Hi Nicholas,

I already ordered a 1/4" BSP male to 1/4" BSP male adapter and I have the exact opposite of it as well, a 1/4" BSP female to 1/4" BSP female coupling. Putting those two together will let me screw the PT on one side of the coupler and screw the adapter to the compression fitting. I will however try the copper washer trick, it might work as well (heck even without the copper washer the tip of the compression fitting if pressed hard against the stainless steel flat surface of the PT should provide a seal). If the adapter-coupling connection leaks I can always use Loctite 542 on it.

Regards,
dsc.

Hi again,

I've finally managed to put everything together without breaking anything. Well almost...

TC installation went like a breeze, seriously hats of to Swagelok for making such an awesome fitting. It took less then 5 minutes and nothing was leaking. If only everything else worked like this.



I've decided to install the PT as well, simply to check whether the compression-fitting-against-copper-washer idea would work. It did, which is great and all I have to do now is place it in the hole in the smaller frame, where the Pstat used to be.



I wasn't able to measure how hot the SSR gets during the first 15min of operation, but I can tell you that the screws holding it in place were quite warm and the frame underneath it was warm to the touch as well. I used some silver paste on the bases of the SSRs (the stuff you put on CPU processors) and put thermal pads on it to transfer heat more efficiently. I doubt it will do wonders with the painted frame, but still it's better then nothing I guess.



I re-routed some of the cables and that included the TC, which was laid a bit different inside the case and got some PVC insulation to protect it's thin wires.



Now going back to the first sentence of this post and me breaking stuff. In addition to all of the above I managed to do this:



While tightening the copper fitting:| this means no espresso till Tuesday as I won't be able to get a new JG fitting anywhere locally. Now this isn't funny.

Regards,
dsc.

Hi guys,

so everything is in place, I finally got a new JG fitting and was able to pull some shots yesterday. First thing I noticed was the TC showing very low temps when flushing even though the water coming from the group was boiling. Quick removal of the group bell and it turned out to be a broken TC (one of the cables was broken). Swapped it with the old TC I was using previously, tested it out straight away and it seems to be working well (although it hasn't got the PVC insulation the previous one had which means I will have to take it out again and spend 30min trying to pull the TC cables through a 1.6mm dia tube). I pulled around 5 or 6 double shots and overcaffeinated myself quite quickly. First one went straight to the sink, too cold and way too much channeling. Second and third similar, a bit better but still harsh, sour/bitter, note even the slightest resemblance of what I was getting before fitting all the equipment in. After the first few disasters I finally managed to pull a ristretto, something that should work well with the Vitamin D blend from Ritual. It started well but halfway through the shot it started channeling like crazy which resulted in a crappy shot again. Tried it again, this time with WDT and it was a bit better, but still nothing like it used to be.

Could it be that the Vitamin D blend is too old now? it was roasted on the 9th of March, so I agree it's not the best and past it's prime. It survived a trip from the US and spent a week in the hopper while I was fitting the PIDs.

Nicholas do you still have some of that Vitamin D blend I've sent you 2 weeks ago?

Regards,
dsc.

I don't have any left, actually... finished it before I left for Trinidad. Channeling and harsh flavors are pretty typical of a lighter roasted coffee that is dying. I'd say 3 weeks is really pushing it on a coffee, but considering that the Vitamin D is upwards of 3.5 weeks, and one of your weeks was in the hopper, I'd say it's really dead. The open air of the hopper accelerates aging of coffee. Try something fresh and you'll likely find yourself back where you were.

Hi Nicholas,

I'd love to switch but I only have a super fresh bag (roasted on Monday) of SQM Spring Blend. What the hell I will give it a go today, even though it should probably rest for a little while longer.

Regards,
dsc.

Hi Tom, that's a fine looking upgrade you've done. I've also got a set of parts from Nicholas so at some time in the distant future I'll by trying parts of this out too! If your SSR has a LED, how often would you say it's cycling to keep the boiler at it's set temp?

Mark

Hi Mark,

I haven't got a LED on the SSRs but the PIDs do have a LED which shows when the output is turned on. I'd say it's almost constantly on during the heat-up process and blinks from time to time after reaching the temperature. I will check it out today and let you know some more details.

Regards,
dsc.

Hi again Mark,

the light is constantly on during the initial stage of the heat up (although I think the SSR actually turns on-off very quickly) and comes on every 2-3s after reaching the set temperature.

Regards,
dsc.

It's quite hard to get an idea of the power draw of a PIDed boiler from watching the SSR. In fact, it's pretty much totally useless, because the heater is pulsed for much less than a second when it's near steady-state.
Mark, since you have your heater partially disabled to work at 12 amps, you can use a Kill-A-Watt. I have had mine on that device for 27 days now, though it was off for 8 days last week while I was in Trinidad. It's used about 48 kwh in that time. So, figure 48 kwh in 20 days, probably going to be ~70 kwh for the month. That's $12.50 for me. I have my machine on about 50 % of the time (~7AM-7PM), so you can guess from that how it compares to your own non-PIDed Elektra.

Hi guys,

finally I've managed to get rid of my old Brita filter (damn that thing is heavy) and installed an Everpure cartridge with the easy-changeover head:



Had my first shot today and I can already say the difference is noticeable. Will report back after a couple of days with this setup.

Regards,
dsc.