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BZ99 failed element and I can't get the old one off!

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  • MJF
    replied
    And... she's home. The repair/conversion gasket that places a paper (?) gasket between the boiler base and the element plate did the trick. All up, around $460, with parts being less than half the cost and 2.5 hours of labour. If it had been 'new boiler', I reckon it wouldn't have been done because that's another $300 plus a complete strip/rebuild of all pipework.
    It now sounds TOTALLY different when heating up, so I'm guessing it was bought with a ton of scale already present. I'll be a bit more attentive to this side of the maintenance from now on - there's a bottle of descaler on the desk right now.
    The La Pavoni had issues as well, the piston had started to unscrew itself from the piston rod, so it got really inconsistent after the first week before I worked it out. It's now my "early morning" machine before the BZ99 kicks in for everyone else's coffee after sunrise.

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  • Lyrebird
    commented on 's reply
    Carbon fibre itself is actually fairly cheap: I pay $USD 80 per kg for the highest strength CF available to small users like myself (Toray T1000 12k) when I buy it as tow.

    In prepreg form it's a litle more expensive: commercial IM prepreg is about $USD 200 per kg; that's about how much you need to make a high end bike frame (including wastage).

    FWIW I don't use much commercial prepreg since it is very difficult to get the best grades in Oz (I make my own quasi prepreg to get around this).

  • MJF
    replied
    Update 1. The bottom of the boiler was scaled over, but there was enough corrosion at one point that after cleaning the o-ring no longer seals. The tech has ordered the paper gasket, if that doesn't work it's "new boiler". No-one re-cuts the o-ring groove and uses a thicker o-ring? Sad.
    La Pavoni Minigon (97) is in the kitchen protecting the family from pods and bad pour-over. Pre-infusion timing is proving challenging, but I have more successes than failures. But it needs a naked handle, dosing cup and a decent filter basket and properly sized tamp. I'll have to see how much money the BZ99 soaks up.

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  • JMcCee
    commented on 's reply
    I see you are in Canberra. I was gonna say if you're near the Mornington Peninsua you could pop in for a couple of godshots out of my 62 yo Lambro to tide you over. But you wouldn't want your BZ back after =P.

  • MJF
    replied
    The Minister for Finance and Home Affairs maintains the discretionary funds separately. Apart from coffee, I have a cycling and photography habit - if you think coffee machines are expensive, you should look at the cost of carbon fibre and camera lenses.

    Hairo pour-over to the rescue - but let's be honest, it's never going to taste as good as a true Italian ristretto (1:1 in 25 seconds using espresso roasted beans).

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  • EspressoAdventurer
    commented on 's reply
    MJF Sorry to hear that you also have experienced that now often repeated opening line by the Techy etc.
    Please keep in mind a recently new development whereby the 'Man of the House' could invoke special emergency orders whereby he could split the responsibilites of the aforementioned Minister for Finance from their tendem Home Affairs office durties........ without prior notification.

    Secret orders and powers in an emergency situation does seem to be a done 'thang' in this day and age !
    Just sayin.....

    PS dont give up on fresh ground / french press in these/your unprecedented times atm.

  • MJF
    replied
    Had contact from the machine tech late yesterday - his comment was "I like challenging ones". Probably NOT a good sign.

    The "Minister for Finance and Home Affairs" is on the point of losing her crackers - "I haven't had a decent coffee all week". Says a lot about the local coffee shops.

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  • drinkmorecoffee
    commented on 's reply
    Probably for the best, my money was going towards some sort of water-related fusing between the element and the gasket/boiler but one should always bear in mind (especially when conducting DIY repairs) that a little too tight on a fixing or a bumped fuse and you may well have yourself a faulty metal vessel full of pressurised, superheated water (i.e. a bomb). I will say knowing the previous owner bought it from a repair shop probably indicates it may have some hidden repairs needed anyway so good call on the service front.

  • MJF
    replied
    I decided that, as it hasn't had a real service in (at least) two years, this was an opportunity for it to be looked over professionally, so I dropped it off this morning. $110 for a quote, but I'll assume they will have a look inside the boiler first. Apart from trying to slide a knife between the element and the boiler body, I was out of non-destructive ideas and I'd probably have to pull the boiler out completely - which brings a whole new range of risks.

    Everyone else on the net who has pulled one of these apart has made no mention of difficulty getting the element off, realistically based on the design it should have just fallen off. The "machine" is definitely a pre-2006 revision, but the tank code suggests 2010, and the element had a thermoswitch on it but no wiring. The previous owner bought it from a repair shop - but no history as to what work had been done.

    To be continued...

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  • EspressoAdventurer
    replied
    Try heat gun then if no movement follow up with ice cubes in a bag etc. might help release the 'seal / grip'.

    GL

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  • MJF
    replied
    And that's open circuit on the element, not zero ohms.

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  • MJF
    replied
    It had been serviced before I got it, I've had it for two years, heaps of use (10 coffee a day for the household) but it's "Canberra" so the water is soft. But it's due for a clean. No build up and it worked perfectly to this point. No corrosion or leaks evident.
    And only used with filtered (carbon/ceramic) water.

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  • drinkmorecoffee
    replied
    Hi there, couple of q's before knowing which way to go. How old's your BZ and what was it's use history? Also what's your water situation? (purified/filtered, recipe, tap, bottled etc.)

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  • MJF
    started a topic BZ99 failed element and I can't get the old one off!

    BZ99 failed element and I can't get the old one off!

    Hoping someone has a clue here. My BZ99 failed, tripped the circuit breaker one the power and no longer heats the water. Multi-meter says zero ohms on the element. I ordered a replacement, but damned if I can get the old one off. With all bolts removed there is only a minimal visible gap between the body and the element, trying to tap off the element using a screwdriver as a drift simply didn't achieve anything. I can see that there is a repair/conversion gasket available on some of the parts sites, I'm wondering if someone got carried away and used one of these gaskets instead of the vitron o-ring. Any suggestions that people have tried in the past, or should it have just fallen off when the bolts were removed??? Bigger hammer? I'm obviously not wanting to end up having to buy a new boiler if I mess this up. I'm tempted to hand it over to a coffee machine repair service and let them work it out, but $$$ and I have all the parts and SURELY it shouldn't be this hard.
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