brewtus III overheated, now never reaches normal temp

[gab...@gmail.com]

hey guys, 

like the subject says, this morning I turned it on and an hour later I found it showing 270F. (was set @ 199F) 

reading was real, when pulling down on the lever steam would come out of the group head. 

Anyways, I turned it off then turned it back on, then it never reached nominal again. After it cooled down I opened it and it looks like only the steam boiler is heating up. Unfortunately my multimeter is dead (I can only measure resistance not voltage) and I could only measure that both heating elements have the same resistance (about 14 or 16 ohms) so they're prob. both ok. I ordered another multimeter and when I get it I'll try to follow the measurement tips from the WLL video  unless somebody saw this happening before and can point me what the problem was in their case ;)

[Ben McCafferty]

Hoping your over temp switch on the brew boiler tripped. That would explain no power to brew boiler. My guess is temp controller is the problem since it would be the part to cut off the boiler at set temp. Reset the over temp switch, turn on and watch brew temp; if it starts going high again you've confirmed the cause of no power to the boiler. Not sure if there's another way for us laymen to test temp controller except just trading it out. Might ping Todd as well. 

Best,

bmc

Sent from my iPhone

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[gab...@gmail.com]

yep, over temp switched was tripped, I reset it now things seem to have come back to normal and temp is stable - the question is was this because of the temp sensor or because of the PID. I hope I won't have to find out soon ;)

bmc, thanks for the tip ! 

[Ben McCafferty]

Maybe an anomaly, but probably temp sensor and/or PID controller--my money is on the PID. 

b

Sent from my iPhone

[Bruce Keeler]

I concur. If the display was accurately reading 270 and the PID continues to show plausible numbers, then the temp sensor is OK. That leaves the PID (or the older controller if that's what you have)

[gab...@gmail.com]

I need to go open it again :( 

so it looks like after about 20 minutes or so of keeping the temperature to the preset 199F it starts to go up and fluctuate. I noticed when that starts to happen I can see water vapor inside the PID digits even more I got a water dropping from between the PID and the front plate (I'll upload a picture) 

Last time it was open I noticed the was a transparent plastic tape on top of the PID that pealed off and I didn't bother to stick it back, I wonder if that's the reason otherwise I'll have to see how can water make it inside the PID ... 

-g

[gab...@gmail.com]

I am pretty sure I found the problem. Copper Steam wand pipe inside of the machine was leaking water right on top of the PID. Fixing the leak now and hopefully the PID was not permanently damaged...

[Benjamin McCafferty]

Yeeeeeeaaaahhhhhhhh, that'll do it. Hope it dries out ok, but not hugely expensive if not.
best,
bmc

Sent from my apple IIe

> On Jun 22, 2016, at 22:26, gab...@gmail.com wrote:
>
> I am pretty sure I found the problem. Copper Steam wand pipe inside of the machine was leaking water right on top of the PID. Fixing the leak now and hopefully the PID was not permanently damaged...
>

[Dave B]

/sarcasm on

design GENIUS!

 UNprotected electronics.

/sarcasm off

maybe some duct tape would help a little???