Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[WiredArabica]

Just wondering if people can help me or is this normal.
So I reached the clean me message on screen. I filled the water tank
took out my portafilter, inserted a single wall and then put the cleaning disc inside this with a table, I pressed the clean me -> manual button and it started to make noise
however no water actually came out of the head. All videos I have seen water comes out cleaning process.
Is there an issue with my machine?
Thanks

No, that's correct. There's no hole in the rubber blind for water to come through.

[witoldb]

I have first series BES900 and portafilter somtimes spins out.
I believe that collar insert (part BES900/3.7) and portafilter (BES900/04) have to be changed to prevent it.
BES900/920 is not sold in my country only BES980.
Does anybody know if parts from BES980 (collar insert BES980/06.7 and portafilter BES980/07) will fit into BES900?
Also can replace shower head assembly BES900/03.2 with BES980/06.2?

[munchkin]

Greetings all from the US - Just picked up a second hand 900 and have a couple questions, it's in good condition and mostly works well. First obvious problem was no pressure during pre-infusion. The brew solenoid had the two round teflo(?) seals and have replacement gaskets on order. In the meantime I replaced the originals with a couple of Viton O-rings until they arrive. Now have pre-infusion. I found that one of the screws for the solenoid wasn't tightening completely due to a short pilot hole. Self tapping screws in this application are a bad idea. I added washers to each screw to ensure full engagement. I fiddled with the OPV as well and now can't get anything beyond 8 bar, so looks like the brass mod is in order.

My main question is regarding something I read a reference about. Seems that after 'X' amount of shots the machine shuts down and has to go to service, and would like a confirmation as to whether that is accurate, and if so, how many? Machine now has about 3,100 on the odometer. Apparently anything under 7 seconds isn't counted, but for testing purposes you have to run the machine long enough to read full pressure. Makes one leery of doing too many tests unfortunately. As far as I know there are no info ports on the machine, so do service reburn an EPROM or some such to clear the count? If so, seems the machine would have to to be completely refurbed.

Apologies for being long winded, and thanks for any insight.

[Javaphile]

Machine now has about 3,100 on the odometer.

Is that a guesstimate based on average daily usage or is there a series/combination of button pushes that displays the shot count?


Java "Inquiring minds want to know" phile

[Vinitasse]

Is that a guesstimate based on average daily usage or is there a series/combination of button pushes that displays the shot count?


Java "Inquiring minds want to know" phile

From Post #2871 in the BES900 Owners Thread

With the power cord plugged IN & turned ON at the wall socket.
Machine OFF
Press & hold IN all four buttons simultaneously, Menu, Arrow Down, Arrow Up, Exit. While holding them all down, press the Power button
The LCD will now be in the Service Mode
There will be a single, double or even triple digit displayed. This is the number of shots over 7 secs, divided by 10. So if you had 12 on the LCD, this would mean you have pulled 120 shots longer than 7 secs.

[noidle22]

First obvious problem was no pressure during pre-infusion. The brew solenoid had the two round teflo(?) seals and have replacement gaskets on order. In the meantime I replaced the originals with a couple of Viton O-rings until they arrive. Now have pre-infusion. I found that one of the screws for the solenoid wasn't tightening completely due to a short pilot hole. Self tapping screws in this application are a bad idea. I added washers to each screw to ensure full engagement. I fiddled with the OPV as well and now can't get anything beyond 8 bar, so looks like the brass mod is in order.

Those teflon seals are the redesign that Breville installs onto all the dual boiler machines now. You should refit them immediately. Make sure they have a metal sleeve through the middle of them. If they don't have a metal sleeve, refit them anyway for the time being then install the gasket when you receive it.

The viton o-ring design was the biggest drama of the original BES900 machines, they leaked badly. Putting them back into the machine is not ideal.

Your lack of preinfusion and poor extraction pressure is a failing coffee pump and probably OPV as well. I suspect it was a coincidence that your pre-infusion came back after you fiddled with the solenoid.
This can happen by itself sometimes.

