Andreja Premium Steaming Issues - SOLVED

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coffeefanatic
Posts: 9
Joined: 13 years ago

#1: Post by coffeefanatic »

Hi all,

Been a while since I've posted here, but still home roasting and brewing! :-)

I've recently had a significant decrease in steam pressure. Part of the problem may have been attributed to a bad O ring at the tip of the steaming wand, but that has been corrected (yes the wand was getting HOT!), but unfortunately that really didn't provide any significant improvement.

I removed the steam arm from the valve and checked the teflon tube which is clean and clear all the way through. I didn't remove the ball from the top of the wand, which I'm hoping / expecting that won't be needed. There also is no air loss in the tube when trying to blow air through it.

I also took the valve off, and while there's a bit of buildup inside, it's really not that significant, and the pathway through the valve to the steam arm is very clean as well.

I then decided to swap the valve from the hot water wand with the steam wand, just to see if that would help, but still no improvement. I'm now assuming that I'll have to take the plumbing apart between the boiler and the valve, and that's why I'm here, to see if anyone has any helpful advice before I begin.

The interesting thing is that I have aprox 2.25+ bars of pressure while the machine is resting. However, I have a faulty valve and it reads .5 bars when the machine has been sitting cold for 24 hours. Brew pressure sits at about 9 bars, and water temp, measured with an instant read thermometer as it exits a naked porta filter, is about 190. So If I loose 10 degrees of accuracy, that tells me boiler temps are pretty much where I want it to be.

ANy suggestions before I tear the plumbing apart?

I've got 4+ minute video posted here on youtube https://youtu.be/QnaXuI17CFo that shows a cooling flush, pulling a couple ounces of hot water, watching the pressure stat drop and begin to rise, lights going from green to red, them opening the steam wand to bleed steam, and then watching the amount of steam coming out of the hot water arm immediately following. I also back flush with a blank to show the boiler pressure. It may not be very scientific, but I think it provides a good representation of what's happening.

Thanks!
David

coffeefanatic (original poster)
Posts: 9
Joined: 13 years ago

#2: Post by coffeefanatic (original poster) »

Just in case anyone is interested, problem solved. I guess after 10 years the line was going to eventually get clogged... Unfortunately I have some debris in the boiler now, but at least I have a full head of steam. It's interesting that the decrease in pressure was so gradual, that it took almost a complete failure for me to notice.

Obviously clogged...


Cleaned...