drip tray was really dirty.  There was some rice like materials on the base.  I'm not entirely sure what it is but suspect that it's insect related.

Dirt on base with 'insect' droppings 

'Insect' droppings

As things now stand I've got the machine partially disassembled and am cleaning it thoroughly.  Next steps are to:

• finish cleaning the machine - This will take some time as I'll likely need to remove some components.
• descale the machine - While the machine components are reasonably clean, save for the two valves, there may be issues with coffee and scae buildup.
• replace the steam wand
• throughly clean the group head assembly
• connect to a water source (I plan to run from a pump drawing from an external tank) and determine what works and what doesn't

I'll post more as progress is made.