Probably not a bad time to toss out a quick update on that year and half old, 2018 replacement machine I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Being a week 21, 2018 machine it has tube nuts instead of o-rings on the boiler tops, and the quick change group collar inserts.

Thankfully nothing to report, but with a worthwhile data point: It's been plumbed and with a rotary pump for about the last year. And since it's plumbed, that means from the water line as it enters the machine, through the heat exchanger in the steam boiler, to and through the brew boiler (through the needle valve because I'm Slayer modded), and all the way up to the solenoid at the base of the group, there's been a 24/7 line pressure of three bar. A good bit more than the two or so bar that you see at the formerly leak prone steam boiler. And this fitting at the base of the solenoid is still clip-and-o'ring. Breville only went from o-rings to tube nuts on the boiler tops. This makes me wonder if indeed the steam boiler o-ring leaks of the past, really were due to the fact that silicone is not the top choice for steam.

Another durability note... the rotary pump is much more aggressive than the stock vibe pump. But still no harm to the machine.

Water check: My plumbed water is scale free because I use an espresso specific softening filter like the shops use. BUT it does not remove chlorides. And my muni water at 5-25ppm is borderline on chlorides. Borderline because it's OK for La Marzocco's guidelines, but not OK using Synesso's guidelines. Anyway, a few days ago, I took the solenoid off the pad for a look to see if there was any evidence of corrosion from chlorides. But whew! Looks good:


-Peter

DaddyTaxes wrote:I mean for sure, but I would prefer NOT to worry about stupid import fees than spend a couple of hours filling out forms and putting together documentation to prove something that the government is already aware of. Warrantied items are always labelled as such in the import forms that the company files before sending the items back...

Either way, I'm currently calling all the authorized dealers to see if any of them provide their own inhouse warranty that i can add to the breville warranty for some peace of mind.

idrinkcoffee is an authorized Breville service company that sells the Breville DB. I got mine used from them for C$700. I'd check with them for sure. There aren't a lot of the dealers that are also authorized service technicians - there really aren't a lot of dealers, period.

DaddyTaxes wrote:So, in order to arm myself with information prior to making any purchases, I contacted Breville Canada. The information I collected is disheartening. Breville's Canadian service centre(s) no longer provide services for their espresso equipment. Services are all done in he states. While this in and of itself isn't an issue, I've previously been charged import fees for repaired items being sent back to me (this is a problem with our tax collection agency being greedy af.)

This plus the 3 week quoted lead time on service has made me pause and seriously reconsider the merits of going this route.

Not sure if this is true or not. When I had a leak issues 3 months ago I contacted Breville support, which was handled by reps in Torrance CA. They sent me an RMA shipping label etc to;

AUTHORIZED SERVICE CENTER:
DRP (Breville) ASC
100 Strowger Blvd.
Brockville, ON, K6V5J9

While all of my correspondence was with Torrance, I rec'd my machine back in 12 days from Brockville. Basically a contracted repair center for many different brands etc.

Spitz.me wrote:idrinkcoffee is an authorized Breville service company that sells the Breville DB. I got mine used from them for C$700. I'd check with them for sure. There aren't a lot of the dealers that are also authorized service technicians - there really aren't a lot of dealers, period.

Not true, they are not an authorized service center or parts reseller. They told me they were when I bought my machine 15 months ago, which enticed me to buy from them as I am 20 minutes away. When my machine needed repairs, I expected to bring it there and they said they no longer service Breville or have parts.

From an email sent Jan 9 2020.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Brendan
We are not authorized to sell Breville parts, but you can contact Breville directly at 1-855-683-3535

iDrinkCoffee.com Tech Support

DaddyTaxes wrote:Yes this is the main reason I am still in the stage of reconsidering. I am mechanically minded so diy repairs aren't an issue, but in the off chance something major goes wrong, I'd rather not pay $375 to Breville PLUS around $200 in import fees and tax. That's half the price of the unit XD. Considering nothing else short of a linea mini is really calling to me, I'm thinking I should just go for the bdb and hope for the best.

