Since there are couple of unwanted coffee machines & grinders lying in the warehouse of my company, I brought some of those back home for cleaning & restoration.
One of those is a single boiler Faema Erika, which is suitable for home or small office use. The size is roughly the same as a Gaggia Baby. It is not heavy at all as the body is plastic unlike Silvia’s, which is made of stainless steel.
So Day 1 is power up the machine & check if it is still working. First of all, check if the boiler is working by activating the brew switch.
If there is water coming out, then move on by activating the water dispenser to check if water is coming out from the steam wand.
After that, wait for the machine to warm up for 10mins & activate the steam switch to make sure the steam pressure is accumulated & does produce adequate steam to froth the milk enough for a capp.
Below are the pictures of the process:
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Single Boiler Faema Erika with built-in grinder
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Upclose look of the Faema Erika
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Internal of the machine. At the front, it is where the boiler & all the internal wirings are situated. Simple & not messy. Behind is the built-in grinder on the left & the water re-fill tank is on the right.
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Insert the portafilter below the dosing chamber & touch against the switch to activate the grinding process.
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The panarello tip is removed so the 1 hole tip can be used instead to achieve microfroth. So how is the steam power, can it be comparable to Gaggia or even Silvia?
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This is the best microfrothed milk I can achieve after 2 tries. The steam power is lacking but decent enough for a capp.
Day 2 will cover cleaning & more use of the machine if it is capable of bettering the performance of Gaggia home machines and maybe even Silvia.
kfchan
what’s the boiler size?
wchuan11
I have no idea but it should be similar size to this machine. Check this at http://coffeesnobs.com.au/YaBB.pl?num=1130542649. So more or less 300ml.
Ethan
Looks like a decent machine for me
wchuan11
It’s not fully tested, cleaned & restored at the moment though.
Irving
300ml = about 10z. about the size of of the Silvia. How was the espresso?
wchuan11
I have not tried yet on making coffee yet. But will do so.
You can try on Sunday though.
Fresholi
Hi!
When will we see more infos/pics of your rastauration/cleaning process on the FAEMA Erika?
I recently bought one of this machines and would really appreciate some expert-adivce how to get it set up for the first use
weechuan
Been very busy lately, not sure if I have time to post more of the Faema without help of my friend as I know nuts of DIY as long the machine is working. Will try to do so though when i got time.
helen
Hi there I have just bought one of these too… how did you get along and have you got a good expresso from it yet?
wchuan11
Hi Helen, I have not fully tested the machine but hopefully to do so in the future.