The $30 Brasilia Portofino 3-Group Espresso Machine Thrift Store Find.

2 weeks ago I walked into a thrift store and in the back was a dirty old espresso machine piled up in a heap. I asked around how much it was and nobody knew; it had just come in the day before they said. Finally one clerk said "how about thirty bucks?" I said, "hmmmm, well... ok, I guess" and I quickly loaded the beast into my car and skedaddled home. Then the work began...

[@emmanuelbarronr]

Thanks for share! Amazing 😊

[@justwork12321]

this video has been the most helpful so far! thanks for this! i just got 3 commercial espresso machines for 700 bucks that are going to be my next projects for my home. again thanks for this!

[@s96822]

Some interesting history about brasilia. according to an italian guy at a coffee trade show brasilia went out of business and the ceo or owner fled to brasil apparently with some financials deficits. looks like another company(bianchi) acquired it in 2015 and currently brasilia is back in production. i did own a brasilia club home machine. built like a tank. that machine sold for 30 bucks because just the labor hours and parts to restore it would not be cost effective. brasilia used to be the worlds 2nd volume espresso machine producer. i am sure there are still tons of older machines used around the globe. downside of a 3 group heat xchange machine for home use is long warm up time and commercial power consumption. i used to restore machines

[@kylebarney1432]

Wow so helpful we just bought a two group and it’s a little older but this helps give us some direction in troubleshooting it now.

[@Raven5763]

Great find!

[@NikPenchev]

Great work Jim. Thanks for recording the process. The water is not coming properly from one of our groups so I'll clean it first and see where it goes.

[@chriswablington7118]

Great find! I’m watching the marketplace hoping to find an older machine to refurbish

[@MartinArgg]

I loved this ! ty

[@sarahwalton9936]

Wow! Amazing how much you know! Thank you for this video, very helpful as I just got my first machine and this exact one!

[@jdplus3]

Good luck! Post a response video!

[@sarahwalton9936]

I am having some trouble finding my exact model and owners manual, I have a 3 group but I have a screen down at the very bottom. Any ideas on what it could be for? The screen itself doesn’t work. It was made in 06

[@jdplus3]

@@sarahwalton9936 maybe post a video. There is no way to message on YT

[@Adeline9418]

Super find!! It would take up my whole kitchen!!! 😆

[@jdplus3]

I am building a garage office for it. So, expensive after all!

[@aaronfarley4577]

had a similar thing happen to me with my commercial espresso machine! ill say I wasn't nearly as lucky as the entire group head water inlet was completely filled with calcium build up, drilled it out and boiled the boiler for almost 6 hours in a strong citric acid bath and got it all cleaned up! 15 dollars and about 300 dollars all in including the new lines i had to get fabricated and im quite happy with the result!

[@dariussala6377]

Amazing work Jim, you really brought the machine back to life. One small detail that I noticed: during the last shot, I saw the pressure indicator going way above the 9 bar recommended pressure so I think you forgot to check the OPV. Other than that, keep up the good work!

[@jdplus3]

Thanks. I will follow up when I get it installed in my shop office in a few months!

[@silasketgaskets8709]

if you have the time a demineralization of every tube and boiler would improve function. also cleaning buildup on heating elements. that machine will run up the electric bill in home.

[@lastpme]

My wife would kill me if I brought this home…

[@muhamedreda4984]

i wanna buy it from you, how can i do that?

[@claytonholton2749]

Ok I’m ready to buy! How much?

[@daniell.5339]

Very helpful video Jim. Do you have any picture of the water gauge connection to the boiler and electronics? It is hard to find this image online and looking through some still shots of your video is still difficult to pinpoint all the connections

[@jdplus3]

I can do that for you but not right now because the machine is packed away for our remodeling it’s gonna be a month or two unfortunately before I can get to it!

[@daniell.5339]

@@jdplus3 No problem Jim. Thanks for the reply. Right now I will bypass the water gauge somehow to see if I can get some espresso out of the machine.

[@jdplus3]

What is it doing/not doing?

[@eugenuku]

hi, great job. I have a Portofino one group that I paid £50 non working. I have to find what the problem is. I started today to clean it and, took out the element and checked for scale. I am curios about the push buton at the bottom to a valve under the tray. What is that for? any ideea. I cannot find a manual or other information on line about it.. thank you

[@jdplus3]

You are probably looking at the cap that would have been the manual boiler filling valve except you probably have an automatic filling model like I do. So it does nothing.

[@jdplus3]

www.dropbox.com/s/utcc84yijnpm7jh/portofino_restyling.pdf?dl=0 here is a manual I found

[@jameshorwitz2896]

addendum: I am told that I over drilled the flow sensor and probably ruined its calibration- it should have a 1.2mm opening. and, I am draining and cleaning the boiler.

[@jamesmorrison7989]

Hello! Do you know of any websites that hold replacement parts for this machine should i run into any serious issues with mine? I just got a great deal on a brasilia 170 Del2 and realized that the company is out of business. Btw thank you for this video! It's going to be a big help as I start to see if my machine has any issues.

[@jdplus3]

Most all parts are std commercial components except the boiler. Also see espresso machine restoration group on FB.

[@jdplus3]

And the control board/pads are unique but available

[@jamesmorrison7989]

@@jdplus3 Thank you!

[@zzsnoopy]

May I know where did you buy the filter screen and gasket for the Brasilia espresso machine? I have a Brasilia cadenza espresso machine I don’t know if I can replace the filter screen and gasket with what your Brasilia espresso use.

[@jdplus3]

www.ebay.com/itm/154994973380?mkcid=16&mkevt=1&mkrid=711-127632-2357-0&ssspo=684jYJ_JQNq&sssrc=2349624&ssuid=2T4vJJ73QKa&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY