Yep it was steam connector. Just replaced it all good, no leak! Looking inside the broken connector I can see there is possibly a small chip on the plastic where the O ring would sit on top of. No idea how this would just happen through wear and tear as there is no impact. Maybe just the heat over time.. thanks again for the help 🙏🏻

 

Okay, I just switched the steam connectors around that go into the flash boiler/vaporiser, the top one then stopped leaking and the bottom one leaked the water, so it seems it is likely the black plastic steam connector that has failed and is leaking. I have ordered a new one that should be here in a couple of days. I will report back to confirm if this fixes it.

 

Measure the actual o-ring you have prior to deciding. If you cannot get it in... I have resized an oversize oring slightly by mounting the oring on a dremel tool with similar diameter and running the OS edge against fine grained sandpaper.

 

Thanks again, I’ll check these out tomorrow. Yeah you’re right about the steam if it was getting too hot.

Yes replaced the flash boiler, but had the same issue with new one so I put the old one back. The black plugs are easy enough to get out so will start with that tomorrow.

Larger O ring might be the answer. Just seems strange it would start happening all of sudden. The water is escaping around the metal plug attached to the pipe and filling up and eventually coming through the holes where the metal clip holds the pipe in place. You can see a water droplet on this image:

 

Possibly on the sensor. but can probably test by removing and measuring ohms whilst heating.
Ditto for the thermal cut-off fuses.

But I would think... if overheating it would be showing up on both high steam pressure when steaming and more evidently: lots of steam being produced along with the hot water when doing hot water.

I thought you already replaced that flashboiler, but maybe confused with other. If those black end connectors that easy to replace, I would try that first. Can you inspect closely with a loupe?
I presume the leak coming from the end and not the side indicating a hairline fracture?
Consider oring with same external diam, smaller internal diam and a slightly thicker cross section by 0.1 or 0.2mm and installing with silicone grease.
Delonghi have that listed as 3.8mm internal and 2mm cs. So 7.8 external. From memory I thought they were smaller than that?
If that size is correct, online next size up for red is 2.5 so white silicone only other choice at 2.2mm and softer than NBR. Not sure about how those stand up to heat/pressure. Ought to be ok and if you try that then the 8mm OD with 2.2mm CS has 3.6mm ID. could be tricky to get in but ought to be possible.

 

Thanks pnb, just to note this leaking doesn't just happen when steaming, it seems to happen any time water is flowing through, although strangely not every time! I tried replacing the O-ring with one of the red ones already as i had some on hand. I also flipped the Ptfe tube around so the end that was going into the solenoid I put into the vaporiser, just to make sure there wasn't a small leak on the pipe/metal lug. I think the gnarled surface might just be the photo.

I'm doubtful but wonder if it would be worth replacing the black steam connector that goes into the varpoiser:

Delonghi Steam Connector

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I could even try swapping the one at the bottom with this one. The only other thing that has crossed my mind is the sensor that attches to the side of the vaporiser.

Delonghi Sensor Ntc

Buy a Delonghi Sensor Ntc - 5213215671 - And Other Genuine Delonghi Spare Parts and Accessories for Your Coffee Maker | UK Stock

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If this was broken, could it cause the water to over heat and increase pressure causing the leak? (clutching at straws!)

 

Well, I think a solenoid stays open while steam is being built up and it goes to the drip tray until it decides it is ready to divert to the steam wand.
But I think your issue is going to be with that connection. Could be a flaw in either the pipe surface (in the photo the OS surface looks very gnarled), mating surface (but you replaced?) or the o-ring. Personally I would just replace the o-ring and be done with it. Get a slightly oversize diameter and that soft red silicone. quite a variety of sizes in the smaller range, but you may have to put it on the pipe and grease it prior to insertion.

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Okay I spoke too soon, I'm still getting some water leaking out of the top of the varporiser plug connection.. it's ever so slight but eventually seeps out of the side of where the clip holds the pipe in place, hits the wires and tripes the electric. I have checked the pipe (flipped it round) and checked the O rings so I don't think there is a leak as such on the pipe or O ring. I think some how there is too much pressure somewhere or the flow is not right? Anything else that could cause this?

 

Air in the system will definitely cause that, but one would think making a few coffees and running hot water would flush that out.. unless between tank and pump... either hose loop or in the water meter.. I normally manually prime that circuit after taking them off.

 

Thanks for the pointers. I seem to have resolved this issue.. not 100% sure how though.

I swapped the body of the solenoid with the old solenoid I had and still had the same issue, so presume it was not a solenoid issue.

I then ran the empty water circuit function then ran hot water for a while. Seems to work okay now, steam if flowing for as long as needed and no water leaking from top of vaporiser either.

Not really sure what has caused the issues. Possibly air in the system, although seems unlikely given water worked okay? Doesn't really explain the issue of water escaping from top of varoiser either, who knows, I will see how long it works for!

 

If you can figure out how to get into the service menu on your model (combination of dregs draw and button presses most likely) you might find something like this: "encoder reset"
this basically gets the machine to learn the pulses from the various sensors from scratch I believe and have used it to correct an oversized puck when the machine could not relearn.
Certainly worth trying if you have no luck elsewhere.

 

Another thing to check..make sure pipes before pump are staying full of water. If a tiny pinhole, you could get air in them which could prevent water meter turning when low flow. Cockroaches love chewing in the new pipe compound. Also try to determine whether water meter rotation signal is consistent, and obv free rotation.

 

Could be. Sometimes you can swap solenoid positions in these as a test: depends on the circuit design and if you have multiple 2 or 3 ways.
Another thing you can try if you can make the error happen on demand is to disconnect tube from the flash boiler to solenoid and see if water/steam at that point when error produced.

 

Thanks for the reply, I did actually take the water meter apart and check it earlier in the week and it seemed okay.

One thing to note, a problem started a couple months back where the machine was tripping the electric on occasion. I took it apart and noticed small drips were escaping from the where the pipe connects into the top of the vaporiser. I tried replacing the vaporiser on Monday (my lack of knowledge of what this was made me think it might be blocked or something.) But with the new one the same issue (although very minimal leaking. The rubber rings and pipe seem fine, I even tried flipping the pipe round to make sure, so pipe, seal and vaporiser are fine.

This pipe leads from the vaporiser, into the solenoid, then that solenoid leads out to the steam. So now it's got me thinking the sloenoid is not letting the water out to the steam as it should and it causing it back up/extra pressure in the vaporiser and that's what's causing the small amout of water to escape at the top of the vaporiser plug and also causing the no water in circuit message for the steam..

Would that make sense at all? It's the same solenoid I replaced last year annoyingly..

 

Could be a blocked solenoid downstream. That message most likely coming from the spinning water meter close to the tank, but possibly also the tank float/sensor. So a blockage downstream or a weak pump could mean the water meter not spinning as no flow: hence message. Those meters easy to open: rotate top about 40 degrees. Careful not to snap pipes off. Some gunk in there could be preventing rotation with low volume flow (for steam)

You getting good flow from hot water is confusing as it uses the same circuit path as steam from what I can see. Only difference is with steam it puts small amounts of water into the flash boiler to generate the steam as opposed to continuous higher flow for hot water. Solenoids probably a good bet if water meter looks ok, but do a descale first if you have not already done that.

Other things you can try if you can figure out for your model is resetting the calibration (forget the term) (this is not a factory reset) and try getting into test mode and activating the solenoids manually to see if they sound consistent (all sound different) as the coils can get weak with time leading to premature closing or failing to open. Hack for that is to convert from AC to DC but easier just to replace.