Tank Conversion

[Aidan Moretz]

Howdy all,

Just purchased a Brewtus II and am excited to join such an active community! Living in an apartment I'm curious about undoing the most popular conversion; I'm looking to use a tank/reservoir. 

Come Monday, I'm going to chat with whole latte love, but do any of you know of good resources for plumbing/unplumbing the machine?

Cheers,

-Aidan

[Brian]

if it’s made to be plumbed in you could always run a line from the pump to a bucket or some other kind of homemade reservoir. Even the rotary pump will work from a reservoir, just be careful to prime it first, and not run the pump dry as it could damage the seals.

It won’t be as clean as the internal tank, and won’t have the automatic low water cutoff, but it’s by far the cheapest and easiest way to go from plumbed in to not.

Good luck! 

[Aidan Moretz]

That works with no pressure on the in-line? I've read some solutions with bottle water and Flojet or a similar pump but hadn't seen anything on open systems

[Brian]

Yes, should work fine with no pressure on the incoming line, you may need to adjust the pressure bypass valve toachieve target group head pressure thoug.Ideally the reservoir would be at the same height, or above the pump, but I know some people that have done fine with a bucket reservoir under a cabinet just below the machine. It’s best to keep NPSH (gravity pressure feeding the pump) as high as possible, pumps can be damaged when there is too much negative pressure from gravity on the inlet, but a small amount shouldn’t be an issue.

[Aidan Moretz]

Worked like a charm, thank you! Think I'm still going to invest in the pumped reservoir system just to be safe for the long-term

[Brian]

Certainly won’t hurt! But I think you are probably fine without. At least in the short term.

Enjoy!