SAMA heater failure

[grinderz]

If your clips are too small, can't you just re-connect the original heater wires and then apply current to the ends of those?

[SJM]

Can't I just clip the alligators onto the ends of those center posts?
They will fit onto there....

The mouth of the clip is too small to get around those brass nipples that first come out of the machine which is where I was (erroneously I now think) planning to apply the juice....but it will fit over the small central post which I now think is the correct place.

(We're gonna curl Todd's hair yet....)

[SJM]

Okay, updates ever minute or two....
I get neither continuity nor resistance here

[Ray T]

Heating element OPEN/NFG also that's exactly where to apply power without touching anything else, no need now.
Next step tear it apart 

[SJM]

Whew....
Finally....
A decisive answer.
Now to see if I can get Joe at The Good Coffee Company in Seattle to turn his telephone off of the FAX setting so I can call and see if he has the parts I need. 

[SJM]

Well, she's about as "apart" as she can be now....

[ecc]

Okay, updates ever minute or two....
I get neither continuity nor resistance here

Susan, in this context you must have one or the other, continuity or resistance.  If the heater has an issue it is either a short (will beep on the continuity test) or much more likely, will show a huge resistance because it is in more than one piece.

If your heater doesn't have an obvious break in it, you likely had the meter on the wrong scale.  If that is true, you would not show the continuity beep, and you would show zero on the ohms.   Your heater coil should read very low ohms if it is good and your meter is set correctly.

[grinderz]

Why don't you show us the multimeter with the settings and readings?

[SJM]

Why don't you show us the multimeter with the settings and readings?

Good plan.
I will do that in the morning after the camera battery recharges.

[SJM]

Okay, here are the not very good pictures.  Do you have any idea how hard it is to hold two probes in your left hand and a camera in your right....Yikes....

You will see that I did show a fleeting .001 resistance in the last picture.

[ecc]

Hopefully your new heating element will test closer to 10-20 ohms!   Congrats,  that one looks like it is bad on the insides.

I haven't cut open an espresso heating element, but I believe that is a standard sheathed element.  A nichrome wire insulated with a ceramic powder inside a copper or stainless alloy tube, sealed w/ ceramic, rubber, or silicone at the top.  Eventually it overheats from scale (or running dry) and breaks, or the seal allows a little moisture inside with the same result.

[SJM]

So, finally, at last we are all in agreement that I DO need a new heating element?
Hurrah !!!!
Whoever thought a person could be so happy to receive bad news, huh?

:-))))

[SJM]

If anyone else has a SAMA and needs parts, the person to contact is Joe at The Good Coffee Company in Seattle.  You can't get him online.  You have to call him.  His prices are the lowest and he will put the parts in a box and ship them to you with an invoice. 

I'm getting a heater for the SAMA for $20 less than 1st Line sells it for.
I'm also getting a sight glass and sight glass cover.  All shipped the same day I called for half the price I would have had to pay to get all the parts I needed from Italy.  (1st line doesn't have the sight glass cover at all....).

[milowebailey]

It's nice to hear that they still make parts for the little guy.

You'll be making latte's again soon.

[SJM]

She's up and running again !!!!
Well, almost.
I still need to adjust the pstat, but....she heats like a charm now.

It always was the heater....
And anyone anytime who needs parts for this needs to contact Joe at The Good Coffee Company in Seattle.  He's the B E S T ! ! ! !

Susan