I'm a little puzzled over "boiling sounds" sometimes accompanied by "clanking" sounds. It's a Brewtus III vibe, pour-over, not plumbed. About 3+ years old.
Replaced the pump in the last 8 months (https://groups.google.com/d/msg/brewtus/dNSzv1QuLL8/6MaQdKehm_8J) Comparison query #1: Am I within the margins with an 18g pull seeing the first drips around 14-16 seconds? Replaced the PressureStat this week. It was sometimes not calling for steam heat and letting the pressure go low, and a couple times it went into an uncontrolled heat. Once pegging the steam gauge but I was able to dump it before the relief valve opened, the second time I was alerted to it with the relief valve pressure purge. What is new behavior for this machine is that when I turn it on in the morning, the pump pressurizes right off the bat, though when I think of it, for somewhat shorter duration than I recall. Shortly after this, I start to hear louder than normal boiling and clanking sounds. If I pull the brew lever up for 30 seconds until I have a steady stream through the group, I can stop the flow and the clanking and strong boiling sounds are gone. This behavior can also happen if it idles for a long time. Also resolved by pulling up the brew lever for a flush. I assume I lose some content from the boiler as I need a good long flush before a shot if it's been a couple hours. It takes longer for the brew pressure gauge to come up. I haven't noticed any fall-off in group temperature when it's idling though I haven't yet checked it when it's clanking. The group surface temp is currently about 170F with the PID showing 202F. I've put the return tank hose in a glass and observed only a few drops over 1-2 hours. But a healthy stream during a shot. The only other behavior that puzzles me is that I can reproduce the strong "boiling" sounds by pulling the lever up to mid-way. If the machine is primed I hear boiling sounds continuously while the lever is mid way. There is no indication steam heater activation other than normal activity to keep the boiler in a 0.8 - 1.3 or so band. Yet the PID starts climbing above it's set point (without indication it's calling for heat) up to about 210F. I get a small flow of group-head water - about 2oz over 2 mins. Steam boiler pressure stays normal. If I drop the brew lever and flush a little, the boiling sound starts to settle and eventually the brew boiler temp as indicated by the PID settles back to set temperature. A longer than normal flush is required to get shot pressure even though I had flushed just before the procedure. Now instead, I just did the same procedure when the machine had been idling for several hours. (guessing that possibly I'm starting with a lower brew tank level, but the group surface temperature was still 170F) Pulling the lever up to mid-way did not produce any group head water flow. The boiling sound did start immediately but the PID indication did not climb as it always does. Instead the steam heat light came on, and stayed on as the steam pressure climbed to 2.5 bar and the valves just started to hiss a little. At this point I dropped the lever, and opened both taps to bring the pressure down. When a brand new pressure-stat cuts off head correctly 1.3 bar or so in all normal uses, why would it not in this use case? Reverse flow of water from the brew boiler cooling a sensor in the steam boiler or something? I let the temperatures and pressures settle to normal after a flush and again tried the lever mid-way. Immediate boiling sounds, group head water trickle and the PID temp indication starts climbing away again, but the steam pressure and heat light behavior stays normal. Just like the first example. Can I get some comments to: A. Demystify for me, what's going on here B. Confirm that this is or isn't what a standard non-plumbed vibe Brewtus does in a mid-way "pre-infusion" setting in the absence of positive water line pressure. C. Is this an indication of some leak problem in my group head lever or in the HX area? I have no water leaks, drips, but occasional brief sizzles from this valve <https://www.evernote.com/shard/s1/sh/13e59668-2c9f-499d-a453-5e560e112093/d55df42b39c686f5be249169d11c8f80> (not exactly depicted as mine) when idling: -- 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. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
