if the water solenoid is bad, that is a bummer part to replace! wish i could offer more - D
-----Original Message----- From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Benjamin McCafferty Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 9:43 AM To: [email protected] Cc: Todd Salzman Subject: Pump switching Hi all, I think I've described this before--and I think it's "normal"--but I'm hoping to find a solution anyway. To keep the draw under 15A, I believe the priority for the Brewtus is: --Pump to steam boiler --Steam boiler element --Pump to brew boiler --Brew boiler element First of all, is that correct? OK, then, the issue. One of the great things about our double boiler machines is that we can pull shots and steam milk at the same time, which I do several times daily. However, when I do this, I almost always have the pump cut out from the brew side, and cycle over to the steam side--this lasts a second or less, and then it switches back. During that switch, the brew pressure drops almost to zero, then comes right back up to 9 or whatever. I also notice during this switch that the steam boiler light goes out, which makes sense if my list above is correct. More specifically, here's what I do: I load up the PF and lock it in. I get a cold pitcher of milk. Next I vent the steam wand a few times to heat it up and clear water, plus to kick on the steam boiler. When the steam pressure approaches 1.4 (my boiler kicks off at 1.5), I start steaming milk--this keeps the steam boiler on the whole time, and gives me better steam. After I stretch the milk (maybe 10 seconds or so), I start the shot. The shot is usually finished just before the milk, so the lever is dropped, and then steam shut off. At some point mid-shot, several things happen in about a second. I hear a loud click (a relay or solenoid, I presume, to switch where the water is going?), the steam boiler light goes out, brew pressure drops a ton, the pump runs for a second, then another loud click and everything goes back to the way it was (steam boiler light on, pump pushing espresso at 9 bar, steam still coming out with no interruption). My theory is that the steam boiler is getting below its refill sensor, and this causes the machine to momentarily send water to the steam boiler, causing all the other symptoms I mentioned above. Once the water level is high enough in the steam boiler, it switches back. It happens once or twice per shot usually. Anecdotally, the shots seem to suffer a little from this, although not too terribly. I normally haven't been too concerned about this, but yesterday the loud clicking noise was more like machine-gun fire, i.e. switching back and forth 4-5 times in less than a second, and it happened that way twice. I figure that probably isn't good. Failing relay/solenoid? I guess the perfect solution would be to somehow disable the mechanism that switches between boilers when I'm doing a shot and steam at the same time. I recognize that I could just pull the espresso first, then steam milk, but that kind of defeats the purpose, doesn't it? Any thoughts or suggestions here? If I do have a failing part, what is it called? Thanks and talk soon, bmc -- 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.
