Never really looked at things from this angle. Is that the flow meter that measures flow from the espresso pump's OPV? In other words, what is going into that flow meter?

edit: welcome to the forum!

yeah that's the one, the inlet comes from the OPV!

And cheers!

i just bought a BDB thanks to this thread and Jim
cant wait to get it.

really interested in the mods
i was thinking, should i wait till its out of warranty or should i just go ahead?

My current thinking (given that whenever the machine is on, steam comes out) is that something is wrong with the OPV that's making it always 'active'
This indicates too much pressure somewhere, but where? Wondering if it's a faulty pump or a faulty OPV

hrayn3 wrote:Wondering if it's a faulty pump or a faulty OPV

My first attempt with this machine would be to look at that OPV. You say you can't pull a shot. I wonder if you can push one of the shot buttons to activate the pump and observe at the discharge from the OPV. Does MORE steam and water come out when the pump is active? This would say to me it is most certainly either 1) the OPV, or 2) a scale blockage further down the water path from the OPV which is causing the OPV to activate. (BTW, you didn't say if the pump comes on when you try to pull a shot). (Do you get any pressure on the gauge ?) (What kind of water are you using, could scale be a problem?)

It looks like you have adjusted the OPV. The locking collar is missing. Maybe you could tighten the adjustment screw and see if the behavior stops. OR Maybe you can pull it apart, inspect, clean, reassemble it. If you suspect the OPV, they are cheap and you would not be out too much money if you are wrong.

Judging from the sealing scheme of the solenoid, this is an older machine. Kudos to you for keeping it going. This makes me think of the water quality you've used for all these years and wonder if there could be scale somewhere in the waterpath causing so much back pressure that the OPV operates when you energize the pump.

Those are good calls, I got it from a friend after it broke down so don't know much about the history - I assume it hasn't ever been descaled but the water in Melbourne is generally pretty good, beside the solenoid gasket I couldn't see signs of build-up.

He told me he did mess with the OPV, after adjusting and replacing the locking collar I'm getting water out of the brew head! But zero pressure reading on the meter - it's not moving at all.

It looks like the steam/water from the OPV over the water tank just happens as the machine heats up, not connected to running the pump or not (though it does come on).

Looks like I might have to send it for a de-scaling. There's a place nearby that diagnoses issues for $55AUD, and they take it out of the service price if I go with them. I might get them to diagnose it and work from there, haha. Will update this thread when I hear from them.

Thanks lancealot!

hrayn3 wrote:There's a place nearby that diagnoses issues for $55AUD, and they take it out of the service price if I go with them.

That's nice. We don't have places like that in the US. To my knowledge there is no network of vendors that service these machines.

HI all.
Apologies this could be completely the wrong thread.
I bit the bullet yesterday and bought a new BDB (replacing my Breville Infuser) - a local store in Australia had them cheapish and I couldn't resist.

I've been reading a lot about people modding/adjusting the OPV because their machines were pushing 10.5+ bar out of the box - I've pulled a few shots already dialling it in (dosing between 19.5 -21.5g) and the gauge is reading between 9-9.5bar. I am assuming then that is okay? My old infuser read pressure off the scale....

Also, not sure if anyone knows the difference in the newer vs older batches (still the BES920) - mine apparently is batch 1801 onwards as it uses a different water filter assembly, curious if anyone knows if there are other things different as I'm assuming most of the mods done by people on this forum would be 'older' batches, worried I might break something unexpectedly.

jasiano wrote:HI all.
Also, not sure if anyone knows the difference in the newer vs older batches (still the BES920) - mine apparently is batch 1801 onwards as it uses a different water filter assembly, curious if anyone knows if there are other things different as I'm assuming most of the mods done by people on this forum would be 'older' batches, worried I might break something unexpectedly.

Internally everything is the same, except for the newer model has the couple of tubes being secured to the boiler using the threaded connectors instead of the hitch pin clips.

cool, thanks for the info.
I haven't opened it up (yet)... still just a few days old...