There has been a few posts both on here and Home-Barista regarding the retrofit/upgrade of the knobs to joysticks. I thought I'd give that a try after my steam wand got kind of wonky. It still works but I used that as an excuse. I don't exactly have a natural talent for these kinds of retrofits but I can say it really is easy. If I can do it so can you. What you'll need is both the joystick wand, either steam or hot water, *and* the adapter kit. I think Chris calls it the 'Izzo' kit. You'll need that make everything work.
The adapter kit comes with 3 parts. 1) an adapter which converts from the Brewtus thread type to the type on the steam wand. When remove the flair nut from the Brewtus steam wand, and try to put that on the joystick wand, it won't fit. You'll need to first screw on the adapter to the joystick steam wand and then the Brewtus flair nut will work great. You should also use the Teflon tape on the screw threads just to keep things from leaking. Also, before you even put flair nut back on, you should make sure the steam wand itself is nice and tight. I used a socket to get to the nut on the inside of the machine. I was lucky enough that the socket was deep enough to reach the nut past the threads of the steam wand. You'll need metric sizes. The second pard of the adapter kit is a little copper washer. I didn't use that because it wasn't needed to make everything fit. Of course once I turned on the machine it leaked. I guess that copper washer is needed after all. So, after unscrewing everything, retaping with teflon tape, I put the little copper washer between the pipe coming from the Brewtus and into the adapter on the steam wand. It really only fits in one way. I screwed it tight and was worried the flair nut would 'bottom out' before it got tight enough. It did seem to bottom out or at least get close to it but this time, when I turned on the machine and let it warm up, no leaks! Be safe and if you're messing around with the machine without the metal cover on it, wear safety glasses. If something blows and your face is in there looking for leaks it would be really bad. Finally, the third part of the adapter kit is some kind of washer, bigger than the copper washer. This time I really didn't need it and wasn't even sure what it's for. Maybe another brand of machine needed it. All in all, like people say, it is a very easy DYI upgrade and works very well. It looks like the Brewtus was made for it. -- 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.
