Breville Dual Boiler "Slayer shots"? - Page 28

February 4th, 2019, 2:10 pm

johnny4lsu wrote:Any chance someone can make a video explaining the mod? I am always intimidated to do stuff like this.

ETA: I browsed through the thread and didn't see a video. Correct me if it's already been done.

Not to make little of your concerns by saying how super easy it is, (but it really is that easy

) Still nothing wrong with baby steps to build confidence with. IMHO, the first two baby steps you should take are:

1) get comfortable removing the four screws to take the top off, and how to prop up the top you just removed, so you don't stretch and strain the wires that connect it to the main body of the machine. There is no right or wrong way to do this. Any way that doesn't strain the wires is fine.

2) once that's done, look at the valve, pick one of the tubes that are attached to it, and practice pulling the hairpin clip, pulling out the tube, noting the o-ring, don't lose the o-ring or the hairpin clip, and then put it back in. Hint, to get the hairpin clip back in, you should press the tube into it's hold enough to compress the o-ring. Then it will be in deep enough that the hairpin clip will go back in easily. I use needle nosed pliers to pull and replace the hairpin clip.

These are really the only mechanical "skills" needed to perform this mod. The rest are just pulling a tube from "here", and plugging it back in, "there".

Spitz.me wrote:I have been pulling shots at home with very capable machines since 2009. Ten years later, I'm pulling the best shots ever with the BDB. This is not hyperbole. I'm pulling the tastiest stuff I've ever had at home.

I always worry about coming across as a shameless shill for the BDB because I was a launch customer back in fall of 2011 and have been very vocal about my satisfaction with it. But this pretty much sums it up for me as well.

-Peter

#272: Post by **Spitz.me** » February 4th, 2019, 11:39 pm

johnny4lsu wrote:You rock! Thanks!

I figured two pictures could show you just how easy the modification is just by color coding the tubes you need to shift. I don't know the exact names of certain tubes, or tube terminations or whatever. I'm not a mechanical engineer or even a bold DIYer, but I dabble and hang with smart people.

FYI - I'm just outlining what to do once you're inside your machine. You'll need to learn how to remove the top cover and I'm not outlining that here. Sorry! You'll need torx and philips screw drivers. The screws on either side of the group head are kind of a PITA.

So, here we go...

The steps have been listed before and I don't really think the process needs a step-by-step if you can visualize what you need to do. Since the mod is fairly straight forward, it can be easily visualized in 2 pictures. Having said that, please let me know if this is stupid and confusing!

STOCK tube setup on a BDB 920
This is an image taken from the front of the machine so the bottom of the image is the front of the machine.

I'll list the tubes in the order that I did my modification. Also think of the needle valve as a "T". The portion of the needle valve that points to the back of the machine is the middle of the "T". One side of the "T" is the hot water knob.

The tubes have fittings near the ends. These need to go below the hairpin to install the tubes properly. The hairpins can be easily pulled with pliers and they reinstall very easily. This will make more sense when you start working with the tubes.

The tubes may or may not come out with little orange gaskets. You're going to be moving different ends around and even moving an entire tube to a new location. The best thing to do is to take the gaskets with the tubes. If you can't, like I couldn't for one of them, then just be smart about it and move a gasket to another tube. As Ryan pointed out, if you're not careful about your gaskets you could potentially force them awkwardly into the holes and this isn't good.

Light Purple Tube - Boiler to the solenoid (black box behind the brew boiler)
Maroon (dark red) Tube - Needle valve (middle "T" pointing to back) to the hot water tap.
Blue Tube - Needle Valve (side "T" pointing to boiler) to the solenoid.

My tubes and fittings are not the same across all 900s or 920s, I don't believe, but someone smarter can correct me here. I know Peter's 900 has different stock tube fittings. On my machine, all of the tubes I needed to shift had the same hairpin fittings on both ends. I believe my tube hairpin fittings made it easier because removing the tubes from the solenoid would have made it trickier . You can kind of make it out in the picture that the tubes into the solenoid are buried a bit.

Modified BDB with color coded tubes now in new positions
Detach both tubes from the needle valve. It makes it easier to work through.

New Configuration:

Light Purple Tube - Removed from the top of the brew boiler and fitted to the needle valve (middle "T").
Maroon (dark red) Tube - Brew boiler to the needle valve (Side "T"). You can see that I simply disconnected this tube from its original setup and re-purposed it. This is the only tube that I fully removed to put somewhere else.
Blue Tube - Solenoid to the hot water tap. This tube is really tricky to move into that position because you have to snake it underneath to the other side. I used a coat hanger to raise the tube up so I could grab it once I found my way to a spot just right of the brew boiler. It's TRICKY.

Conclusion:
Remove Hot Water Tap switch
Make sure to do the hot water tap mod
This is where you remove the switch that stops the brew cycle if you turn on the hot water tap. I forgot about this and had to go back in! It's a very easy mod. You can see in my pictures on the left of the valve that mine is still attached (the profiling mod doesn't work if it stays in). It can hang freely after removal.

