Jeff, You should remove the large nut on top of the grouphead (don't mess with the smaller one on top of that). It has a teflon gasket you can reuse. I think a wrench 1 7/16" will work, also.(That's the size I use for boiler heater coils.) I bought a large size adjustable crescent wrench from Harbor Freight Tools for about $15 - that works good, and will work on other things, too - metric or std.
You will need a good green scrubby, and remove the chrome plating that is ready to come off. Like Ira predicted, this is probably the source of the silver flakes. Your drain water will show silver flakes best in a black container, and will show black flakes in a white container. In regard to your cloudy and blueish water in the steam boiler - I think that is scale that is dissolved and needs to be flushed out. Don't forget to rum the vibe pump 60 sec and then cool, so you don't overwork it. Dennis -----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Jeff Krejsa Sent: Friday, January 29, 2010 2:33 PM To: Brewtus Subject: Descaling Issue with Brewtus II (help!) Hello, everyone. Long-time reader/lurker, first time poster. I was hoping that some of the smart and experienced folks here can help me out with a problem I am having with/following the first decaling of my Brewtus II. A little background (in case it is necessary or helps): My Brewtus is about two years old. For the first ~9 months (old house) I mixed distilled and filtered water when using the Brewtus. For the last ~18 months (new house) I have been using the filtered water from the house. I have not bought a TDS meter (I know this is bad and I deserve the lashing, I did order one this week so I know exactly what I am putting in Brewtus). For the first year the Brewtus probably pulled an average of a few shots on the weekdays and ten per weekend day. For the last year, it has pulled an average of four shots on weekdays and ten per weekend day. I decided to descale and followed Barry Luterman's descaling process. The problem arose in the flushing of the boilers. I have probably flushed each boiler at least six times (probably even more for the steam boiler). I am doing so as in Barry's instructions (draining through the brew head and hot water wand). I am still getting sparkly flecks in the water. And in the steam boiler the water appears a little cloudy and bluish. First question - is the sparkly flecks in the water minerals that were descaled from the process? Or, has something else (not good) happened? Is it strange that I have flushed so many times and still have these particulates coming through? In reading through the many threads at this forum I have encountered anyone who had similar problems. Maybe an extra flush or so, but not this. Is it possible that my method of draining (through brew head and wand) are resulting in a small amount at the bottom that does not get drained and therefore "recharges" the water with the particulates? If so, do I need to drain in some other fashion (I have never cracked open my Brewtus)? Please help! Any insight or instructions would be greatly appreciated. My wife and I are having withdrawals and I am starting to fear that we did something wrong to our dear Brewtus. -- 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. -- 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.
