Hi Marcus, I see you posted this a while ago so perhaps you've already got this figured out. I'm reading your note and it sounds similar to a problem I had on my Brewtus IV-R a while ago. I thought it was either the temperature sensor or the PID and I replaced them both. That did not help. With me, the problem seemed to 'fix itself' which would have been great *before* I spend the money on the new parts. I'm wondering if your problem could be simply the reset button on your brew boiler. Both boilers have a small button or peg which can get tripped to prevent over heating. Perhaps pushing that peg is all you need to do.
The other thing to consider is if your brew boiler is getting power. That is easier than you think to check. All you need is a multimeter. Pull off the leads which go to the brew boiler and stick the probes of your multimeter into those leads. Then turn on your Brewtus and see if power is getting there. If power is indeed getting there, then the problem might be a faulty heater. That would make sense if power is getting to the brew boiler but it is not heating. That's as far as I got with my problems but when I put the leads back on the brew boiler, everything magically started working again. Nice! On Saturday, March 9, 2013 11:35:29 AM UTC-6, Marcus Mininger wrote: > > I have a Brewtus 1 that I bought second hand. Have used it for a couple > years with good service. A couple months ago when I was cleaning it > (backflushing w/ detergent, etc.), the temperature readout for the water > boiler started slowly dropping, a degree or so each minute or so (from 93C > to 92 to 91, etc.). I ran some more water through and tried backflushing > with only water to rinse any extra detergent, in case what I had been doing > (which was standard procedure that I have always done) was causing a > problem. Any water I ran or backflushed would only cause the temp to drop > more quickly. It appeared that the water in that boiler was no longer > heating. However, two things stayed normal: (a) the light on the PID > read-out for the water boiler was on where it indicates that that boiler is > heating, and (b) the steam boiler pressure stayed at normal levels, cycling > on and off as needed, and even when I opened up the steam wand for a full > minute, it held good pressure and output the whole way. Evidently, the > steam boiler was working fine while the PID was telling the water boiler to > work but it was not heating. I tried shutting off and turning back on to > reset the electronics w/ the PID readout, etc., but this didn't change > anything. Eventually, I finished the standard cleaning/rinsing process as > best I could (with diminishing temperatures) and turned it off for the > day. > > A day later I powered the machine back on from cold to let it heat up, and > the temp of the water boiler did not rise but the steam boiler came up to > normal pressure. Then I tried pulling some water through the group head by > activating the pump. This caused the water boiler temp to increase by a > degree or 2 each time until it had come up 10 degrees or so. However, it > was obviously not fixing the basic problem and the water boiler was still > nowhere near the needed temp. My guess is that pulling water out of the > water boiler probably just resulted in pulling some water from the steam > boiler into the water boiler, thereby raising the water boiler temp > "artificially" somewhat. I left the machine on for several hours, but the > water boiler never increased any more on its own. > > At that point, I wasn't sure what to try further to be of any help, so I > powered it off. Work has been very busy for me since, so the machine has > just sat there for a couple of months since then, and I am not mechanically > inclined enough to know how to troubleshoot the problem. > > Today I powered the machine on just to see, and the same thing happened: > water temp did not rise at all, but steam pressure is up to normal. > > What should do to identify and fix this problem? > > Thanks, > Macus > -- 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.
