When I got up this AM, my BDB was dead; no automatic 'on and ready @ 6:30' as has been happening every morning for a year when I first bought it and set it. Turned out *it had tripped the GFCI circuit* where it was plugged in my kitchen.

I opened the top and looked it, all looked normal: no moisture or loose tubes or wires visible. No moisture in the drip tray. So I reset the circuit and turned it on. The lights came on and it seemed like a normal warm-up showing 65 degrees and starting to climb - till it tripped the circuit a second time, at about 155 degrees. I looked inside again, and all looked normal. The boilers were hot to the touch, as I would expect. All was dry, including the drip tray.

What could it be? Heating element shorting out? Empty boiler? I asked some friends, and Peter Russell (once again) gave me helpful advice:
"Unplug the machine, take the cover off. On the bottom side of the cover is a small high current control board under a plastic grate cover. Either take that cover off and inspect for moisture, or run a hair dryer or fan at it for several hours to assure it's completely dry. Then WITH THE COVER STILL OFF and that little high current control board where it can't get wet again, fire up the machine and see if it warms up as it should. Your symptoms are precisely those you get when that board is wet. The good news is, it doesn't damage the board and goes back to normal again after drying out. Don't forget to wiggle all the PTFE water tubes when up to pressure..."

I did all this, with some care. I even enlisted my newly arrived Robot to hold the hair dryer!! I am not sure she expected to do that, but she was a good sport and held up well!



After an hour of drying, including lifting off the Triac board, I turned it on, and *it shorted a second time*. Here was the sequence:
- Switch on, normal lights and sounds and temp climb... except
- No pump activity at any time (doesn't it always pump a bit when turning on?) - then
- At 170 degrees, it trips the GFCI

So... some background: I have had this machine for a year, and have done all the mods: slayer with Jake valve, brass pump and OPV valve, etc. I've learned about the o-rings and normal upkeep. Last month, I repaired a steam leak off the steam boiler, and fixed the steam valve drip as well. Posted this about that repair:
Breville Dual Boiler, five+ years on

I was writing this up this am to post it, and got to this point, when I thought I would take off the back and watch from that angle while I tried a third time. I had to turn the machine around and move the plug to a different GFCI plug. I turned it on with the back open, and *it fired up normally* (except still no pump activity during warm up)!!!

Could this whole thing be my GFCI circuit?
Or could it have dried out and still have some internal leak?
Or is this another incident of 'the third time is a charm"?

I will monitor them both moving forward, and will keep you posted, but in the meantime, I suspect GFCI circuits are worth double checking if you run into a short.

Any advice would be welcome!!!

Geoff

IF, your triac board is dry and yet still responsible for GFCI tripping, it would be the first I've heard of it. Since you have tried another GFCI outlet and gotten normal operation, my first suspicion is that your first GFCI might soon be on it's way to "a better place".

-Peter

This evening, after my BDB had fully cooled, I plugged it into the first GFCI plug where it had shorted, and it shorted again! Great, I thought, now let's see if it does it from the second GFCI plug, and it started up normally. Seems that I have a GFCI problem, not a BDB problem.

As I think about this, I must have spent 4 hours tearing it down, reading up, consulting, writing it up and posting it, and then running the trouble shooting. Had I simply plugged it into a different plug when it first failed, I could have solved it (assuming I am right... but that is *no* safe bet ) in probably 2 minutes. I'll remember that! But there is no better way for me at least to learn this machine, so I don't count it a loss.

Also this evening I ran into the link once again from 'lancealot' (thanks Chris) to the BDB service menu, which I had never explored before. So I did. I discovered that I'd pulled about 2950 shots in 13 months, about 7.3 shots/day!! That is interesting! And I discovered one incident (only) of an '08' error, which is Coffee Water flow failure", which perhaps means a pump failure? Perhaps when I replaced the pump with a brass equivalent? Don't know how to interpret that, and the error codes are not dated. So I will reset it and see if it shows again. Access to this menu can be found here:

https://outwestcoffee.com.au/index.php/ ... odes-mean/

Geoff

gchapman wrote:This evening, after my BDB had fully cooled, I plugged it into the first GFCI plug where it had shorted, and it shorted again! Great, I thought, now let's see if it does it from the second GFCI plug, and it started up normally. Seems that I have a GFCI problem, not a BDB problem.

As I think about this, I must have spent 4 hours tearing it down, reading up, consulting, writing it up and posting it, and then running the trouble shooting.

Geoff

Don't beat yourself up. If you hadn't gone through the gyrations, you would not have contributed that pic of your Robot holding the hair dryer, drying the BDB (unnecessary as it turned out to be), which was easily the funnest and funniest thing that could possibly have happened in coffee today.

Glad it turned out not to be the BDB. And now we all know another thing to consider when trouble shooting espresso machines, no matter the make. Bravo!

-Peter

My pump doesn't always run on start up. Just most of the time.

Happy that link was helpful!

Great photo. It makes me smile.

Thanks, Chris. Didn't know that re the pump. The link to the service menu was very interesting! Do you have any thoughts on the 0801 code? I did get it reset.
Geoff