Breville BES900 Dual Boiler - Owners thread

[Sullo]

Didn't forget to plug the wires back in to the solenoid coil? I've done it before.....

This would mean the solenoid is always open to the tray and won't close to direct water to the group.

Im pretty sure I did lol But Ill check again

Yeah something isn't working in the solenoid, can't tell you if it's electrical or mechanical from here sorry. If you're not comfortable with the top off maybe best to let someone else fault find.

Nah its more cos there was a big boily thing there thought best not stretch the cabling going to the doodat on the roof, that plus I couldn't be bothered holding it whilst it warmed up, plus err of the safer side.
Is the solenoid suppoed to make a click or anything discernible? Going to check again, I cant remember how to meter out a solenoid if at all possible without adding in voltage and my bench supply is at work.
And Im already in jammie pants :P

[level3ninja]

Yeah something isn't working in the solenoid, can't tell you if it's electrical or mechanical from here sorry. If you're not comfortable with the top off maybe best to let someone else fault find.

[noidle22]

ok so I just replaced the solenoid, awaiting other parts and only thing to happen is hot water comes thru the bottom tray, no pressure buildup nothing thru the group head?
Faulty solenoid? I just replaced the part like for like and the gasket that comes with it, pretty darn sure I put the gasket in right, waiting for it too cool a bit more before I unscrew the solenoid to check,
I didn't want to risk running unit with top cover off despite it probably being ok,
any ideas?

Didn't forget to plug the wires back in to the solenoid coil? I've done it before.....

This would mean the solenoid is always open to the tray and won't close to direct water to the group.

[Sullo]

ok so I just replaced the solenoid, awaiting other parts and only thing to happen is hot water comes thru the bottom tray, no pressure buildup nothing thru the group head?
Faulty solenoid? I just replaced the part like for like and the gasket that comes with it, pretty darn sure I put the gasket in right, waiting for it too cool a bit more before I unscrew the solenoid to check,
I didn't want to risk running unit with top cover off despite it probably being ok,
any ideas?

[level3ninja]

so with the buzzing issue and loss of pressure, what causes this, is it the solenoid or pump making the noise, have ordered parts pending replacement, figured they both seem to be root cause, replace both

The buzzing is the solenoid, the loss of pressure could be either but if your machine is old enough for the solenoid to be buzzing the pump won't have too long left. Also worth replacing the OPV when you do the pump.

[Sullo]

so with the buzzing issue and loss of pressure, what causes this, is it the solenoid or pump making the noise, have ordered parts pending replacement, figured they both seem to be root cause, replace both

[djvkool]

Best to seek out another service centre. All major parts between the BES900 and BES920 are cross compatible. Depending on the model variant of your machine and what other repairs it may have had previously will dictate how much work needs to be done to it now.

A 6 year old machine with no prior service history will probably need a quite a few parts. At the bare minimum, it's going to need a new pump and OPV and the solenoid seals checked for damage. Either of these could be the cause of your low pressure issues.
Other repairs will be steam boiler o-ring replacement, steam level probes checked for scale build up and replaced if required. Depending on the level of scale found will indicate if a descale is required.

There are several other common problems that affect these machines after several years but sometimes you get lucky and you get a good machine. I had a 2012 machine in today that had the original solenoid and steam tap which were in perfect working condition. They are also common parts that can fail.
Last week I had an early 2011 model that I fixed once in 2014 (for warranty issues on the very early models) then again now. This time it was all the common repair items. The machine had close to 12,000 shots on it and the customer has only just had to spend a bit of money on repairs. Pretty good for an appliance I think.

Thank you very much for the response mate, as per your advise I will take the machine to the service centre and will get it looked at.

[noidle22]

have just called Breviile service centre, and they said that most of the part for BES900 is no longer available, as the newer spare parts aren't compatible.

Best to seek out another service centre. All major parts between the BES900 and BES920 are cross compatible. Depending on the model variant of your machine and what other repairs it may have had previously will dictate how much work needs to be done to it now.

A 6 year old machine with no prior service history will probably need a quite a few parts. At the bare minimum, it's going to need a new pump and OPV and the solenoid seals checked for damage. Either of these could be the cause of your low pressure issues.
Other repairs will be steam boiler o-ring replacement, steam level probes checked for scale build up and replaced if required. Depending on the level of scale found will indicate if a descale is required.

There are several other common problems that affect these machines after several years but sometimes you get lucky and you get a good machine. I had a 2012 machine in today that had the original solenoid and steam tap which were in perfect working condition. They are also common parts that can fail.
Last week I had an early 2011 model that I fixed once in 2014 (for warranty issues on the very early models) then again now. This time it was all the common repair items. The machine had close to 12,000 shots on it and the customer has only just had to spend a bit of money on repairs. Pretty good for an appliance I think.

