Ok, I picked up a used Bezzera BZ99 a few weeks ago, and it'd worked fine... I'd noticed that there was this weird leak coming from part of the piping that goes from the pump to the boiler, but it seemed minor and it didn't bother me too much. So, this evening, I decided (having gotten some citric acid) that I was going to descale the machine as it probably hadn't been descaled before I'd gotten it (the machine was a commercial pull; it saw ~7 years of restaurant use).

So, I opened it up (which I'd done before; Bezzera makes it remarkably easy) so I'd be able to override the boiler autofill and such while I descaled. And, foolishly, I decided to do a little tinkering with my leaky piece of piping. I localized the leak to a T-junction in the aforementioned water line and I tried to tighten it using my trusty multitool (I'm rather short on tools; the multitool gets used for nearly everything)... and managed to snap one of the portions of the T-junction (the top one, which goes out to a overflow (?) line back to the water tank. There's about 1 thread on each side of the break... and this is in solid brass...

As I can't find anyone in the US who sells the parts in question, I decided to take a chance and order a couple pieces which ought to work from McMaster-Carr. At best, they'll work - at worst, I'm out $20 or so for little bits of brass.

At the moment, I'm infuriated with myself for managing to break the parts in question and disgusted that little brass parts, with walls ~3+mm thick can break like that when manipulated by hand tools.

If anyone's got good ideas and/or knows of a shop in the US who sells Bezzera parts, I'm all ears.

To illustrate the point, here's the diagram from the BZ99 manual and the parts in question...

You're seeing Assembly #14 and #7... in very, very bad shape.

I had a similar thing happen to me but it was just a water line intake elbow that I was able to just eliminate and use a brass part I found at Home Depot. It was the same Serto labeled part which might be a brand but I searched all over and didn't find the exact same part. Espresso Parts NW has a lot of brass fittings that they sell, but have you tried looking for Pasquini parts? I believe the Bezzera should be about the same internally as the Livia 90, and maybe there is a source for Pasquini parts. It's frustrating that the parts break and not only that but they're sometimes a really hard to find BSP thread. I checked Pasquini's web site and they sell some Livia parts but I didn't see this one shown, although they may have it if you contact them. It looks like 1st-Line is a Pasquini dealer that might also be able to help.

Quoting my friend Angelo from Espresso Parts Source, the only way to avoid ever breaking something on an espresso machine is to never work on them. Screw ups happen and I've certainly had my share.

What I would do if I were you is to forget about trying to match the exact parts that are broken but rather look at what the function is of the broken parts, and try to replace the functionality. What is being connected to what, and what function does this set of parts serve?

If, as I suspect, they merely connect two things and don't otherwise do anything (such as serving as an overpressure valve), then have a look at what is at both ends and just find something that will bridge the gap and that will work.

There are probably 8 to 10 different ways you could fix this, all of which will work, and which will probably require between $5 and $15 worth of plumbing parts.

I finally got sufficiently frustrated with just this sort of problem that I ordered a set of just about every possible connector and fitting from Angelo, and whenever I need to fix a screw up, I can go into my parts drawer and find something that can be cobbled together to work, and the machines are back functioning, as good as new.

ken

Went out and raided my local hardware store (snort; more like a yuppie accessory store with tools, etc in the back) and picked up a vise grip (which I needed). I've now disassembled the two components shown in the picture in my first post, and it looks like there was just enough threading to let things reseat... I'll post an update shortly.

Ha! There's still a minor leak (1 drip per cycle or so); basically where it was before. I'm not overly bothered by that and I've put some absorbent material beneath it to catch the drips.

Now, its heating up and I'm going to have my morning coffee.

Espresso production was successful, albeit slightly leaky. I'd also grabbed some "epoxy for stupendous bad-asses" (aka all-conditions epoxy) and I slathered a bit on the leaky joint (on the outside) - I do stuff like that at work all the time with lesser epoxies, and it works fine.

So, I'm going to leave the machine open to dry and I'll check on it when I get back from classes, etc at 4pm.

Make another trip to your hardware store and buy a tube of blue LocTite. Carefully disassemble the leaky connection, dry and apply the LocTite. Reassemble, wait 24 hours... You'll have a leak free machine.

John

john_K wrote:Make another trip to your hardware store and buy a tube of blue LocTite.

What about just using teflon tape?
It has always seemed to work on non-compression brass connections for me.

Susan

Eh; I went with what I had.

In regard to teflon tape, there just isn't enough threading left to get it to hold...

SJM wrote:What about just using teflon tape?
It has always seemed to work on non-compression brass connections for me.

Susan

Blue Loctite will work (sometimes) when teflon tape doesn't. You can try teflon tape, but if it doesn't work, try the Loctite.

My friends Angelo and Michael from espresso parts source, both of whom used to work as repair and design techs, have told me that blue loctite is used by professionals when they make repairs on commercial machines.

ken