boiler insulation

Doug Olitsky

Read through the forum... I see that several have insulated the boiler. Looks great and nice idea.

Has anybody put together a template????

Since I was not into espresso 13 yrs ago when I did my kitchen I will be getting the 120v L1

wont be placing cups on top of the machine so I want to keep all the heat in the boiler and compensate as much as possible for not going the 220v route.

ALSO... how difficult was it to remove and install the boiler. Or did you insulate it in place???

Frans Goddijn

Stephen Sweeney posted pictures of his insulation project and he disassembled the boiler completely. If you have the tools, the experience and the confidence it's not hard at all. In these matters, what's 'difficult' for one is routine for another...

It will look less neat of you do it without disassembling everything, patching strips of insulation here and there, but after you put the lid on it nobody will notice that ;-)

Doug Olitsky

Got hold of Stephen and the info about it. Thanks

Not afraid to turn a wrench and does not seem too difficult.

Unknown

Doug,

I 've also seen insulation done with the boiler in place, it was on HB I believe. Someone just put insulation material on top of the boiler and folded it from two sides around the boiler: the bottom of the boiler was not completely covered. The material on the sides was just put under the main sheet and with zip ties everything was fixed. Not perfect, but easy and pretty good.

Mark

Doug Olitsky

Cool, I will head over to HB and look. Stephen has more pics showing it and tweaking a bit with a LM GS3 anti vac valve that you can run a drain hose out of the L1's interior

Unknown

Doug Olitsky post=7172 wrote: Cool, I will head over to HB and look. Stephen has more pics showing it and tweaking a bit with a LM GS3 anti vac valve that you can run a drain hose out of the L1's interior

I got that idea from Frans, who also provided me the info and what he used to go through the front wall/case of the L-I by using a Rocket fitting, page 5 item #17 of the Rocket Evoluzione parts manual. Frans used a different anti-vac valve but I opted for one that exited the condensate to the side rather than up. The GS/3 valve worked well.

This is the material I used for the insulation wrap.

I cannot seem to get these pdf's to insert and I am probably doing something wrong but it gives you the idea where to start looking for the stuff. I used the 1/2" thick Aerocel and it is a tight fit between the boiler and the water tank housing. I had another insulation material available but this stuff will not absorb moisture.

I used some left over from another project stainless steel zip ties to hold the insulation in place.

Frans Goddijn

https://www.chriscoffee.com/v/vspfiles/manuals/Evoluzione_Parts_Breakdown_Exploded_View.pdf

Doug Olitsky

That makes it all clear now on insulating and running a valve line.

How often / how much condensate have you noticed coming out of the valve in general?

Unknown

I will Post a video under L-I Mods in an attempt to keep all Mods in one spot.

Frans Goddijn

Doug Olitsky post=7176 wrote: How often / how much condensate have you noticed coming out of the valve in general?

There is only a little steam and water spitting out of that anti-vac at startup of the day. When I want to demonstrate it on a hot machine I need to first pull a lot of hot water from the hot water wand. Ten the boiler refills, cools down briefly and at building up steam again it spits a few drops and soms steam again.

On my Luxe LI with the glass side panels it enabled me to keep the glass clean without having to clean the insides every once in a while. On a machine that normally stays closed, it is less necessary I think unless you dress the boiler with insulation. Then you maybe will prefer to keep any moisture out. Without the insulation the few water drops swiftly dry up, but under the insulation wraps that could take a while longer.

Unknown

I did it to keep insulation dry AND keep moisture further away from the electrics.