Descaling - I'm no expert, but its driven by the harness or mineral load of your water. You should test your water. I purchase bottle of water test harness strips and test once a month. I can tell when the cartridge needs to be replaced when the hardness score increases. McMaster-Carr is the source I use. When I get back home I will post the part number. Even through we use water from Lake Michigan, its still considered moderately hard at ~ 120 mb/lL. So your local water source really drives the required cycle.
I have the machine plumbed into my cold water line with a water softening cartridge system I purchased from Chris Coffe service. As a precaution I still descale the machine once a year. I use a product called Coffee Washer by ascaso, its a pre-measured packet that you mix into a liter of water, actually I mix two packets into a clean one gallon milk container and feed the Brewtus pump input right from the milk container. Be sure to flush all of the water. Don't let the pump run dry. I let the mixture set in the machine per the instructions. I then allow the machine to cool down and remove the large nut at the top of the brew group and turn the machine upside down to drain into the sink. I then replace the screw and run 4 or 5 gallons through the machine. Note: After siting in the machine, the descaling water turns a light blue color. Once its completely flushed, the water returns to it normal transparent look. I also remove the steam tip when I'm flushing the machine. Before I installed the softening system I used to notice small particles, but since installing the softening system, only blue water. Its also a good time to clean and inspect your shower screen and portafilter gasket. In looking at some of the hate mail, I'm not sure why some people have such a bias against the Brewtus, nearly every machine on the market has had some issue or the other regardless of the price. I still think the Brewtus is a great machine at a reasonable price point. It seems one thing is clear, the world is moving towards two boiler machines. Email me if you have any questions, I'd be happy to walk you through the process. It's a little messy, but its not complicated. Be mindful of the hot water under pressure. I burned my foot a few years back by allowing my machine to pee on me, but thats another story....... Best, Rob On Tuesday, February 5, 2013 8:59:41 AM UTC-6, Andrew Locke wrote: > > Orianm...I bought Brewtus IV few months ago and love it. I want to know > how/when to safely descale my machine. I have not done the water hardness > testing but know the water in Northeast Oklahoma is hard. Any links with > pics on how to descale a brewtus would be great. Nice to hear about a > reliable machine when properly maintained. > > Thanks! > > On Saturday, February 2, 2013 11:08:43 PM UTC-6, 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.
