OK, I'm no engineer, so can someone 'splain to me why you couldn't just mount the barksdale on a really long piece of copper tubing to keep it a bit cooler and avoid failure? Jon, what exxactly happened to yours?

luca wrote:OK, I'm no engineer, so can someone 'splain to me why you couldn't just mount the barksdale on a really long piece of copper tubing to keep it a bit cooler and avoid failure?

Ambient temperature in the machine is a bit too high in any case, and while you absolutely could use a LOOOOOOOOOOOng coiled tube to reduce the temp of the working fluid at the seals that would require making a new tube and doing some fitting work. It's not for everyone....

In any case, mine was not a heat-related seal failure.

luca wrote: Jon, what exxactly happened to yours?

Glad you asked. I ran the device past its pressure limits because my pressure gauge apparently flaked out. What I mean is that when my gauge reads 0.5 bar the boiler pressure is actually at about 1.1 bar. So when I installed the Barksdale (factory set at 1 bar) it showed me a shockingly low boiler pressure. I cranked the adjustment all the way to the end and beyond just to get my pressure gauge to read 1.05 bar.

The Barksdale contacts finally gave out from the abuse. I believe it's rated for less than 1.6 bar......

JonR10 wrote:Ambient temperature in the machine is a bit too high in any case...

I'm convinced that manufacturers should be insulating espresso machine boilers as a matter of routine. Insulation not only saves energy, but reduces heat-related stress on internal components. Quick Mill seems to be leading the charge; perhaps other manufacturers will follow suit.

Regardless, I'm glad you finally have the problem resolved! Replacing one pstat after another must have sucked big-time...
________
John

JonR10 wrote:Glad you asked. I ran the device past its pressure limits because my pressure gauge apparently flaked out. What I mean is that when my gauge reads 0.5 bar the boiler pressure is actually at about 1.1 bar. So when I installed the Barksdale (factory set at 1 bar) it showed me a shockingly low boiler pressure. I cranked the adjustment all the way to the end and beyond just to get my pressure gauge to read 1.05 bar.

The Barksdale contacts finally gave out from the abuse. I believe it's rated for less than 1.6 bar......

Hey, congratulations on installing the Sirai! It looks right at home sitting there! Despite the increased noise, I'm glad I made the change to the Sirai. Mine cycles consistently between 0.95 and 1.15 bars -- perhaps a little low. I plan to make one mod to my mounting method soon, and will change the setting at that time.

I don't understand the mode of failure you described for the Barksdale. Why would the Barksdale's contacts be affected by the pressure setting?

Rick

Java Man wrote: I don't understand the mode of failure you described for the Barksdale. Why would the Barksdale's contacts be affected by the pressure setting?

Actually, I didn't take it apart....but judging by the behaviour I can say that either the contacts got stuck or the diaphragm is stuck.

FWIW my Barksdale is working rock solid since installing almost 3 months ago. Still maintaining virtually zero pressure float and 0.05bar band swing with 0.05bar overshoot for 0.1bar total. Running 1.0-1.05bar pressure band yielding 1.0-1.1bar actual with heater overshoot, ~1c degree tight.

luca wrote:OK, I'm no engineer, so can someone 'splain to me why you couldn't just mount the barksdale on a really long piece of copper tubing to keep it a bit cooler and avoid failure? Jon, what exxactly happened to yours?

FWIW as I mentioned at the start of this thread Tomas, the person at Gimme Coffee who's been installing these Barksdale pstats they had made to their specs for them and used in commercial machines for a number of years, advised exactly that. It's only been 8 months now but my Barksdale is still working flawlessly maintainingg no float and same original tight 0.05bar toggle. Don't really know it's full range but have played with pressures as low as 0.8 and as high as 1.4bar heater on trigger.

Recently asked where to get these suckers. Only way I know is to call Gimme Coffee and ask for Tomas.
http://www.gimmecoffee.com/ 1-877-446-6325 8am-5pm EST

I was interested in a replacement pstat and contacted Barksdale. The application engineer told me that none of the Barksdale pressure switches is rated for steam applications, but their diaphragm models can be used with steam if there is a cooling loop. May I ask the model # of Barksdale you guys have?

Regards
Timo

The only model info' I have is posted first page of this thread. Beyond that all I know is got it from Gimme Coffee, made for them to their specs and the same one they use in commercial LMs. The tech I talked to at Gimme Coffee did mention it's preferable and they use a 360 cooling loop installation. But as can be seen from the pics I posted I didn't use a 360 loop, just long loop back tube. Been working fine something like a year now. Still no float, still maintains 0.05bar heater toggle.

Compass Coffee wrote:The only model info' I have is posted first page of this thread. Beyond that all I know is got it from Gimme Coffee, made for them to their specs and the same one they use in commercial LMs. The tech I talked to at Gimme Coffee did mention it's preferable and they use a 360 cooling loop installation. But as can be seen from the pics I posted I didn't use a 360 loop, just long loop back tube. Been working fine something like a year now. Still no float, still maintains 0.05bar heater toggle.

Thanks for that -- I couldn't find the specific model on the Barksdale site, but then I realized the numbers after MSPS probably specify the features. (I'm a rank newbie on these matters.) I sent the model number to the Barksdale engineering support--they should be able to say what the numbers after the MSPS mean.

Regards
Timo