If the screws on the solenoid aren't threaded in perfectly, they will stop prematurely. Removing the screw and fiddling with when the screw grabs the thread should correct this.
However, now that you screwed it all the way down it's probably ruined the thread so never mind.

Seems that after 'X' amount of shots the machine shuts down and has to go to service, and would like a confirmation as to whether that is accurate, and if so, how many? Machine now has about 3,100 on the odometer. Apparently anything under 7 seconds isn't counted, but for testing purposes you have to run the machine long enough to read full pressure. Makes one leery of doing too many tests unfortunately. As far as I know there are no info ports on the machine, so do service reburn an EPROM or some such to clear the count? If so, seems the machine would have to to be completely refurbed.

No, the machine will not cease operation once it hits a certain shot count. The only way to reset the count is to replace the mainboard or do a software upgrade.

[Javaphile]

From Post #2871 in the BES900 Owners Thread

With the power cord plugged IN & turned ON at the wall socket.
Machine OFF
Press & hold IN all four buttons simultaneously, Menu, Arrow Down, Arrow Up, Exit. While holding them all down, press the Power button
The LCD will now be in the Service Mode
There will be a single, double or even triple digit displayed. This is the number of shots over 7 secs, divided by 10. So if you had 12 on the LCD, this would mean you have pulled 120 shots longer than 7 secs.

Nice! I thought I'd heard/read that there was such a counter. 'Tis nice to know I'm not loosing my mind (Yet!) afterall!


Java "Thanks!" phile

[munchkin]

Thanks for the response noidle. Nice to know it wont turn into a pumpkin down the road, probably just ran across some FUD in my research. Epson has a scheme like that, so it seemed plausible.

The current spec for the solenoid gasket is a square one piece design, tho still uses those small tubes. If they started with standard O-rings, guess the teflon discs are the 2nd design. Every other solenoid I've disassembled used O-rings and machine screws. This one doesn't seem to be off-the-shelf tho. As I am now getting preinfusion, will leave as is until the replacements get here. Can always toss the discs in if problems arise in the meantime. No, didn't cross thread or gall the solenoid screw sockets, but as they are steel screws going into aluminum, will hit them with anti-seize. The problem is that one of the four screws goes in fine, sorta, but seizes before the part is tight, so think they just got sloppy with that pilot hole. The solenoid body is steel and part it mounts to is aluminum, so the new gasket will also help prevent potential electrolysis problems. Also ordering a new EX5 pump and brass OPV.

Thanks again for the help.

[noidle22]

The current spec for the solenoid gasket is a square one piece design, tho still uses those small tubes. If they started with standard O-rings, guess the teflon discs are the 2nd design.

No, the final design is the teflon discs. This is what is installed on all Breville dual boiler machines now.

The silicone gasket was rapidly manufactured as a quick fix for the BES900's that were suffering from leaking solenoids. It's a reliable design though and there's no issues with long term reliability (as far as I have seen).

Breville now state that all solenoids with the old o-rings in place or the silicone gasket in place are to be fitted with the teflon discs.

I'm not sure why exactly the Breville suffered from the leaking o-rings when pretty much all commercial and prosumer machines with a 3-way solenoid don't have the problem, like you mentioned.
I can only assume it's got something to do with the aluminium and steel interaction (of whatever the solenoid is made from) breaking down the o-rings.

[munchkin]

Thanks for the clarification. Between the various threads I've researched the waters got fairly muddied. As Breville is an Australian product I figured this would be a good source for accurate info, and there doesn't seem to be quite the negativity towards the machine that we see here. Will probably get the pump and OPV before the replacement gaskets get here, so will reinstall the discs then and see how it goes.

One thing I noticed was the insets milled in the solenoid body were larger than what I've seen in off the shelf products, so part of the original problem could have been improperly spec'd O-rings. Still puzzled by the tiny tubes used to keep the holes clear, seems like a kludge.

