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My VBM Domobar just tried to kill me!

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  • My VBM Domobar just tried to kill me!

    Something gave way in the spout of the double portafilter this morning, and the machine shot me in the abdomen with hot coffee! It was squirting coffee out through the hole in between the left and right spouts. Just before this had happened, I could hear a squeaking sound like liquid trying to escape through rubber.

    First of all, how do I remove the spout to see what's going on? It is screwed on so tight I can't make an impression. Secondly, is there a rubber seal in there that just needs to be replaced? My machine is probably about 5 years old now and has done about 3000 shots.
    Attached Files

  • #2
    Hi garbage,

    Nice wake up call. Reminds me of old days Rancilio catering groups. I they there were about 100mm with a 4cm deep puck. They used to fly off the machine regularly and we all learned to jump backward and quickly!

    The lost bit is just a screw which must be around somewhere. Drip tray?

    Cheers

    Chris

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    • #3
      Humpfff. A belly-button full of hot coffee is hardly an assassination attempt.

      The spouts can be very hard to remove. I suggest a good bench vice and lots of torque. I suspect that sometimes they are epoxied in place.

      Greg

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      • #4
        You won't need to remove the spout. There should be a pressed metal cover on the spout with a threaded plug that screws into that hole and holds the cover on, but having it go missing shouldn't on its own make coffee squirt out of that hole, at most it should only dribble. Most likely you have a buildup of coffee in the spout restricting the flow, which makes it squirt out under pressure rather than flow freely. One of the reasons for that hole being there is to give access into the spout to clean it - pop out the filter basket and stick a pick, metal skewer or whatever you have handy into the spout both from above and through that hole, wiggle it around and scrape out anything built up in there and you'll probably find a surprisingly large amount of dried out coffee oils being dislodged. If the buildup gets that bad soaking on its own won't do the trick, and if left long enough the spout can block completely, and flow is stopped as effectively as if you had a blind filter in the handle.

        The spout complete with screw/plug and cover would look like this:
        Attached Files

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        • #5
          Oh wow, a few years worth of built up coffee gunk!!! No wonder my machine wanted to kill me!

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          • #6
            Originally posted by garbage View Post
            Oh wow, a few years worth of built up coffee gunk!!! No wonder my machine wanted to kill me!
            Why not machine it out & go naked. Better coffee w zero maintenance / no gunk.

            TampIt

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            • #7
              Originally posted by TampIt View Post
              Why not machine it out & go naked. Better coffee w zero maintenance / no gunk.

              TampIt
              'cause it's hard to pour into two cups at a time with a naked PF..

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              • #8
                Originally posted by Robbks View Post
                'cause it's hard to pour into two cups at a time with a naked PF..
                I can't remember the movie but "so, adjust" seems to be apt. Better coffee is (IMHO) always worth the effort. Different baskets can always be added to the shopping list list. What is the Javaphile thing? Oh yes, "Toys, I must have new toys". Works for me...

                TampIt

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