From time to time, it's probably worth talking about "parts availability" for the BDB and the philosophy of living with it.

Parts that wear as a matter of routine:
These are easily or widely available, non-proprietary standard items from a variety of sources: pump, solenoid, o-rings, group collar inserts*, PTFE washers

Parts that you service (rather than dispose of):
steam valve, water valve

Parts that never break anyway:
This is restricted to the hypothetical, but let's say your boiler blew up, (never happened AFAICT) but just for the sake of argument. $175 for a new boiler, plus who knows how many hours of labor to replace it, and that's pre supposing you have the skills. Many people (I find), are intimidated by merely taking the top cover off. For those, replacing a boiler might as well be DIY brain surgery. Better off letting Breville handle a job like that anyway, same as if you had a LM or any other high end brand. Hint: Breville won't want to do it either, and they will send you either a new machine or a factory refurb with a warranty.

Notes:

The steam valve uses seals that flow over time and loosen. You can flip them over to expose a fresh sealing surface or buy new ones. I got a pack of 25 off Amazon for $10 or so. But I haven't used them, because flipping over the existing seals is just as easy, and why waste?

The water valve does NOT use seals. It is a needle valve. If it starts dripping, it's usually because it's not closing all the way any more. Pull the handle and re install on the next spline so that you can close it tighter. OR (I don't know how this could happen, but...) It's possible that the needle and seat do not make full contact with each other even when fully closed. If that's the case, rolling the needle into the seat, between thumb and forefinger, using some abrasive paste will expose fresh metal and re establish contact.

*One of the drawbacks of having a premium, solid (stainless) steel portafilter instead of a plated brass one like even some high end machines use, is that steel tends to wear softer metals over time. So rather than slowly destroying your aluminum group with your steel portafilter, Breville elected to use replaceable inserts to take the wear instead. Cheap to buy and easy to replace on the late-2017 and later machines. If you have an older machine, you can buy the newer group and replace it yourself (PITA), or send it to Breville and they will (probably) send you a new machine.

-Peter

I was considering picking up some spare o rings and washers. What would be the most common sizes?

Certainly.

o-rings:
-the PTFE water and steam tubes use #007 sized o-rings
-the larger diameter sensors in the boiler tops use (I think) size #010 o-rings
(these rarely fail, but I have heard reports, and from the pics there seems to be some corrosion or scale from bad water. Better not to use bad water.)

PTFE washers for the steam valve:
-10mm diameter x 2mm thick x hole diameter that is big enough
(The ones I got off Amazon were 5mm inner hole. I think the Breville ones use a larger hole. Doesn't matter, 5mm is more than enough, it doesn't have to be exact.) I got these off Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B073P ... UTF8&psc=1 Looks like Amazon is out of these but there is no reason you must get them from Amazon. You can try Ebay or Grainger or McMaster Carr, google, what have you. BUT before you kill yourself finding new ones, just flip over the ones you have and use those. That's all I've done so far.

Note about o-rings:
Breville is increasingly moving away from o-rings. But not completely. By mid-2018 some of the main o-rings had been replaced by a different sealing scheme.

Miscellaneous:
It wouldn't hurt to keep around some 4mm OD PTFE tubing, cheap and available everywhere, along with some 4mm push to connect, connectors. You might do this if you do any mods or custom work, though it's not required for the "Slayer mod"

HTH

-Peter

HotLava wrote:I was considering picking up some spare o rings and washers. What would be the most common sizes?

Just like Peter said, #007 mostly, #010 for the sensors. I have read many technical reports on o-ring materials, which made my head spin. Bottom line, there is no one perfect o-ring material for steam use in a espresso boiler system. But I feel the order from best to better to good enough would be AFLAS, EPDM, and silicone (oem). Currently I've replaced all my o-rings with either AFLAS or EPDM. We will see which lasts the longest.

Does anyone have a tip for getting the steam lever off? I can't seem to pop off the plastic cap on the outside.

You just have to pry it over the small tabs. It's stronger than you think. Then a small Phillips screw down in the middle and the knob assembly is off. Once you have the valve in your hands, one end has flats for a 6mm Allen key. If yours is obstinate, (and two out of four of mine were), a little heat on the threads will turn the thread sealer into a soft paste and it will slide right open. I used a creme brûlée torch but you could use a candle or a stove. We're not talking blowtorch heat here. It's not like you are trying to free a rusty bolt. You might even be able to soak it in boiling water (though I haven't tried that).

Do you have the pics bookmarked from the "ball valve details pics" thread?

-Peter

Do you pry from the outside of the machine or the inside? I am trying not to mangle up the cap.

From outside...

Butter knife. Here's a one handed video of how I got it a few minutes ago. With both hands, (and not fighting a phone in one hand) you loosen above the paddle and below the paddle and the cap comes right off. I mangled mind (a little trying to shoot this video to help you out )

-Peter

Darn, I can wiggle it around a little, but then it just snaps back into place. It is still under warranty so I'm afraid of mangling it badly. They keep telling me to descale as the first trouble shooting step... I did get a chance to look under the solenoid and it looked very clean.

GregoryJ wrote:Darn, I can wiggle it around a little, but then it just snaps back into place. It is still under warranty so I'm afraid of mangling it badly. They keep telling me to descale as the first trouble shooting step... I did get a chance to look under the solenoid and it looked very clean.

You don't need to descale. Your solenoid is spotless.

Slip your knife in there and twist. You won't hurt anything. It's not an eggshell. It's thick and strong. Pull outboard as you pry. Once you get the knack you will wonder how you had difficulty.

You should move your microswitch off the water knob while you are in there. And... don't put all the screws back when you put the cover back on. Pro tip: a lot of us just leave them out so we can inspect more frequently with less hassle. Every six months would be more than enough, but once a year should be mandatory.

-Peter