Announcement

Collapse
No announcement yet.

Breville BES920 no steam (not a descaling issue)

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts

  • Breville BES920 no steam (not a descaling issue)

    hi, hoping someone can suggest how to troubleshoot this problem further, I’ve already read other topics here and tried those suggestions but it hasn’t fixed my problem.

    Breville model BES920 dual boiler bought in December 2017

    Symptom: when we open the valve for the steamer wand, it beeps 3 times and just spits out a very light steam with no real force. We have not recently descaled, and have never had a problem after descaling.

    Based on the below troubleshooting summary, any idea what might be going on?

    Troubleshooting so far:

    **is the board setting the boiler to the wrong temperature?**
    Used the reset feature, and checked that the wand boiler was set to 275 degrees

    **is there a blockage in the wand, or between the wand and the boiler?**
    * Took the end off and cleaned it
    * Removed the wand from the body, checked for any sign of corrosion, scaling, or blockages (found none)
    * Opened the case, pulled out the connection between the boiler and the wand. No blockages found.
    * When I turned on the machine with the case opened, I noticed steam escaping from where the wand hose attaches to the boiler; opened it and replaced the o-ring. No more steam escaping, but wand still shows same symptoms

    **Is the boiler coming up to temperature?**
    I can't be certain, but it is getting hot to the touch, steam was escaping from one gasket (until I replaced the O-ring, see above) and water is bubbling up through the tube connected to the center of the top of the boiler

    **Is the boiler filling with water?**
    Yes. Ran a test where we disconnected the red wire, which I believe manages the water level sensor. Opened the wand and turned on the machine. Pump ran to fill the boiler with water. I let it run until water started coming out of the wand, then turned the machine off.

    **Is the water level sensor calling for water?**
    I then drained the boiler, reconnected the sensor, and turned the machine back on. The pump started and kept running until it was refilled. I waited until a few minutes after the espresso boiler came up to temperature and checked the wand, but the wand still shows the same symptoms.


  • #2
    The 3 beeps when you open the steam valve is the machine telling you the steam is not up to temperature. This can physically be caused by several things but you have ruled most of them out. The only things left is that the steam is either hot but not at temperature (if there is a leak in the steam system it can't build pressure above atmosphere and therefore it won't reach over 100°C), or that it is at temperature but the controller thinks it isn't. I think the next thing to check is the steam boiler NTC.

    Have you tried checking what the temperature of the boiler is according to the machine? It's in the engineering menu I think. At approx. 4min in this video it shows how to display the 3 temperature readings and which is which.
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ht_Ny7Lfvns&t=3m50s

    Comment


    • Jrwelch99
      Jrwelch99 commented
      Editing a comment
      Thanks, I’ll try tonight after work.

  • #3
    Ok, so using the engineering menu, it looks like the steam boiler is only reading 101 C, after machine has come to temp + several minutes more (10 or more minutes afterward)
    Now what might be stopping it from coming to temperature?

    Back to my original troubleshooting, I’m seeing water bubbles sometimes coming up through the fat hose on top of the steam boiler (I think that’s where the water drains). Any chance that there’s a valve there that is weak and not letting it come to pressure? If that’s plausible, anyone know the part number for a replacement?

    Comment


    • Jrwelch99
      Jrwelch99 commented
      Editing a comment
      Should also have asked: anyone have experience on what might be causing the boiler to fail to come up to temperature when there are no obvious leaks?

  • #4
    The fat hose is the drain for the anti vacuum valve, it will have some water coming out while the boiler is warming up but should close once close to temperature. The fact that it's so close to 100°C and the steam is weak is suspicious of a leak somewhere. There's a fitting on the left side of the boiler (when looked at from the front) that is how the fresh cold water is fed into the steam boiler. But for it to completely stop pressure building it would need to be a significant hole. Does the fat hose stop leaking once it heats up or is it still leaking all the time?

    Comment


    • #5
      First of all, thank you level3ninja for all of your good troubleshooting tips. I felt like I owed your kindness, some closure about what ended up happening.

      Basically, after making the fixes that seemed obvious, the boilers for the steam wand still would not come up to pressure and we're stuck at 100° . I then ordered more rubber gaskets and intended to replace all of the connections going into that boiler even though there was no obvious active leak. However, I had a hard time getting all of them on effectively. The last straw was when I lost one of the small washers in the machine and was unable to recover it. I spent three afternoons on this probably seven or eight hours in total. When I put the machine back together there was an obvious leak coming out of one of the hoses when I turned it on.

      We ended up calling Breville customer support and sending it to them for repair. It's back now and works perfectly but I'm disappointed I wasn't able to repair it myself.​

      Comment


      • level3ninja
        level3ninja commented
        Editing a comment
        Appreciate the update. Super frustrating it wouldn't behave for you, but at least it's all working well now. All's well that ends in good coffee!
    Working...
    X