Breville Dual Boiler, five+ years on - Page 45

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BaristaBob
Posts: 1866
Joined: 6 years ago

#441: Post by BaristaBob »

lancealot wrote:I think I have heard that in other markets, the machine behaves like Zantippe's does. This is to meet energy consumption / efficiency guidelines or regulations. I forget where I heard this, maybe it was the Aussie board. I could be making it all up :shock:
So don't quote me on this unless you have done your own research.
Zantippe have you read your user manual? Is this how the power cycle is described in there?
Wow, that is a short duty cycle...30 minutes! Maybe someone in Europe or Oz has a solution to extend the power up time. Sorry I'm no help. :(
Bob "hello darkness my old friend..I've come to drink you once again"

mrjag
Posts: 343
Joined: 9 years ago

#442: Post by mrjag »

For those of you that have completed mod(s), did you go through the trouble to undo them prior to getting official service through Breville? My machine developed a problem that is beyond my repair capabilities so I'll be shipping my machine to Breville and I'm feeling a little lazy about reversing the "upgrades" to bring it back to stock configuration. I suspect that they won't care, but I'd rather not run into delays if its going to cause problems.

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

#443: Post by pcrussell50 (original poster) »

I sent mine back a year and a half ago after a six year run. Mod-wise I had moved the micro switch on the water knob out of the way, for GS/3 style profiling (as distinct from Slayer style profiling), and was using the brass neck pump and brass OPV. I put back the stockers mostly because I didn't want to give away $100 worth of perfectly good pump and OPV. I also took the trouble to put back an old solenoid and a leaky ball valve, expecting new ones in return.*

If you've done the Slayer mod I would return that back. Don't be afraid to use plastic 4mm tubing fittings to splice tubes you may have cut. They didn't mind mine.

Please report back your experience.

Can you elaborate what the problem is? The rest of us might be curious. Or PM it to me?

*what I got back in return was a brand new machine

-Peter
LMWDP #553

mrjag
Posts: 343
Joined: 9 years ago

#444: Post by mrjag »

pcrussell50 wrote:Can you elaborate what the problem is? The rest of us might be curious. Or PM it to me?
The machine was shorting out periodically and triggering GFI protection. There were telltale signs of a minor leak from one of the sensors on the boiler, so I replaced the o-ring and fired it back up only to have the GFI trigger again. This time I went through the trouble to replace all of the o-rings (size #007 and #008 #010), started it back up and thought I had success... only to have it die again. Inspecting one more time, I noticed a lot of corrosion at the thermostat near the bottom of the steam boiler. I haven't heard of anyone running into that issue before and the part is out of stock at the moment.

With work ramping up I figured it's time to stop tinkering and let Breville fix it. I'd be surprised if they repaired instead of replaced my machine due to the lack of availability for that part, but maybe they have some in reserve for in-house repairs. Either way, I'm ready to get back to brewing.

On a totally separate note, I found these two bluetooth enabled micro-scales (0.1g and 0.01g resolution) using the same generic case that you see all over Amazon. I'll probably pick one up when things slow down again and try to rig it inline for automated weight based start/stop extractions.

*edited to fix the #008 -> #010 sizing*

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Qporzk
Posts: 96
Joined: 5 years ago

#445: Post by Qporzk »

mrjag wrote:On a totally separate note, I found these two bluetooth enabled micro-scales (0.1g and 0.01g resolution) using the same generic case that you see all over Amazon. I'll probably pick one up when things slow down again and try to rig it inline for automated weight based start/stop extractions.
I'm curious how you plan to do this, as I have similar plans with a scale I'm building. Are you basically thinking a little relay/FET/SSR in parallel with the Manual button that will trigger at a given weight? Have you come up with an elegant way to route any wires to the control board?

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

#446: Post by pcrussell50 (original poster) »

mrjag wrote:Inspecting one more time, I noticed a lot of corrosion at the thermostat near the bottom of the steam boiler. I haven't heard of anyone running into that issue before and the part is out of stock at the moment.
Definitely do the return. I'll bet you get a new machine out of it based on that description. So far even though they could give you a factory refurb, I have not heard of a single case where someone got a refurb and not a new one. Some people have sent back machines and paid the fee for easy repairs and gotten their old machine back. Me? I do not recommend paying Breville for repairs unless they are big ones that will likely result in a new machine. ;)
That said, in eight years of BDB ownership, I've only had one of those... And even that one I could probably fixed myself. (The machine stopped pre infusing. I think a capacitor on the main board leaked out.)

