Steam valve leak update:
Attempted to tighten the valve. I still have water leaking out from the threads. Has anyone used teflon tape to fix this?
Also after tightening I am not getting any steam out. None at all. Any ideas what may be causing this?
Thanks for the help!
-Karan

Are you sure it's not coming out the stem? And did you remember to put back the o-ring you burned?

Did you put the valve back in upside down?

Something has been missed. We just need to find out what. If you can take it out, unscrew it and take a snap of the pieces like an exploded view... we ought to be able to get to the bottom of it.

-Peter

I'll double check but I do not think I put it in upside down. I did replace the o ring with a 07, it looked like the correct size. Dumb question, but what exactly is the stem, google image search shows a bunch of different things labelled as stems.
Thanks Peter!

Like this:


Except that in this pic, I left the stem in the valve body. The stem has an o-ring on it that can leak. Also note which end of the valve is the top and which is the bottom.

-Peter

unbranded wrote:Question for you fellow BDB owners. How often do you take out and wash your water reservoir? I've been dealing with something that is quite annoying. I've been noticing that my reservoir has been developing a bio-film (bacteria) along the walls pretty frequently. I've been switching between NYC tap water (very soft at 40 TDS) that's been filtered, and third wave water. I supposed the warm water + the fact that it's sitting still within the tank is contributing to bacteria growth, but it feels like that happens quite quickly. I take out my reservoir at least once per week and notice that the walls feel slimy. Has anyone else had this experience?

I clean similar to Chris..every 2 weeks.Even with my "Pavlis water", it still gets slimy. I just feel better using a wee bit of bleach. it's a quick process.

peter, regarding your R24 emulation, couldn't one get CLOSE by turning off Pre infusion, grind a bit tighter, hit and hold the manual button for maybe 5 seconds..let go the manual button to stop the shot. Allow maybe 20 seconds for the water/coffee to reside together, then restart the shot, whilst using the flow profiling at 4-5 bar till a nice flow is established, then declining pressure to 3 bar ...then stop the shot at the desired weight?
I'd guess the grind would have to be significantly finer. I'd assume the shots are sweeter, cleaner...but not any more "mouthfeel?"

That said, would this technique really benefit a medium roast? I find little to zero PI works best with most of the medium roasts I put through my BDB.

Personally, I do not believe, even the Decent can totally reproduce a wonderful Bosco shot, for instance. There are so many intricate differences. What you describe, thanks to a pump the Strega could sort of do..using a hand to somewhat slow down the levers rise.

IMAWriter wrote:peter, regarding your R24 emulation, couldn't one get CLOSE by turning off Pre infusion, grind a bit tighter, hit and hold the manual button for maybe 5 seconds..let go the manual button to stop the shot. Allow maybe 20 seconds for the water/coffee to reside together, then restart the shot...

The problem here is that by stopping the shot, you vent off whatever goodness is in the puck, down the drain when the solenoid de energizes. What I have done is that I have separate control of the pump and solenoid, so I can stop the pump even while the solenoid remains powered (again that way, you aren't venting off whatever was on top of the puck). Make sense?

This of course does not mean that by venting off the puck halfway through, that the shot won't taste great. It actually might.

-Peter

Yep, makes sense...forgot the venting due to the solenoid

Having said that, it's SUPER easy to put the pump or solenoid or both, on a separate switch.

Which segues into a...

Worthless philosophical discussion alert:
A few years back, I got into a conversation with Assaf in Tel Aviv, of GS/3 fame. He (along with Dick Green and Jake_G and some others have modified GS/3's). And Assaf pointed out that one of the things he likes about his GS/3 is that it makes a good "platform" for modifications. I agreed and was a bit jealous at the time. HOWEVER, come to find out a few years later that the the BDB too, is a fantastic platform for modifications. Utterly so. Right now, I'm using a rotary pump mounted under the kitchen sink, with it's own separate power switch, plumbed, other branded high quality solenoid, also on it's own power switch, and a needle valve to control flow rate once the pump is running. Other than the chassis and the multiple PID temperature control, there is almost no Breville left in my "platform" machine. Just sayin'

This is what is allowing me to mimic the highly forgiving, R24 profile which is the latest hotness that I'm into at the moment.

-Peter

pcrussell50 wrote:Like this:
Except that in this pic, I left the stem in the valve body. The stem has an o-ring on it that can leak. Also note which end of the valve is the top and which is the bottom.

-Peter

It looks like the valve was in the correct orientation. I tightened everything again. This is what it looked like taking it apart today.



The only difference I see is that I have a larger o ring than you Peter, but to me it looked like the same size as the original one I torched
Another tip. A hemostat makes a great tool to take out and put the clips back in
Waiting for the machine to warm up as I post to see if this worked.
-Karan