Did an actual Breville support technician say they only serviced them in the USA? If so, this policy has changed in the past three months. As I said I know that support calls for North America are handled by reps in Torrance, but as you may know many companies outsource warranty repairs.

I am quite sure Breville outsources too. And as I've speculated, (time and again ) I don't think they put much interest in big repairs either. I think they (to use a gridiron football analogy), "punt" the hard jobs and just send out new machines. I'm not even sure they have any better access to parts than we do. It seems like the only parts Breville makes, even for repairs, are the kinds of things that are simple.

ON EDIT: By the way Brendan, I had a self-epiphany earlier. On the o-ring machines, the ones most likely to leak very couple of years are the ones on the steam boiler. The others generally not so much if ever. So that lends some extra credibility to the whole business of how Aflas might be a better choice for steam applications. You are now the official "test mule" of the BDB community with Aflas o-rings on your steam boiler.

-Peter

bhennessy wrote:Not true, they are not an authorized service center or parts reseller. They told me they were when I bought my machine 15 months ago, which enticed me to buy from them as I am 20 minutes away. When my machine needed repairs, I expected to bring it there and they said they no longer service Breville or have parts.

From an email sent Jan 9 2020.
------------------------------------------------------------------
Hello Brendan
We are not authorized to sell Breville parts, but you can contact Breville directly at 1-855-683-3535

iDrinkCoffee.com Tech Support

Edit - Just re-read. Ya, this sucks. I guess it could have happened at any time anyway...

A user asked a good question in another thread about periodic draining of the steam boiler to dilute mineral buildup:

nindustrial wrote:At the risk of a slightly off-topic question, some folks on this thread have mentioned never descaling since they're using a water recipe (potassium bicarbonate variant). Do you still drain the steam boiler every so often (as some other owners have suggested) to remove any mineral build-up, or is this also not really needed since you're using a distilled water recipe? I'm trying to ensure longevity on my new-to-me refurb unit...

To which I answer for my for my own particular case: In the case of my particular BDB, I have it plumbed, which means that I can't/don't mix my own "Pavlis water". I use a smaller, home version of a commercial espresso softening filter like they use in the shops: like this one: https://www.restaurantsupply.com/3m-esp ... n-capacity

Over time, this filter's effectiveness at scale reduction fades. That means some scale minerals will eventually pass. My machine does not get scaled up because I don't let it get that far before changing softening cartridges. But I do drain my boiler periodically to reduce concentration of minerals. Not for scale buildup, but because some minerals might be suspended in the water without actually scaling up the machine.

However, if you mix your own Pavlis water, 50-100mg/l of potassium bicarbonate or baking soda (both work a treat), into distilled water, as long as your distilled water is really what is claimed on the label, there should be no minerals at all in it. It remains up to you (the user), to decide if you want to do periodic steam boiler drains just for good measure.

Now, I am a huge fan of Pavlis water, and I use it religiously in my non-plumbed, hand-filled La Pavoni lever machines.

HTH

-Peter

pcrussell50 wrote:But I do drain my boiler periodically to reduce concentration of minerals. Not for scale buildup, but because some minerals might be suspended in the water without actually scaling up the machine.

Thanks Peter; although I wonder what you mean by 'periodically'? Once a month at a rate of 2-3/drinks a day, or more often? Just looking for a rough guide as to what is considered an appropriate interval for distilled water-recipe users.

On another note - I'm not using the hot water tap as much as I thought; it might be time to swap some internal tubes and start profiling shots!

Yeah about every month or two. Nothing precise. When the mood strikes.

You're catching on about the hot water tap on the BDB. It's barely a step above worthless unless you drink a lot of Americanos. And even then you can pull water out of the group for that. I drink a small pot of tea with dinner most nights. The BDB's small, thermally agile boiler is entirely unsuited to that duty. So I bellied up and got a proper 1500W temp selectable kettle.

-Peter