Hey Rob, I think I bought my BII vib in April of 2006 or so, roughly as old as yours. I don't have any fancy hour meter, but I have the machine on a timer 12 hours a day, so I figure that's somewhere around 30,000 hours. I have replaced the p-stat once, the vibe pump three times in early years, and the steam valve once. And of course the usual maintenance items (screen and gasket). In the past few months, I've developed a leak at the lever bushing, but that was probably cause by my previously excessive water pressure (110psi, now reduced to 50). I have only descaled a couple of times, but need to do that more frequently; I have significant buildup at the water dump tube, hot water wand screen is blocked, etc.
Like you, I bought the WLL PID and rotary pump kits. I did notice a change in shots, mainly in repeatability more than anything. As someone said long ago, "ho hum, another great shot of espresso from my Brewtus..." @Kaffeebohne--the rotary option is worth it and simple. The directions from WLL make it easy and the result is fantastic. I also recommend the drip tray plumbing kit--I don't have the WLL one, but rather, one from Chris Coffee that has a silicone hose instead of that big vacuum cleaner hose, and I just run it behind my machine and into the sink. It is attached to the drip tray so I just clean the drip tray in place (the WLL one is not--it uses sort of a funnel to catch the liquid as it falls from the pan, making the pan removable for cleaning, kind of a nice feature also). I would never go back to vibe pump and non-plumbed tray, they are fantastic! Best to all, and adding my thanks to Robs for all the help over the years! Ben Sent from my iPad On Feb 4, 2013, at 3:47, Kaffebohne <[email protected]> wrote: > Great to hear! > > Are there any guides on converting from Vib to Rotary pump? I might look > into this soon. > > Cheers, > > > On Sunday, February 3, 2013 6:08:43 AM UTC+1, Orianm42 wrote: >> >> At the end of each year, I open up my machine and conduct a complete >> inspection. The unit was purchased as a BII vib, and was manufactured in >> October of 2005. I've since upgraded the unit a few years back with a >> rotary pump and installed the PID offered by WWL. The unit is plumbed in >> and feed by it's own filtration system and runs on its own timer. As part >> of my annual maintenance, I perform a boiler descale, replace broken tie >> wraps, inspect the mixing tube and check all the wiring and plumbing. I've >> seen various opinions regarding the merits of retrofitting the controller >> with a PID. I can't say the quality of my shots improved, but I can say the >> reliability of the machine has improved tremendously since the change. I run >> my machine approximately 1,800 hours a year and I seemed to fry the original >> temp probe every two years. I had gone through one controller and two or >> three sets of probes prior to the change. Since upgrading, the only >> component that seems to fail with any regularity is the pressure-stat. Since >> changing to the Jaeger model of P-Stat, I've stretched that failure to a >> two-three year cycle. >> >> The steam valve will probably need to be replaced in the coming year, but >> for the most part the machine appears to be in great shape. Yes, owning >> your own machine can be really frustrating, but six years later the machine >> still brews a great shot pull after pull. Even with all of the buzz over >> this year's new machines, I have absolutely no desire to upgrade. Can't >> even remember my last sink shot. 11,256 operating hours and still going >> strong. So keep up on your maintenance and don't forget the TLC and your >> Brewtus will provide you with many years of service. Thanks everyone for all >> of your help over the years. Rob > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Brewtus" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Brewtus" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/brewtus?hl=en. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
