I have had my BDB for 6 months or so and am very happy with my choice. I bought it second hand and opened it up expecting to see evidence of steam leakage. Nope, everything looks ship shape and right as rain. The shot count IIRC, is around 2500 of which probably 300-400 are mine. I get excellent shots with it and my lowly SMGP, though I am going to be upgrading the grinder ASAP(Beratza has been out of stock on Vario Refurbs for quite a while now).

One thing I have been noticing lately is the pump does not kick in when manually preinfusing. I have it set to 55 and hold the button till first drips then release for the the pull.

Once in a while, not every time, the pump does not kick in while holding the button. If I release the button, let the pump kick in full pressure then stop it immediately, I can then press and hold for preinfusion and the pump comes on at 55.

I've seen several posts of people saying the reason they sent their BDB in for service was that it quit preinfusing. Is this symptom I'm seeing a precursor to to this failure?

luvmy40 wrote: One thing I have been noticing lately is the pump does not kick in when manually preinfusing. I have it set to 55 and hold the button till first drips then release for the the pull.

First of all, good on you for taking advantage of a feature that very few other machines out there have, at any price. What you are doing is most of a Slayer, right there.

luvmy40 wrote:Once in a while, not every time, the pump does not kick in while holding the button. If I release the button, let the pump kick in full pressure then stop it immediately, I can then press and hold for preinfusion and the pump comes on at 55.

I've seen several posts of people saying the reason they sent their BDB in for service was that it quit preinfusing. Is this symptom I'm seeing a precursor to to this failure?

Yep. Been there, done that. That's how it happened with mine. After five years of great service back in 2018, and only the ordinary maintenance (new set of o-rings and service of the steam valve). At first, when it wouldn't pre infuse, stopping the shot (during the failed pre infusion) and then restarting would get it going properly. But that only lasted a few months. Eventually, the trick didn't work any more and there was no more pre infusing. All other functions worked as normal. This left the BDB in a neutered state, no better any other $5000 temperature stable machine with no pre infusion.

1) On advice from the Aussie forum, I changed the pump, (easy and cheap DIY). BUT that didn't work. That means that (in my case at least), the problem wasn't the pump. It was the pump controller. And besides, the pump worked normally a full power anyway.

2) So I punted and for the first time since I bought the BDB in Fall 2011, paid up the $350 repair fee. This included shipping both ways and a free fitted box if you didn't keep yours. I had kept mine the WHOLE time so I didn't need it. Three days later they notified me of the "bad news" that they were out of factory refurbs with none coming, and so they were sending me a brand new machine. But they were also short on those, so I had to wait a month.

-Peter

I am going to have to look into the Slayer evolution.

20 years or so ago, I picked up a CMA single group(unbranded), E61 semi automatic machine that was probably about 2-1/2 times the physical size of the BDB. Massive single boiler! I had it plumbed in and rigged a switch to open the three way solenoid to line pressure without engaging the pump. I'd flip the preinfuse rocker switch for a few seconds and then hit the double shot button and flip off the rocker switch.

That was before bottomless portafilters were really in vogue, so I didn't know precisely how long to preinfuse but did see drastic differences in my shots depending on how long I preinfused.

Thanks for the heads up Peter! I'm going to budget for a service visit to Breville in the near future.

OK now you're talking...

While I do not want to goad anybody into living with a machine that is not working the way it is supposed to, IF you do the "Slayer mod", you will not need the pump to run at partial power for pre infusion. You run the pump at full power and you set the flow (and or pressure) as you wish using the needle valve. So you can set the flow as low as you want for pre infusion... lower than PP55 even.

An by the way, I too have mine plumbed AND rigged so that I can open the solenoid to line pressure without turning on the pump. So great minds think alike, eh?

And my pump is now rotary (a happy follow-on from plumbing).

Breville Dual Boiler Mods and Maintenance

By the way, even if you just do the Slayer mod and don't plumb, it's still easy to rig an interrupt switch so you can run the pump separately from the solenoid. The plumbing and rotary thing I did is TOTALLY unnecessary bling that you do not need except for personal satisfaction.

-Peter

pcrussell50 wrote:IF you do the "Slayer mod", you will not need the pump to run at partial power for pre infusion. You run the pump at full power and you set the flow (and or pressure) as you wish using the needle valve.

Great Point!!!!

I just have to gauge whether SWMBO will be willing to learn how to run the needle valve for profiling.

BTW, I have the BDB "semi plumbed". I run a three stage filter and under counter softener and installed a float valve in the BDB reservoir to keep it 3/4 full at all times.

I'm still trying to work up an automatic drip system to add bicarb to RO water.

luvmy40 wrote:Great Point!!!!

I just have to gauge whether SWMBO will be willing to learn how to run the needle valve for profiling.

Well, if you get the stock pre infusion thing fixed, even if you've done the Slayer mod, all you have to do is leave the valve open, then it will just operate like a plain old stock BDB. So no special SWMBO retraining needed.

-Peter

pcrussell50 wrote:On advice from the Aussie forum, I changed the pump, (easy and cheap DIY).

I bought the brass necked pump before I even had the BDB in hand. Will the factory OPV mount up with the brass pump or do I have to get the brass OPV as well?

It should. Just be very careful not to strip the threads of the stock OPV.

I'd be curious if this works for you. It did not work for me. But could always use more data points.

-Peter