Any luck? Been thinking of getting one of these.. you might ask in another forum. Maybe in cooking?

Heat expands, cold contracts. Have you tried dunking the part in boiling water for awhile, and then trying to pry it apart?

I do have an update. I went home Friday determined to either separate it, break it or both :D . I *did* get it apart at last.

Here's what happened if anyone else finds themselves in this situation. :o

I spoke to customer service again. The 3rd person recommend trying to remove the 'test value' (the bolt on the side) to allow the pressure vacuum to be released. They also told me that if that didn't do it and something had probably fused within the threads then there wasn't much hope.

I got the value off no problem and it didn't budge.

The unofficial solution: (aka proceed at your own risk)
I popped into boiling water, hoping to loosing it off or perhaps boil off residue that maybe in the threads of rubber seal. I let it cool over night in the water. No movement.

Dried it off. I turned it upside down and again tried to soak the treads with oil. I left it for an hour and tried again. Nothing.

Finally reached my 'by any means' point and grabbed a screwdriver, shoved it in the hole left by the removed test value, bracing it against the inside of the water pot. Then, grabbing the upper portion's handle and heaved: IT GAVE WAY.

Course I had the scrub the heck out of after a week+ sitting around and being exposed to tools etc. :)

So far, so good: I've ran 3 test runs with water with no problems and 2 caps this morning. It opened no problem! :o
*fingers crossed it stays that way*

alexr

I would recommend them in spite of the recent 'issue'! It is extremely well made, easy to clean and makes great coffee -esp. if you invest in good espresso. I was reading reviews over at amazon (hoping to find a solution earlier this week) and there seems to be a lot of complaints (spits water, cool milk, weak coffee, over-flow etc.) that would be remedied by people following directions :)

I had quite a few trial and error's the first few weeks trying to improve upon the included directions; but in the end it became clear that if I did everything by the book and didn't try to rush it I got great coffee within 10 minutes.

That's all. Perhaps this will help someone else searching the forums one day.

northy,

What amount of coffee, water and milk do you use? Also what type of heat source to you have? Have you ever made just straight coffee in it? Thanks