I have an approx 10 year old Expobar Brewtus IV-R. The last while it has developed a leak which is now quite brisk. I took it apart and it seems to be the safety valve (not the OPV), but it only leaks when the pump is running (lever up). Otherwise the boiler seams to maintain pressure and there is no leaking. The valve itself seems OK, seats ok. I cleaned the group head thinking it might have buildup that is causing too much pressure in the boiler, but that hasn't made a difference. Do I just need to replace the valve or spring?
It would make sense that there is something downstream causing too much pressure in the boiler, but everything else seems to run fine with normal water flow through the group head with pump on.
Thanks for the advice!

Assuming the valve is in the brew boiler, there is only really pressure when you'e pulling a shot. Also, I believe that might be a vacuum breaker which are both easy to repair and inexpensive to replace.

Ira

Or, if it's the steam boiler it might mean the 3 way valve is leaking or the pipe running through the steam boiler to pre-heat the brew water has ruptured.

Ira

That's the steam boiler so shouldn't really be affected when you pull a shot unless like Ira stated there's a bad solenoid (causing boiler overfill) or worse, ruptured internals somewhere. That's a safety valve rated to release at 1.5 bar, from research I did. That vavle is calibrated and not repairable, so if it's bad it has to be replaced. Whole latte love carries a new version for $20. Please confirm with them it's the correct part.
https://www.wholelattelove.com/products ... e-65000110

Thanks for the responses!
It seems the solenoid was stuck open, so the boiler was overfilling when the pump was running. I took apart the solenoid valve, it had some scale. Cleaned it and it works perfectly now.
Thanks for the help!

Yup, sounds about right. Glad you got it working again! Cheers!

So now a new problem - not sure what I did while messing with the plumbing. The machine was working well, had some light scale so I decided to run some Dezcal through it - I just unplugged the fill sensor wire and sucked it up with the intake hose then rinsed a few gallons worth (although now in searching it, it seems like that isn't suggested for double boiler machines - doh). After I did that it keeps popping the GFCI. There was some water leakage from the safety valve so I figured I just got something wet.
I troubleshot it further and it seems the steam boiler element is the issue. When the element is unplugged, everything else runs fine, including the brew boiler. I even swapped the boiler wires and the brew boiler (with the steam wires) heated ok, the steam one (with the brew wires) popped the GFCI again.
In terms of the element - there is 120v AC at the element wires. The element is registering 12-13ohm, same as the brew one so I assume it is OK. No continuity between the heater tabs and ground to indicate a short to ground.
I'm not sure what I managed to do while messing with the plumbing. Any ideas??
Thanks!

You might want to write another description about how you got the water out of the boiler. I have no idea what you're saying.

bryce99 wrote:I just unplugged the fill sensor wire and sucked it up with the intake hose

This doesn't make sense. Are you saying you removed the level probe entirely out of the boiler and went into the tank through the hole? What intake hose? Confused.

It's possible that you got something wet so you might try using some canned air to blow around the element leads, or where ever water went. It doesn't take "visual" water to cause a GFCI to trip. Sometimes you can't even see the water and it causes issues.

Another thing that could have happened is if you completely drained the boiler and turned on the machine to fill it while the heater element was enabled. It's always best to disable heating capability on an empty boiler until water has covered the element. Should the element crack, or rupture, it can still read the correct ohms but short out while submerged and trip the GFCI.

And... sometimes a days rest so the machine can dry out might help.

edit... there also appears to be a high limit switch sitting right next to the safety valvle... remove the wires and blow out both wire connectors and the switch itself with canned air. If it gets wet, it can also cause issues.

Sorry, to clarify - I disconnected the wire from the fill sensor - not sure why that was important but saw it in a descale article somewhere. I mixed up the descale in a bowl and stuck the water intake hose into the bowl.
The tank was not empty, I just ran the pump until the descaler started coming out the group head. I hope I didn't crack the element at some point in the original draining and refill process.
Waiting patiently for things to dry further.

Ok, thanks, that makes more sense.

People overfill the boiler on purpose with their "regular" water by removing the level probe wire. Once the boiler overfills, normally monitored by watching when water comes out of an open steam wand, they reconnect the wire. As long as the wire is connected and the boiler is full, the gicar will not attempt to fill it. They do this so when they run descale solution through the HX system the boiler never fills with descale solution. On your machine, you have separate boilers, so it's not the correct process I don't think, but since I don't own a dual boiler machine, I have no idea how to descale it properly.

Were you attempting to descale the brew boiler? Sounds like it if you're running water through the group. It's weird that the steam boiler element is the one that got affected unless that's the one you actually drained and refilled (possibly with a dry element?). I'm actually not clear if you even fully drained either of the boilers during your process.

Unfortunately, swapping boiler wires seem to point to a bad steam boiler element, but if the contacts are wet enough, it can still trip the CFGI. Let it dry out and blast the element leads with air if you can.