Breville temperature regulating tip

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slipchuck
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Joined: 7 years ago

#1: Post by slipchuck »

Today I experimented with my Breville infuser and found this out.
One of the things I noticed with thermoblock style Breville machines is it is hard to get a decent group head temperature even after warming up.
Here is what I did and what I found out
I let the machine heat up for around 40 minutes. I then ran the steam in a jug for around a minute (or just steam your milk if desired) . Turn off the steam until you hear the breville "flushing" it's self. Quickly turn the steam on again for a quick purge, this will stop the machine from cooling it's self down. This brings the group head up hot...around 208f by the thermocouple I installed that is right were the water comes out of the group head.
Quickly flush the group head JUST until the hissing and water dance stops. (if you don't get some steam with the water the group head likely isn't hot enough) Put the filled portafilter in (make sure it was heated with the group head for 40 minutes)
Pull the shot... my thermocouple stayed at 199-200f for a few seconds so this is about as good as you can get from a thermoblock style machine.
Next, taste the shot. If it's bitter then flush a little longer until you get what you want.
If this doesn't fix sour shots then it's not the temperature, it's something else!

Hope this helps people with low end machines like me.
Any questions please feel free to ask :)
Her is a pic of my thermocouple mount
Used a glue gun to fill the hole on both sides. It does melt a bit but at least for this test didn't leak

Thanks

Randy
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