Hot Water Tap Plug
Do not forget to plug the hot water tap!!
You can easily unscrew the hot water tap. I didn't outline how to do this as it's been outlined in previous step-by-step posts and detailed a bit more by Peter. Like Ryan, I had no use for the BDB blind plug. So, I followed his method to simply cut out the middle circle of the plug. It fits really nicely as a plug for the hot water tap and I haven't had any leakage whatsoever since I modified the machine 3 weeks ago.

I hope this helps those who find this a daunting task, as I did. Those with different fittings on their tubes may find the mod a little more painful, but it's still fairly easily doable.

February 4th, 2019, 11:47 pm

I really appreciate you taking the time to do that. Seriously. You guys are great!

February 4th, 2019, 11:52 pm

I edited a bit, please refresh!

I'll make more edits if there is a want for more or a need for changes.

February 4th, 2019, 11:58 pm

I'll let you know! Thanks!!!!

February 10th, 2019, 4:52 pm

Grrrrr. Looks as though I have a leak on the hot water tap. Pressure only gets up to around 2 bar. Seems as though I stripped the plastic threads on the water tap male part.

Frustrating

#277: Post by **ob3calp** » February 11th, 2019, 1:25 am

Since this thread has been so helpful, I figure I'd contribute a bit.

I found that the trickiest part of this mod is how to run the tube from the solenoid to the hot water tap, as it's not long enough to go over the brew boiler. I simply taped the hose to a large ziptie and fished it under all the wires.

This is photo from the back of the machine, where the hose is coming out the bottom of the solenoid. The hose rotates fairly freely, so there's little risk of kinking.

The second photo shows where the hose is fished out of and how it runs to the hot water tap. It's a pretty tight fit to get into the water spout connector, but once it's in, just quickly replace the retaining clip.

#278: Post by **Eltimm** » February 11th, 2019, 9:05 am

Hi Guys,

Wonderful thread! Just wanted to let you know I joined this forum and am about to purchase a Solis (Breville is named Solis in the netherlands, where I'm at now) triple heat (same as breville 920XL, according to my research).
This is largely due to your success and enthousiasm for this device.

Things work a little bit different this side of the ocean, but I hope i can adapt your work to apply the slayer mod as well.
Thank you for your research and pioneering! Will try to update and see how the Solis relates to the Breville.

February 11th, 2019, 10:23 am

johnny4lsu wrote:Grrrrr. Looks as though I have a leak on the hot water tap. Pressure only gets up to around 2 bar. Seems as though I stripped the plastic threads on the water tap male part.

Frustratirng

Are you sure you stripped it?

In any event, all is not lost even if you stripped it. Actually, you may be in for an even easier time than the rest of us. Remember, that line only needs to be capped. You could fold it over to kink it and hold it that way with a zip tie. Or crush it down with vise grips. But those are pretty crude and inelegant. I wouldn't want to do those things. Anyway, it does not have to be placed in the water spigot. It's just that a capped water spigot acts as your cap.

So, what to do if you're certain you're stripped? Good news. The tubing is 4mm OD Teflon tubing and there are TONS of fittings for this form factor and the tubing is common too. It is very common in pneumatics. They ought to be all over eBayZon. Here's one from eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1pc-Push-In-To ... Sw-W5Ut~aR You can probably find them on Amazon, too. There are many shapes, sizes and brands. It also doesn't have to be a quick connect. These fittings exist in compression format as well.

You will need to cut your tube a few inches back from the Breville fitting, and simply slip the cap over the cut end. And. Done. Get busy profiling. Keep the end you cut off because...

...If you ever need to send your machine back for repairs, you will want to re-join the two original ends. For this you will need a 4mm OD union fitting. These are cheaper and more common than the end caps. Also eBayZon. Here's one from eBay: https://www.ebay.com/itm/3-PCS-4mm-Air- ... 4d76007745

One final thought... It seems like in this plumbing space, 4mm is interchangeable with 5/32", so you might have even more luck shopping 5/32" fittings if you are in North America.

ob3calp wrote:Since this thread has been so helpful, I figure I'd contribute a bit.

I found that the trickiest part of this mod is how to run the tube from the solenoid to the hot water tap, as it's not long enough to go over the brew boiler. I simply taped the hose to a large ziptie and fished it under all the wires.

Nicely done. Thanks for posting your experience. The more the merrier, and the more we have people doing this, the more we can get to learning how this third dimension (where grind and dose are the original two) plays with the others.

Right now, all we have to go on is the contributions the Slayer community had made. But we now have actually more capability than that, and that space needs to be explored and mapped.

This is cutting edge territory.

-Peter

#280: Post by **Spitz.me** » February 11th, 2019, 11:23 am

johnny4lsu wrote:Grrrrr. Looks as though I have a leak on the hot water tap. Pressure only gets up to around 2 bar. Seems as though I stripped the plastic threads on the water tap male part.

Frustrating

I imagine you're right in your diagnosis. But I figure I'll offer my experience if it can be helpful. I know that when I plugged my tap, it wasn't a perfectly sized plug and so it took a bit of strength to really get the tap to tighten into it's original position.