I managed to do this successfully, but, it turned out to take much longer than I expected and was much harder to do than I thought it would be.
It started last August because I couldn't turn the screw to adjust my OPV valve. It was jammed. I was gettting 6 bar when pulling a shot and the pressure would bounce around. The screw was jammed. The OPV valve could not be adjusted. I called Whole Latte Love and spoke to tech support. I had bought the Brewtus II in Oct. 2007 so it was still under warrenty. They put in a order, free under warrenty, to send me an OPV valve. I got an email saying it was out of stock. A month later I called them. They said they might get a shipment in a few weeks. I received the OPV valve finally, at the end of November. This was clearly a supplier problem from the Expobar or a European parts supplier, but it was also very frustrating. Here is what I did next. 1. Drained tanks. 2. Removed cover. 3. Turned Brewtus on side 4. Removed access "circle" from bottom so that I could get a wrench on the OPV valve. 5. Tried to unscrew OPV valve from the aerator tube that exits the pump. 6. Tried harder with a bigger wrench. I could not budge the OPV valve. Called Whole Latte Love. They sent me a replacement aerator tube since I was worried that the threads were damaged. Received aerator tube 8 days later. Parts are in stock now. Repeated steps 1 - 3 above. Continuing: 4. Remove bottom plate from Brewtus to get better access. You need hex wrenches for this. 5. Tried to unscrew aerator tube from pump. 6. No success. Apparently, the same, very strong, person had tightened the aerator tube to the pump. 7. Removed the pump by unscrewing it from bottom plate to get better access to OPV & aerator. Interlude: Remember to draw a diagram identifying exactly which screws you remove from which holes and draw the orientation of pump, aerator tube, OPV valve relative to Brewtus. In other words, don't do what I did. Reassembly will be much easier if you know which screws went into which holes in the bottom plate of Brewtus. 8. Tried to unscrew aerator from pump or OPV valve from aerator. 9. No go. 10. Stopped to think. 11. Tried bigger wrench. 12. Finally, tried ridiculously bigger wrench. 18" pipe wrench to be exact. 13. Easily unscrewed aerator tube from pump. No problem. The right tool for the right problem. 14. Assembled new OPV valve and aerator tube to pump. Used teflon pipe thread tape. 15. Oriented pump + opv valve & screwed back to bottom plate of Brewtus. 16. Reattached bottom plate to Brewtus & replaced all screws and bolts. Tried small screw in wrong place & larger screws in wrong place. 17. Stopped to think again and consult memory (having failed to diagram screw locations). 18. Put small screws in right place and larger threaded screws in right place. 19. Replace, cover, water tray, water tank, etc. 20. Turned it on. SUCCESS. I am now pulling shots at a consistent 8.5 bar. Espresso tastes much better now. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Brewtus" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
