A little note on boiler insulation in the Olympia Club
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baldheadracing
- Team HB
- Posts: 6271
- Joined: 9 years ago
Olympia Club's generally came with asbestos insulation all around the boiler except for the plate with the element; this image is from: 1976 Olympia Club Rebuild
My Club had the asbestos removed by a previous owner. The machine has the amazing-to-watch pressurestat with the copper bellows. With the case removed, the pressurestat was cycling every 1:51 on average (between 0.92 bar and 1.08 bar). I wanted to increase the time between cycles in hopes of extending the life of the now-unobtanium Olympia pressurestat.
I wrapped the boiler in two layers of "Insul-bright," as used by others here at home-barista. I left the plate with the element uninsulated because that's what Olympia did. The pressurestat then cycled every 2:20 on average, a 27% improvement
.
With the case back on, the pressurestat is cycling every 2:44, a further 17% improvement. Unfortunately, I didn't benchmark the uninsulated boiler in the case.
Next project: Insulating the Lapera DS boiler.
My Club had the asbestos removed by a previous owner. The machine has the amazing-to-watch pressurestat with the copper bellows. With the case removed, the pressurestat was cycling every 1:51 on average (between 0.92 bar and 1.08 bar). I wanted to increase the time between cycles in hopes of extending the life of the now-unobtanium Olympia pressurestat.
I wrapped the boiler in two layers of "Insul-bright," as used by others here at home-barista. I left the plate with the element uninsulated because that's what Olympia did. The pressurestat then cycled every 2:20 on average, a 27% improvement
. With the case back on, the pressurestat is cycling every 2:44, a further 17% improvement. Unfortunately, I didn't benchmark the uninsulated boiler in the case.
Next project: Insulating the Lapera DS boiler.
-"Good quality brings happiness as you use it" - Nobuho Miya, Kamasada