[djvkool]

Hi guys - I think my BES900 is just about to give up, owner since 2012 and have been working perfectly since.

At the moment is just not extracting, or very little extraction, the pressure gauge doesn't go pass number 1, and takes at least 20-25 secs before the coffee comes out.

I'm not as technical as some of you are in here, I have just called Breviile service centre, and they said that most of the part for BES900 is no longer available, as the newer spare parts aren't compatible.

I am weighing to see if it's worth me pursuing the repair, or just get a new one?

if anyone can give me some advice, that would be much appreciated

thank you

[KopiPeng]

NZGeek, the pressure problem is likely the pump or the OPV. Assuming your pressure meter is accurate. To test, pull a shot with the blind disc. If you do not see any return water flow from the OPV then its the pump on its last legs. If you see return water, then the OPV needs adjusting or needs to be changed (don't know if the plastic OPV in the Breville is adjustable). If its the pump, I'll probably change the pump and upgrade the OPV to a brass one.

Changing the O rings are straightforward. All of them are on the top of both the boilers. Except one at pressure meter. Note the size when changing and some of them have double stacked O rings, and some have a small washer which easily falls off. If you have the BES920, then it gets more difficult as there are O rings for the pipes to drain the boilers for descaling, which are obviously located at the bottom of both boilers.

[nzgeek]

Hi everyone. I've had a BDB for 5-6 years now, and it's starting to have problems that require some maintenance.

The most obvious problem is pressure. When pulling a shot, the pressure is around 2.5 - 3 bar. It's stable and doesn't fluctuate. If I use the silicone blind disc, the pressure is around 4 bar stable.

The next problem is the pump and pre-extraction. I usually hear a buzz, which I'm sure if the pump, during the pre-extraction phase. But now it's relatively frequent that I don't hear a buzz, or it's much more quiet than usual. I suspect that the pump isn't coming on, but I'm not sure.

Third problem is the solenoid. I had one episode a couple of weeks ago where it made a loud buzz, but came right after 10 seconds or so. Then one morning last week, I buzzed again and I couldn't get any water flow. That evening I pulled the solenoid apart and soaked the mechanical part in a percarbonate solution for about 15 minutes. It's worked fine since then.

The last problem is some leaks around the sensors in the steam boiler. When I had the top off for the solenoid issue, I noticed small amounts of water coming out and hitting the top of the boiler. I recognised the hiss it made, which has been happening for a while.

Questions:

(1) Based on what I've described, what's the most likely cause of my pressure problems? Is it the pump, solenoid, OPV, or possibly something else? Is there a way I can test?

(2) Is my solenoid issue likely to come back? If so, do I need to replace the mechanical part or just the electric part?

(3) I've ordered some silicone 007 and 010 O-rings and will do a general replacement. Are there any that aren't easy to spot, that I might miss?

[inorog]

Would that be for my issue or for the one I was replying to? Or both?
Thanks [emoji1360]

Nah - that was for @sacasable. You problems sound more like they're controller board related more than anything else. If the behaviour stops by futzing with the control panel buttons - kinda sounds like the controller board has 'issues'.

Basically - the triacs are the last in line to the heating elements and pumps, and no matter what the control board state is, if they're stuck on or off, they're pretty much stuck. If the behaviour alters because of the control board state - then perhaps the triacs are not at fault, but the micro-controller board itself.

But I could be wrong.

The good part is that triacs are easy (enough) to diagnose whether they're good or bad.

[gmeddy]

That points at one of the control triacs ... probably a cheaper initial replacement than the whole micro-controller board.

If you do a search for "triac" in the 900/920 threads - you might find some posts dealing with it.

Would that be for my issue or for the one I was replying to? Or both?
Thanks [emoji1360]

[inorog]

That points at one of the control triacs ... probably a cheaper initial replacement than the whole micro-controller board.

If you do a search for "triac" in the 900/920 threads - you might find some posts dealing with it.

[gmeddy]

Bump - just wondering whether anyone has any tips or similar experience of the issue above.. essentially even when I switch the machine off (but it’s still plugged in), the milk froth boiler stays on.
not sure if this is supposed to be the case - I don’t remember it being so before a few weeks ago.
Thanks
sac

Sounds like a problem with the computer. I doubt there’s any fix other than a new board.
Mine can’t remember programmed button times, always stops after a few seconds regardless of the set time. So I always use manual.
Another problem mine has is that if it is ever switched off at wall or unplugged, when it’s turned on again the brew pump will start running and pump out water from brew head. Only way to stop it doing that is to turn it on while holding the 4 buttons in to put it into service mode. From there I can exit and it will behave.
I asked about it here once before and didn’t get any responses.
My guess is like I said at the outset.
You could try my trick and turn it on while holding the 4 buttons, then exit the service mode. Maybe from then on the steam boiler might behave... [emoji848]