Rancilio Recent Questions, Troubleshooting Help & Support

Could be a switch, a themostat, a wire connection, or the boiler element. Someone with a volt-ohm meter will have to help you. Once you figure it out, you can get the parts here Rancilio Silvia Parts

parts and pictures here Rancilio Silvia Parts

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The pump is a vibratory pump on rubber mounts. It makes a loud buzz when running. The pump makes a knocking sound when it is out of place on the mounts and banging into something and when the pressure is high (water flow is blocked) Open the wand all the way (no back pressure) and make some hot water. If the noise changes to a quiet hum, get a warranty repair. If the noise changes some but is still a knock, take out the water reservoir and the pump shield. You can see the shield by looking down into the cavity left by the reservoir. One screw hold the shield in place. Remove the screw and the shield, and wiggle the pump around in its mounts until it does not bump into anything when running. Then replace the shield, screw and reservoir.

The pressure is from zero to the opening pressure of the OPV. This should be about 10 bar when the OPV is cold. When the OPV is hot, the OPV spring is hot and a little more flexible. The OPV opens at about 8.5 bar when hot. When the wand valve is open, you can get a lot of steam or water with not a lot of pressure in the boiler. Take the lid off the reservoir and watch the hose from the OPV. It's the short hose. Pull a shot with less than usual coffee in the basket. If you see water flowing from the hose, the OPV opened. If it did not open and there is little extract in your cup, buy a new pump.

You can replace the pump yourself. You can get parts here Rancilio Silvia Parts

There are two thermostats, one for water, one for steam. Replace the one for water. You can get the themostat here Rancilio Silvia Parts

The pump is in the back. It looks like a cylinder with a hose fitting on either end. It is mounted with a rubber mount over each hose fitting.

The pump is a vibratory pump and it will make some noise. Take the lid off the reservoir and watch at the hose coming from the relief valve (the short hose). Pull a shot. If water comes out of the hose, the relief valve is opening on high pressure. The pump gets extra noisy on high pressure too. This happens when the water flow is blocked due to coffee ground too fine, coffee tamped too hard, pluggage somewhere. Pull another shot but this time with the basket removed from the portafilter. If there is still water coming out of the short hose, you need to descale the machine. If there is not water com ing out of the hose and the pump is quieter, adjust your grind or your tamp.

The coffee needs to be ground finer and tamped harder. I grind my own coffee. I have never found any supplier that grinds their coffee fine enough.

1. That is the right milk. Use a thermometer with the milk.
2. The middle button is used for steam. It engages the high themostat for steam.
   1. Slightly open the steam valve
   2. Turn on the middle button
   3. Keep the end of the steam wand slightly above the milk surface (0.5 mm) so the steam incorporates air into the milk. (Takes practice)
   4. Open the steam valve as the boiler heats up. (Takes practice)
   5. When the milk get to 74 C (165 F) immerse the steam wand into the milk and heat to 82 C (185 F)
   6. Turn off the middle button and shut the valve.
3. For 90 ml of coffee, use 14 gram of ground coffee. The coffee scoop that came with the machine holds 7 grams of ground coffee as it comes out of a grinder (not packed). Tamp the coffee after it is in the sieve.

Replace the steam switch.

Take the lid off the reservoir and watch the short tube. Start a brew. If no water comes out of the tube, replace the water pump. If water does come out, the machine is plugged, the three way valve is stuck, or the relief valve has failed. The most probable is the relief vale failed.

This looks kind of home made but it seems accurate. How Silvia Works

That is probably the boiler o-ring leaking. You can replace the o-ring yourself. The only special tools is the metric hex socket (Allen) wrench which can be found at Harbor Freight. You can get the o-ring here

There should be a name plate on the machine, maybe on the back, maybe on the bottom, that gives the date of manufacture, model number, serial number, etc.