Sure can't fault the quality of the coffee and microfoam.

Thanks again.

[noidle22]

Interestingly, and what made me mention the metal tubes, is that I serviced Gunta's machine (earlier on this thread) and when it was last in for service a few years ago at another service centre they fit the teflon discs to the solenoid.

They forgot to install the metal sleeves and as a result, the teflon had deformed and almost completely blocked the water flow through the solenoid. This resulted in poor extraction pressure.

[munchkin]

Thanks again noidle, always glad to get it from the horse's mouth. I was a camera tech for 30 years so appreciate you taking the time to set me straight. I will make sure to use the inserts, and judging from the size of the orifices would guess they are mission critical. Should I even bother with the type 2 gasket? Any benefits from isolating the solenoid body from the main casting?

[vivg]

Hey guys,

Just bought a real cheap secondhand BES900... I bought it with the intention of fixing it up and getting it working nicely.

Firstly I replaced the solenoid gasket. It had the teflon type but without the metal inserts, which had caused it to shrink and clog the holes in the solenoid valve.

I then tried firing the machine up, it reached about 70 degrees before it started to leak water out the top of the steam boiler through the 3 probes...

I presume this was an o-ring issue. Are these supposed to be loose when compared to the probes on the other boiler?

Anyway, I found some generic o-rings and used them to try get it working...

The machine made it to about 88 degrees before it started to leak steam, eventually it seemed to pop a leak somewhere at the bottom of the steam boiler. I presume maybe an o-ring somewhere near the bottom? The water was seeping out near where the tool tray is stored.

I presume that I am probably going to have to go through and replace a few more o-rings along the way...

The o-rings all look fine on the other boiler, and most of the other stuff looks alright...

The list of things I am trying to source to try fix this beast up is:

- Steam Boiler Probes
- Steam Boiler Probe O-rings
- Maybe the steam boiler depending on where the leak is?
- anything else you guys reccommend?

I have tried to read through most of the comments on here, using the search feature where possible to try cover the 105 pages

Does anyone have any advice that might help me on my way? Maybe a place to find spare parts? (Getting told 4 week wait times at the moment...) Or maybe some sort of service manual?

I greatly appreciate any help anyone might be able to give me.

Cheers,

Viv
A naive engineering student.

[thefrog]

Yet another problem for a good machine Help required

My experience is with the BES 900 is one of grateful coffee and the dread that yet another thing will go wrong with the machine. Yes it makes excellent coffee but our machine has had a chequered past in and out of being fixed. We have had three group head collars the whole group head replaced, solenoids and gauges replaced. The people at Breville were good and supportive. But now the machine is out of warranty and it leaks. It actually leaks through the connection between the reservoir and the inlet at the back. The seal seems okay and I have had the bottom off to check the connections they look good. But it leaks. I presume this could be fixed easily because if it is expensive it may be better to replace the 3 year old machine. We only every use filtered water clean when needs cleaning. SO! if anyone knows if there are good service people out there who are reasonably priced I would appreciate a line. Or it might be hunt the problem down by going to work on it.

[Libertyrx1]

My experience is with the BES 900 is one of grateful coffee and the dread that yet another thing will go wrong with the machine. Yes it makes excellent coffee but our machine has had a chequered past in and out of being fixed. We have had three group head collars the whole group head replaced, solenoids and gauges replaced. The people at Breville were good and supportive. But now the machine is out of warranty and it leaks. It actually leaks through the connection between the reservoir and the inlet at the back. The seal seems okay and I have had the bottom off to check the connections they look good. But it leaks. I presume this could be fixed easily because if it is expensive it may be better to replace the 3 year old machine. We only every use filtered water clean when needs cleaning. SO! if anyone knows if there are good service people out there who are reasonably priced I would appreciate a line. Or it might be hunt the problem down by going to work on it.

where are you based?