But a couple of things...

1) IME, the GFCI tripping comes from the triac board up on the underside of the warming tray becoming wet down by steam hissing up from the top of the steam boiler that sits directly under the board. Are you sure that you replaced the o-rings on the PTFE water tubes with #007's? And that they are not leaking? I usually either leave the top cover off for a couple of days, to judge the success of the repair, or at least leave the screws out, so I can pull the top cover off with ease until I'm sure the repair worked.

2) Where did you use #008's? I don't think any of the PTFE water tubes use them. I have only ever used #007 on them. OT: the handle shaft of the steam valve is the only place I know for sure that uses #008. That said, I've never had a sensor leak though some of them appear to have something considerably bigger than #007.

-Peter
LMWDP #553

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jchung
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Posts: 399
Joined: 11 years ago

#447: Post by jchung »

mrjag wrote:The machine was shorting out periodically and triggering GFI protection. There were telltale signs of a minor leak from one of the sensors on the boiler, so I replaced the o-ring and fired it back up only to have the GFI trigger again. This time I went through the trouble to replace all of the o-rings (size #007 and #008), started it back up and thought I had success... only to have it die again. Inspecting one more time, I noticed a lot of corrosion at the thermostat near the bottom of the steam boiler. I haven't heard of anyone running into that issue before and the part is out of stock at the moment.

With work ramping up I figured it's time to stop tinkering and let Breville fix it. I'd be surprised if they repaired instead of replaced my machine due to the lack of availability for that part, but maybe they have some in reserve for in-house repairs. Either way, I'm ready to get back to brewing.

On a totally separate note, I found these two bluetooth enabled micro-scales (0.1g and 0.01g resolution) using the same generic case that you see all over Amazon. I'll probably pick one up when things slow down again and try to rig it inline for automated weight based start/stop extractions.
When I sent my BDB in, I saw a lot of scale buildup on a probe at the bottom of the steam boiler too. I had gone quite a while with having the GFCI triipped and repeatedly replacing the o-rings on the top of the steam boiler. Until one day I noticed the leak and scale at the bottom of the steam boiler. I do recall there was at least one other forum member who had the same problem. I suspect what you are seeing is the problem I and the other forum member had. That other forum member managed to replace the o-ring on the probe at the bottom of the steam boiler. I sent mine in for repair and got a new BDB in return.

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

#448: Post by pcrussell50 (original poster) »

jchung wrote:I suspect what you are seeing is the problem I and the other forum member had. That other forum member managed to replace the o-ring on the probe at the bottom of the steam boiler. I sent mine in for repair and got a new BDB in return.
Since it appears to have happened more than once, this may be a thing to add to the routine inspection/thing to keep an eye on list for BDB owners. Unlike the tops of the boilers, which are easy to access, any idea how long it takes/how big of a job it is to get to the bottom fitting? Sounds like you might have to loosen the boiler in it's mount, to get to it.

-Peter
LMWDP #553

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jchung
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#449: Post by jchung replying to pcrussell50 »

Definitely something to keep an eye on when replacing the o-rings on the top doesn't fix the GFCI tripping. I don't recall exactly how he replaced the o-ring, other than it was a real PITA for him.

mrjag
Posts: 343
Joined: 9 years ago

#450: Post by mrjag »

pcrussell50 wrote:1) IME, the GFCI tripping comes from the triac board up on the underside of the warming tray becoming wet down by steam hissing up from the top of the steam boiler that sits directly under the board. Are you sure that you replaced the o-rings on the PTFE water tubes with #007's? And that they are not leaking? I usually either leave the top cover off for a couple of days, to judge the success of the repair, or at least leave the screws out, so I can pull the top cover off with ease until I'm sure the repair worked.
I definitely did them all with #007's, including the double rings found on the tubes at the back. I'm a first-year BDB900 owner and even after going through this process a couple times I still have a lifetime supply left in the bag.
pcrussell50 wrote:2) Where did you use #008's? I don't think any of the PTFE water tubes use them. I have only ever used #007 on them. OT: the handle shaft of the steam valve is the only place I know for sure that uses #008. That said, I've never had a sensor leak though some of them appear to have something considerably bigger than #007.
Sorry, I meant #010 rather than #008. These are the larger blue rings found on the sensors that are towards the front side of the boilers.

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