Sure seems like a failed/failing element to me! But, have you checked for 110V at the brew boiler when it should be heating? In other words, the element has correct resistance, so the other possible culprit would be that it's not getting power.
But to revert back to your previous exchange with Todd--when you check resistance, are you first disconnecting wires? You need to do that. I would test for 110V as well, to be sure you're getting power at the element. So this is what I'd do-- --First, check for 110V at both sides of the small switch on top of the boiler (it has a tiny red button that you push to reset it). Put one probe on either wire on the switch, and the other probe to any ground point (obviously the brew boiler needs to be heating or calling for heat or it will read 0). --Second, if you have power on one side of the switch and not the other, try to reset the small red button on the switch--the tip of your milk thermometer is good for this. Don't push too hard or you will break it. --Third, if you have power to both sides of the switch, check for power at the element--put one probe to a wire/terminal, and the other to ground. Check both sides. --Fourth, if you have power at the element, turn off the machine, disconnect both wires from the element, and check resistance across the element. If the wires are still connected, you will not get an accurate reading. As Todd said, first touch your probes together to be sure the multimeter is working, then check across the element. --Finally, if you don't have power to the switch on top of the boiler, you need to start working backwards. The pressurestat is where I'd go next--it has a common/1 terminal, and a normally closed/NC/2 terminal and a normally open/NO/4 terminal. When the steam boiler is heating, you should see 110V across the 1 and 2 terminals. Once the steam boiler is at temp, the p-stat switches and sends power to the brew boiler, so you'd see 1 and 4 with 110V, and 1 and 2 with 0. If that doesn't happen, you can also switch the 2 and 4 wires and see if the brew boiler heats. That would confirm p-stat is bad. Obviously, for any of this, you need to unplug the machine whenever you're messing with wires and be sure anything disconnected is not touching any ground point when you fire it up again. Hope this helps, and I bet you'll find it soon. Oh, and as you're working, careful that you don't bump the vacuum breaker. It's pretty exciting to get that sudden blast of steam on your hand... best, Ben Sent from my apple IIe > On Dec 3, 2015, at 19:30, Jorge See <[email protected]> wrote: > > Hey Todd, > Switched the wires as you suggested and kept a close eye on the temperatures. > I measured the external temperature of the boiler as time went on and ended > up with these numbers. > > Starting temp: 70F > After 2 min: 110F > After 3 min: 128F > After 4 min: 144F > (Times are after turning the machine on, not from the last data point) > Please let me know your thoughts. > Thanks, > Jorge > > >> On Thursday, November 19, 2015 at 6:33:16 PM UTC-5, Jorge See wrote: >> Hello, >> I have a BII that is unmodified and received a tune up a few years ago at >> WLL. The brew boiler is not heating all of the way to the set point, only to >> around ~70C. The steam boiler heats up as it should and is working fine. I >> switched the stock AKO temp controller to a generic temp controller to see >> if that would solve the issue but nothing changed. The temp controller still >> shows that it is calling for heat but for some reason the temp does not go >> up even though the steam boiler is not on. >> >> Any ideas on what could be causing this issue? >> >> Thanks! > > -- > 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. -- 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.
