Casey,
My normal use is 3-4 shots per day. My Under normal use, my cleaning routine is as follows:
1x day, brush shower screen
1x week, backflush with detergent (cafiza), then water, clean drip tray with a soft brush, soak filter basket in cafiza for 20 min.
1x month, remove water reservoir and soak for 20-30 minutes with cold water and a splash of bleach. Drain and refill both boilers.
About 2x a year I open it up and see if things look good. (o ring leak inspection)
1x a year i do an o-ring job and peek inside the boilers.

After 2 years I had a small, very small amount of scale in the steam boiler. I manually descaled by removing the tubes and probes from the top of the boiler. I emptied the boilers and used a funnel and hose to fill them through one of the open tube flanges with a descaling solution. I let it sit for 30 min or so, then drained them and rinsed them by filling them with fresh water with the funnel and hose and draining them about 3x. Then I reconnected all the hoses and probes and fired it up. It took a bit of creativity to rig up the funnel & hose combo that would fit.

You might be wondering why I took all this trouble to descale when it has a built in descaling cycle. I had to return a BDB to the retailer after I tried to descale it with the auto program. After it went through the cycle the steam boiler would not fill. After researching the problem and finding a few things to try that did not work, I took it back. The machine was very new at the time and certainly did not need descaling. I was just excited and looking for things to do with my new hobby. I was really destroyed when it would not fill.

To answer your last question, I use very soft bottled spring water. I do not use any kind of filter in the tank.

lancealot wrote:It sounds like you had some scuz buildup. Perhaps now that you have it knocked down and under control, the bleach routine will work to keep it at bay. It has for me. Good luck.

BTW: make sure you use cool water instead of hot with the bleach. The chlorine in bleach is a powerful oxidizer and goes to work killing organic stuff. How water takes its powers away

Thanks, Chris.

It will be part of my standard cleaning routine moving forward.

There's a reason the expensive glamorous names don't have a descale function. You are expected to use scale free water and warned of expensive consequences if you don't. I took that message to heart years ago when I had a -900 and it has never done me wrong.

-Peter

I've read this thread with great interest, as I'm currently on the fence at purchasing a BDB as my first 'real' espresso machine (manual lever Flair right now). I could go the usual SBDU route for my first machine, but given price-comparison for features, am tempted to cut my experiential teeth on the BDB. At the risk of asking something redundant, I'm curious if others feel this machine still holds incredible value for it's feature-set today, as of August 2019? Are there any nearly equivalent machines (from a price-perspective) that I should consider? I understand longevity is a concern for the BDB, but at the right price, I'm ok if my first machine only lasts 3-5 years. Is it still relatively cheap to maintain (and from a parts-availability perspective)?

As an aside, I've also been tempted by the ACS Minima, representing a very nice price-point with stainless steel dual boilers. But then I don't get all the techy bells/whistles compared to the BDB, in exchange for presumed longevity and easier maintenance.

Thoughts and opinions please...

Feed a BDB the same water that La Marzocco or Slayer or Van Der Westen or any other high end machine expects you to use, and with regular maintenance it should probably last close enough to forever, to not make a difference. As with any espresso machine, some parts will have to be replaced along the way... pumps (cheap and easy DIY), solenoid (cheap and easy DIY), steam valve re seal (not just cheap, but free, and easy DIY). The occasional 10cent o-ring, etc... Big expensive failures are so rare that I cannot think of one, off the top of my head and I've had these things since they first came out in Fall 2011. And even if it spontaneously out of the clear blue, just blew up, $400 which includes shipping both ways gets it repaired or replaced.

And it's an easy ten minute, fully reversible plug and play mod away from being "better than a Slayer" at flow control, if that interests you.

And if you're willing to plumb, it's an easy switch to rotary pump.

-Peter

pcrussell50 wrote:
And if you're willing to plumb, it's an easy switch to rotary pump.

-Peter

Is there some DIY guide to replace the pump?
Thanks

Rotary pumps also need a motor to drive them. There is not enough room inside the BDB for this. So the motor has to be mounted like it is in commercial espresso machines... outside the machine, usually under the counter. This is why the pump has to be plumbed. My under-sink, espresso specific water softener (I told you, you need good water for the machine to last), is piped directly to the pump. Which in turn attaches by way of tubing, to the same tube at the output of the stock vibe pump. It's that simple.

-Peter

I just got my BDB, but for the capabilities of the machine paired with the price, it's hard to beat in my opinion.

Obviously it largely comes down to what you want out of a machine (lever vs pump, looks, etc.). But I think it's worth it to get this machine for your first pump driven espresso foray. ESPECIALLY if you want "flow profiling" capabilities.

pcrussell50 wrote:Rotary pumps also need a motor to drive them. There is not enough room inside the BDB for this. So the motor has to be mounted like it is in commercial espresso machines... outside the machine, usually under the counter. This is why the pump has to be plumbed. My under-sink, espresso specific water softener (I told you, you need good water for the machine to last), is piped directly to the pump. Which in turn attaches by way of tubing, to the same tube at the output of the stock vibe pump. It's that simple.

-Peter

Thanks for your reply! May I ask which water softener you use?

First, there is a thread I started about rotary plumbing the BDB.

As for softeners, any on designed for espresso will do (DON'T use RO).

I have this one: https://www.restaurantsupply.com/3m-esp ... n-capacity I didn't buy from this link, I bought mine new from eBay for a little less. This link is just to show what the product is.

You could just as well use this one from Chris Coffee: https://www.chriscoffee.com/Water-Softe ... ftsysg.htm

And Prima Coffee makes one as well. In fact, if you're handy with 1/4" beverage tubing and plumbing parts, (super easy), you could just as well make your own. Just copy Chris Coffee or Prima. But you might not save any money buying your own, piece by piece. Might be cheaper just to buy one from them.

-Peter