The steam starts to flow backwards from the fitting on the bottom of the steam boiler connected to the heat exchanger from here it travels back through the silicon tubing towards the opv.
How can you tell it's coming from there, the tubing is not clear, is it?
Could a defect/crack in the heat exchanger cause steam from the steam boiler to enter the heat exchanger tubing and then flow backwards?
Conceptually, yes but then you should always see the same pressure on both gauges as they'd be connected directly together.
Another thought..the brewtus compendium states that the brew boiler is completely filled with water. What if in my case it wasn't and there was steam at the top of this boiler? From the schematics it looks as though the steam could flow back through the upper silicon tubing through the heat exchanger and then backwards as described above. What ensures that the brew boiler is completely filled with water?
If the brew boiler is not completely filled than the group will remain cold as the thermosyphon will not work. If you run the pump and water comes out of the portafilter, the boiler is full.
I have a feeling this information is also useful: when I backflush against a blind portafilter and release the lever, the pressure gauge still reads pressure of approx 10bars. Even if I remove the portafilter from the grouphead the pressure persists.
This is normal, nothing to worry about
Interestingly in this state the steam does not flow back into the reservoir. If I open and depress the lever one additional time the pressure then drops to 0 and shortly thereafter steam begins to reflux back into the reservoir.
Are you sure it's steam? Steam is hot and as soon as it cools it turns to water. if it's steam, the tubing should be really hot. if it's air, maybe that piece of tubing has a hole in it. Can you take it out of the tank and blow gently to see if it leaks? Actually, if the pump is sucking air because of a leak in the inlet hose it might cause this also.
Ira
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