I recently had to endure a 9- day stretch of no coffee due to a component failure within my Brutus. I’ve forgotten just how good life is when one can roast one’s own beans and brew coffee tailored to one’s own preferences - I’ve become spoiled. Based on this experience, I’d like to offer my observations on what I found with my unit so that others can take preventative action.
Based on elapsed time, my machine (B-II) has provided about 5,000 hour of service. The machine is attached to a timer and except for business trips, when I turn it off, operates autonomously. I’ve modified the unit with a mechanical float that’s fed by a filtered water supply (softening and filtering). The recent failure, a failed brew temp probe, resulted in a brew boiler over temperature (E-1) condition. Inspection of the temp probe indicated a complete disintegration of the insulating material encapsulating the probe and the wire insulation to a point about .5 cm beyond the point the temp wire exits the boiler well the probe sits. Through this users group, I was able to contact the AKO distributor in Canada and leaned a lot about the AKO temperature controller itself. I was surprised to find that the controller is frequently used as a temperature controller in small refrigerators and freezers in the food industry. Hence the -50C to 99.9C rating and controller’s out of the box configuration set to “refrigeration”. Based on the high operating temperatures found within the Brewtus, most, if not all users will likely have to replace their brew boiler temperature at some point. I made a lifetime buy of probes and purchased spare controller. The new probe took all of five minutes to install. While I had the unit opened, I poked around machine to check for signs of wear and tear that could cause trouble down the road. Most worrisome was the nick I found in the Teflon mixing tube that connects the steam and brew boilers. Due to machine vibration, the tube had rubbed through the steam boiler insulation and was rubbing against the edge of the steam boiler. At the contact point of the boiler was a small pile of Teflon particles. I’m sure at some point this would have caused a rupture. I rerouted the tubing such that it more parallels the boiler and will ultimately replace the tubing. A less critical issue found was the condition of the tie wraps that do everything from dress the wires to hold on the boiler insulation in place. Many had become brittle and failed or crumbled at the slightest touch. The blue power wire that feeds the boiler heaters showed signs of overheating at the spade splitter (one- to- two wires). The connector had turned dark brown- black and was badly deformed. On a positive note, all of the water hoses all seemed to be in good shape and showing no signs of wear. My Brutus is back online and I’ve addressed or will soon address all of the issues I’ve indicated above. I‘ve also drilled ventilation holes above and below the electronics to provide better air flow. The spec sheet indicated a max ambient temperature of 40C or 104F, I’ve measured the air around the controller at operating temperature and it registered 147F. I may install a small, temperature controlled fan to facilitate better cooling of the electronics. I’ll take pictures of the items of interest and post them online. This post is not intended to be a rant against CREM or the Brewtus, to the contrary, it’s simply intended provide a heads up to the rest of the Brewtus community. If you’re confident of your mechanical abilities, and you bought your unit in 06 or before, I’d set aside an afternoon and check out your machine. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
