Thank you everyone so much for your insight and suggestions. I will make sure I have the right tool or go out and pick up a new one in the morning before removing the large nut. Once I remove the nut, will the "mushroom" be obvious? I have not come across mention of that part in the past nor have I seen it detailed in any schematics I have seen of the Brewtus.
Assuming that is the problem, once I clean the mushroom (removing the loose chrome) is it fine to just put it back into the Brewtus (i.e. I don't need to order a replacement)? Would this flaking of the chrome plating have been provoked by the descaling process? Or have I recently been unknowingly adding bits of chrome to my shots? Ben - I actually did not catch the post you mentioned, which is surprising since I thought I read every thread about descaling for the past 5+ years. Thanks again for all your help! We do appreciate it. Jeff On Jan 30, 11:18 am, "Dennis Keating" <[email protected]> wrote: > 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 > athttp://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en.- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - -- 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.
