- First the good news, the service center in Concord is very good and would you believe they have new in the box Rowenta DG980 in stock!
California Electric
Service in Concord CA (it is the only Rowenta repair station in California) go to either of the following addresses:
their website is:
http://www.californiaelectricservice.com/ or tech service:
[email protected]
Now the not so good news. This model uses what I call a "flutter pump" that turns on when the boiler needs more water pumped in if the reservoir is dry and the red light comes on indicating it is out of water.
Generally, if you remove the blue water reservoir and turn on the unit, in about 5 minutes the boiler should have sufficient heat converting the residual water in the system to steam, for at least one or 2 "bursts of steam".
If all this works, then likely the $75 electronic printed ckt board driver detector is okay. It enables the flutter pump, fills the boiler with a few tablespoons of water to be converted to steam and repressurizes the steam system. It is the sequence logic this board does that you can use to determine the bad part, find and replace it yourself. There are many thermostats and sensors and without a schematic it is tough to reverse engineer.
The most expensive parts are the tank heater and sole plate elements followed by the ckt board (make sure you label all the connections & draw a color coded diagram before replacing this part) especially likely if the flutter pump does not turn on and everything else gets hot & steams is okay if unit less than 5-10 yrs old. BTW a new unit is $350 so you have to weigh your options and talk estimate for repair with repair tech if you go that route. A lot can be said if your unit is not that old, have used clear water, allowed steam to run dry (minimizing long term storage with water in unit), and cleaning the boiler as specified in manual. It is worth the price to repair OR replace. It is a great machine.