Breville Oracle BES980XL - Thermal Fuse Replacement/Detailed Disassembly - Page 2

#11: Post by **elcaboing** » February 5th, 2020, 2:13 pm

Hello all,

I am about to try and perform this exact replacement tonight on my Oracle 980. My question is, I also have a dead Breville Barista that has a thermal fuse of 216. Would I be able to use that one, or will I need to get one closer to the 167 value like the OP did? Thanks all. It's not the cost, it would be the wait. I have been without the machine for several months and I miss it dearly

Steve

#12: Post by **pcrussell50** » February 5th, 2020, 2:29 pm

Yip/OP...

I wanted to let you know that I added this writeup to my Breville Dual boiler "Mods and Maintenance" thread: Breville Dual Boiler Mods and Maintenance

6) Steam boiler won't heat?
Usually the $2.00 thermal fuse melted out, (which saves the actual boiler heating element). AFAICT, when this happens, it is most often because of a descale process gone wrong. See item number (1) a few numbers up from here. The part is cheap, but the job is kind of big. HB member "littleyip" did heroes work changing one out on his Oracle. Now, the Oracle is a much more complex cousin of the BDB, so I would expect it to be an easier job on the BDB. Still nobody I know of has done as good a writeup on the job as "littleyip" in this thread: Breville Oracle BES980XL Thermal Fuse Replacement/Detailed Disassembly Normally, I would recommend people to pay the $350 and send their BDB back to Breville for this repair, banking on them not wanting to do the job and sending out a brand new machine. But recently we heard from somebody who paid the fee for this repair and actually fixed it instead of sending out a new one. So keep that in mind.

-Peter

#13: Post by **toekneeoeeo** » May 22nd, 2020, 8:01 am

Any recommendations where I can buy a thermal fuse online?

May 22nd, 2020, 10:09 am

I've never had to do this job on my BDB. But I've done thermal fuses on a small portable heater and on a Nespresso Aeroccino milk heater/frother and I got them off Amazon. The only drawback was that I had to buy several so it was like $7 instead of $2.

-Peter

#15: Post by **toekneeoeeo** » June 8th, 2020, 2:18 pm

Is there any ways to actually know if the fuse is bad? I'm not getting temps above 160 F, but I'm also reading that airlock and the boiler not functioning correctly after descale is common on this machine. I'm hesitant to start ripping out the thermofuse if there is an easier solution for the boiler.

Thank in advance!

#16: Post by **toekneeoeeo** » June 8th, 2020, 10:43 pm

littleyip wrote:The entire steam boiler assembly should now be free to extract a couple inches. Gently pull it out and tilt away from the side of the machine, towards the grinder, until you can see down the side space. You should see this thermal fuse attached to the side of the boiler. Use plyers or a screwdriver to gently pry the metal tabs to loosen slightly. Then pry out the white rubber sheathed fuse with a flat screwdriver.

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Trace the brown wire from the right/front side of the fuse to the back of the machine. It ends in a wire nut with another brown wire. Cut off the wire nut as close as you can to the tip.
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With that end of the wire free, you can pull the fuse out further and slide the rubber sheath off. Cut the fuse off as close to the fuse as possible on the far side of the wire you loosened. Don't cut it on the side you loosened yet. Once you have the fuse and wire free of the machine, take note of the direction of the fuse.

Here are the specifications on the fuse. 167 degrees Celsius and rated to 10 Amps. I replaced it with a 172 degree C fuse I picked up at Fry's for $1.89.

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So I'm at the part where I clip the thermal fuse...how did you fasten the new one on? It looks like the old one was crimped in. Any advice would be great!

#17: Post by **pcrussell50** » June 9th, 2020, 11:26 am

toekneeoeeo wrote:Is there any ways to actually know if the fuse is bad? I'm not getting temps above 160 F, but I'm also reading that airlock and the boiler not functioning correctly after descale is common on this machine. I'm hesitant to start ripping out the thermofuse if there is an easier solution for the boiler.

Thank in advance!

One of the ways you can tell is with a Kill-A-Watt. A cold machine, with both boilers heating at the same time should pull 1600W+. If it's only pulling 500-700W one of the boilers isn't heating and it's probably the steam boiler. Kill A Watt is about $35, or about half that for an off-brand which I'm sure is more than fine.

As for the thermal fuse and the crimps... I've never done that job (never had to because I never descale), but I've done thermal fuses on other appliances (space heater, Nespresso milk frother/heater) etc... and I've always just twisted the wires together with some pliers like an electrician does with wires in your walls. Then a wire nut. Or a crimp-on wire nut. Again, like electricians do with home wiring.

-Peter

#18: Post by **toekneeoeeo** » June 14th, 2020, 10:04 am

Coming back here to say I did this on my 920XL and it worked! Thank you for the detailed plan. I can attest that the extra long screwdriver is a must...I ordered a 12" one on Amazon. Also, a couple of 8" or 10" needle nose pliers is essential with it being a tight space. Make sure you have magnetized tipped tools as I dropped pins occasionally and I was able to fish them out that way.

In my eagerness to reassemble, I also ended up with 4 leftover screws, lol. But everything seems secure and locked in so I'll roll with it!

June 14th, 2020, 12:43 pm

I keep repeating myself, but since I don't ever run the descale function, I have not ever had this problem. BUT I'm super interested in how it's done... So this is most excellent reading. What did you do in the end to attach the thermal fuse? Crimp? Twist? Solder?

-Peter

#20: Post by **toekneeoeeo** » June 16th, 2020, 8:05 am

I had a kit of electrical connectors and just used the smallest crimp tube I could find. It's a tight space to strip off the insulation for a fresh connection, so I crimped onto the old wire from the fuse on the side that connects to bottom of the boiler. The side that connects to the back of the machine was easy to pull out and make a fresh connection.