Has anyone noticed a difference in the ability of the Brewtus IV to maintain a brew boiler temperature when operating with the steam boiler turned off compared to when it is on? I haven't collected any data yet but qualitatively it seems like the temperature drops 1 to 2 degrees during and after an extraction. Because of this I have been keeping the steam boiler on even when making espresso only but it seems a waste of the intended feature, which is to be able to keep the steam boiler off if it is not needed.

I think they only added that feature to get back to parity with the Vivaldi and the other DBs that let you turn it off. Their initial position was that they wouldn't/couldn't do it because of the way the Brewtus was designed. But people whined a LOT, so tah dah! The brew boiler is fed by an HX from the steam boiler so it sees cold water entering instead of hot water when you brew with the steam boiler off. You probably knew that, but thought I'd clear it up in case anyone was wondering . My III doesn't have that feature so I can't say what the difference is in the cup, but it's probably best to use it as originally designed with the steam boiler on. Maybe you can compensate by raising the PID a few degrees?

It's still a nice feature to have... I love it on my Duetto. You can leave it off most of the day and just turn it on a few minutes before making espresso.

A declining temp profile by 2 degrees may not be bad either, just different.. question is how does taste compare if u try same coffee in both methods.

Just for curiosity measured mine with Scace today, and actually with steam boiler off it had more of a solid temp profile on setpoint, while with it on, it had a rising profile by ~2 degrees.
(don't go so much by the PID, since it won't reflect what the group sees)

"I haven't collected any data yet but qualitatively it seems like the temperature drops 1 to 2 degrees during and after an extraction." and and and ??????



How does the final shot taste enquiring minds want to know ?????





The PID as fas as I know measures water inside the BREW BOILER. The temperature change at the GROUP HEAD MAY NOT BE AS MUCH.

Is it any different (the taste of the shot pulled ?) I have a brewtus 2 which does not have this feature (turning off the steam boiler) but all Brewtus machines use a heat exchanger tube which runs through the HOT STEAM BOILER to feed the BREW BOILER with heated water as far as I know.

This was designed to prevent cold water pumped from the resivour into the BREW BOILER from significantly altering it's set temperature a common problem encountered in single boiler machines especially ones with smaller boilers. This allows more back to back shots to be pulled also.

I suspect that due to the bigger BREW BOILER in the Brewtus a temperature drop at the brewhead itself will not be as quick to present as in a smaller boiler machine but with the STEAM BOILER OFF AND COLD the water will not be preheated when passing through the heat exchanger.

Eventually there will be a temperature drop at the brewhead with a COLD STEAM BOILER but after HOW MANY SHOTS ?????? I don't know, and how much time will it take to recover after each shot ????

My Brewtus 2 does not use a PID but a generic refridgerator temperature controller, however due to it's overall design, large thermal mass, large volume boilers, and no doubt to the largest extent preheated water fed into the BREW BOILER via heat exchanger, the temperature stability is better than the PID Silvia I used to own which had a small boiler that got flooded with cold water every time a shot was pulled resulting in temperature drops during brewing and long recovery times between shots.

The taste of the espresso shots pulled from the Brewtus is much better than what I got from the PID Silvia.

The Brewtus 2 does not have the option of turning off the STEAM BOILER.

To make the story short the feature (turning off the STEAM BOILER) probably works fine as long as you don't pull too many back to back shots at once and allow for the proper recovery time ????? between each shot/shots ???????

Tell us we are curious as to how far this feature can be stretched out in a machine with the thermal mass and boiler size of the Brewtus.

How do the shots taste, and after how many, along with how much rest and recovery is needed between each shot/ number of shots.

The advertising hype will not cover this important info unfortunately but we are hoping someone will.

Whatever the case I think it is nice to be able to choose single boiler mode if desired.

As was stated before, the inlet to the brew boiler passes through the steam boiler. I'd guess that turning off the steam boiler will only make a difference if you try to pull more than a couple of shots back to back. Otherwise the group will retain enough heat to control the temperature for a few shots.

Ira