Breville Dual Boiler, five+ years on - Page 105

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
pcrussell50 (original poster)
Posts: 4010
Joined: 15 years ago

#1041: Post by pcrussell50 (original poster) »

Are you completely sure the triac board is completely dry? For most people, the gold standard is to (unplug the machine first), prop up the lid, remove the plastic cover over the high current board, keep the lid propped up while you let the board dry (or put a fan on it to help). Then when you are completely sure it is completely dry, plug in and warm up the machine, WITH THE LID STILL PROPPED UP, keeping the board clear of any steam leaks. For every case I have come across, including once my own situation, drying the board and keeping it dry by fixing any leaks is all it takes to return to normal service.

If this does not work for you, you are an unlucky one :-( And will be the first confirmed case I know of where drying out the board was not enough.

You might consider next, unscrewing the board and looking for any evidence of corrosion damage. If you can positively confirm that your board is bad, I do not know what your repair options are in Great Britain. It might indeed be exactly as you say, whereby certain customers in certain parts of the world are on their own. In North America (unless you were an electronics hobbyist), you would pay a fixed fee (which includes post both ways), and professional packing service, and they would fix it or send out a new machine. For the benefit of those in NA, Since I have never heard of utter catastrophic triac board failure before, I cannot comment from Breville Repair's history as to whether they will fix it or send out a new machine.

For North America customers it is a game. For most people it would be more than worth the fixed fee price, to get a brand new machine. So the trick is, to know which is the easy stuff to fix like o-rings and steam valve, and which is hard. The hard jobs, Breville Repair might not do in the three day turnaround, so you might get a new machine out of the deal.

My own experience in this game: in eight and a half years with BDB, I had only one thing that was not an easy repair... pre infusion stopped working, and it wasn't the pump. It was the controller on the main board. They sent me a new machine. Every other thing I have had in eight years has been the basics... o-ring, steam valve, group collar inserts (I had a faulty one, the other was fine), easy change though.

Anyway Pablo, if you are in a position where official support is not available to you, and you can be certain your high current board has failed, you might try an independent repair shop. At least one BDB owner went this route in New York City. They had multimeters and soldering equipment and (apparently) a good deal of experience at basic electrical diagnosis, and fixed the customer's BDB for what appeared a good price.

-Peter
LMWDP #553

Pablo
Posts: 11
Joined: 4 years ago

#1042: Post by Pablo replying to pcrussell50 »

Hi Peter

Yes the board is dry and I've also cleaned it thoroughly with alcohol to remove any contamination.
The triacs show a reading which suggests they work, but one is way off the other two, so this may be my culprit. Without a schematic I can't be sure which triac is for which boiler. The water boiler is on continuously, even with the power button off, and is sailing up to around 110 degrees Celsius (230f) I can bring the temp down to 93 by running water off, and it will then sometimes stick at 93C, but when it is turned off the temps rise again. All in all not a happy machine. All leaks are sorted, so it's not related to the usual pressure issues. There is very scare info from repair shops, but according to Outwest Coffee (Australia) this is a common issue, and this assertion is backed up by the complete absence of spare boards globally (except a little hoard of them in Australia). If it wasn't common, or indeed largely unheard of, we should expect these parts to still be available as even the first generation machines aren't that old.

A new board from Australia is £60 including global shipping, so this is my cheapest option.


Cheers

*** I should add that I am going to replace the triacs while I wait for the new board as they are penny parts, so will let you know if they are at fault. It may well be another component.


http://outwestcoffee.com.au/index.php/2 ... -failure/

pcrussell50 (original poster)
Posts: 4010
Joined: 15 years ago

#1043: Post by pcrussell50 (original poster) »

Pablo wrote:
*** I should add that I am going to replace the triacs while I wait for the new board as they are penny parts, so will let you know if they are at fault. It may well be another component.


http://outwestcoffee.com.au/index.php/2 ... -failure/
Great report, Paul. Very interested to hear what comes from replacing the triacs. Are there any processors on that board or is it mostly transistors? And is it surface mount? Or common soldering? Also, are they mains voltage? (240V for you obviously.)

Guess I should go read the out west write up.

Thanks for continuing to contribute. We are all learning from this.

-Peter
LMWDP #553

pcrussell50 (original poster)
Posts: 4010
Joined: 15 years ago

#1044: Post by pcrussell50 (original poster) »

My guide to plumbing and rotary'ing the BDB has officially been surpassed. By a large margin. Congratulations to Rodney for raising the bar. Here is is guide: My Breville Dual Boiler now plumbed with rotary pump

I have updated the "Mods and Maintenance" thread to include the link to Rodney's guide: (At the top of the Mods and Maintenance, post number 1, I have started keeping a revision log. It is now revised to include the link to Rodney's rotary and plumbing guide.)

Breville Dual Boiler Mods and Maintenance

-Peter
LMWDP #553

bosiemoncrieff
Posts: 21
Joined: 5 years ago

#1045: Post by bosiemoncrieff »

If I plan on not using the BDB for a few weeks, what are the best practices around avoiding mildew and rust? Obviously leave the steam and water valves open, toss out the water from the reservoir, do a cleaning cycle so no stale coffee builds up (I do one at the end of my morning).

What am I missing?

pcrussell50 (original poster)
Posts: 4010
Joined: 15 years ago

#1046: Post by pcrussell50 (original poster) replying to bosiemoncrieff »

I do this every summer. We go to our summer home for June, July, August. I have not read any guides as to what you should do, but that's pretty much what I do.

I will say that rust itself is unlikely because the BDB boilers are stainless steel, (a pretty high end feature usually only seen not on machines in the next price tier, $2500-$5000, but even the next price tier beyond that, $5000-up).

-Peter
LMWDP #553

viper0419
Posts: 16
Joined: 4 years ago

#1047: Post by viper0419 »

Guys,

My BDB is running very hot especially on the right side near the steam wand.
I've done the replacement on the 2 steam wand PTFE seals, not sure if that's causing it?
only discovered it when resting my hands on the machine, its scorching hot!!!

Any idea why ?

pcrussell50 (original poster)
Posts: 4010
Joined: 15 years ago

#1048: Post by pcrussell50 (original poster) replying to viper0419 »

I just went and felt mine after being on for an hour or so. It's plenty warm in that area, quite warm, but not hot enough to burn.

Since there are no exposed heaters in the BDB, the only heat you can feel is from heated water. So your first diagnostic step is to remove the cover (hopefully you can just lift it off because you put the screws aside somewhere for safe keeping), and leave it off while the machine warms up, and for a good time after it has warmed up. Then you can look for leaks in that area. If none stand out, sometimes wiggling the PTFE tubes will reveal a hisser. Obviously you need to be careful not to burn yourself touching something hot.

-Peter
LMWDP #553

viper0419
Posts: 16
Joined: 4 years ago

#1049: Post by viper0419 replying to pcrussell50 »

Ah.. Okay will try that tonight.
Thanks.

viper0419
Posts: 16
Joined: 4 years ago

#1050: Post by viper0419 »

I also like to ask if we set the Pre-infusion for say 10 seconds and press the manual button, does the needle moves up at all during pre-infusion before going to a full 9 bar after 10 seconds?

For the longest time I do not see the needle moving before the actual extraction. :?:

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