On Friday, March 4, 2016 at 9:57:54 AM UTC-8, Eric Christoffersen wrote: > > Hi Guys, > > Problem with my brewtus 2. > > On Wednesday I see that machine indicates 198f. It never reaches 203f. > On thursday the machine won't go above 196. Today it is stuck between 193 > and 194. > > The dot on the pid is mostly lit except when steam boiler comes on, > indicating there should be voltage going to the brew element. When steam > heat light goes out the brew heat dot comes back. I think that means that > pid and temp probes are good, the steam element is good (otherwise the > steam heat light would just stay on.) > > Something in the machine is slowly fading. Has anyone seen a heater > element fail this way? Is that how they fail? I had a steam heat element go > out once but by the time I noticed it was more than mostly dead. > > I'll open the box up tonight to test voltage at the heater elements, > continuity at the overtemp cutoff. Anything specific I should look for? > Anyone have this problem before and know the fix? > > Anyone have a part number for a 110v brew heater element for brewtus 2? I > kinda want my coffee to keep working sooner rather than later. > > > I had the same problem recently, and tech support at WLL thought it might be a failing PID because the element was not entirely out, but the machine would still get hot -- although not hot enough by a few degrees. I ruled that out with a little testing, including a nasty jolt when I touched the brew boiler and ground and popped the GFCI. Resistance was about 800 Ohms across the element, and I was getting 20 ohms from one element lead to the boiler wall -- and 120v from the boiler wall to ground. So, the element was in the process of failing and was shorting. I bought a new element (with a daily discount, which was nice), bought a 37mm socket for my air impact wrench. My 1 1/2" socket was sloppy, and a 1 7/16" heater element socket I used for sizing didn't fit -- but it was a cheap stamped socket and not a precision tool by any means. WLL recommended a 1 7/16" socket, so I suppose a good one would work. 37mm is right on the button, and I got one pretty cheap off Amazon.
The recommended removal process is to use a standard socket wrench while holding the boiler with a oil filter wrench, but with all the gunk used to seal the element, I didn't think that would do the trick, and a WLL tech said that an impact wrench was best -- as others on this NG have written. Worked like a charm, and he element was split. I used the oil filter wrench and socket for reassembly with some Teflon thread paste, which I like better than tape. The machine is up and running and working beautifully. My only screw up was that after I popped in the element and turned on the machine, the steam boiler automatically filled -- and I forgot that I had to fill the brew boiler and about cooked my new element. But I was watching it heat up and realized my mistake before the element got too hot. Its funny that I should forget since this all started with me trying to fix the problem with descaling, which involves a lot of brew boiler filling. As for scale, the inside walls of the brew boiler and my split heater element were clean, but there was about an ounce of white, non-adherent material just sitting in the boiler. I suppose it was calcium carbonate, but it flushed right out. -- Jay Beattie. -- 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 https://groups.google.com/group/brewtus. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
