randytsuch Senior Member Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 578 Location: LA, Ca Expertise: I like coffee
Espresso: Expobar Office with... Grinder: Baratza Vario Roaster: Customized Alpenrost,...
Posted Thu Mar 3, 2011, 1:53pm Subject: Re: stabilizing temps on Gaggia Classic
I built something similar, but that doesn't require the machining for my gaggia.
The most common solution is the "copper tube" mod, where you wrap the gaggia with copper tubing. The boiler heats the tubing, which will give you some preheating.
ggcadc Senior Member Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 146 Location: San Diego, CA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: QM Alexia Grinder: Mazzer mini E, Virtuoso,... Vac Pot: Yama 3 cup Drip: All of them Roaster: Behmor 1600
Posted Thu Mar 3, 2011, 1:56pm Subject: Re: stabilizing temps on Gaggia Classic
randytsuch Said:
I built something similar, but that doesn't require the machining for my gaggia.
The most common solution is the "copper tube" mod, where you wrap the gaggia with copper tubing. The boiler heats the tubing, which will give you some preheating.
ggcadc Senior Member Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 146 Location: San Diego, CA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: QM Alexia Grinder: Mazzer mini E, Virtuoso,... Vac Pot: Yama 3 cup Drip: All of them Roaster: Behmor 1600
Posted Thu Mar 3, 2011, 6:17pm Subject: Re: stabilizing temps on Gaggia Classic
alright, i've got a start, but finding fitting to connect the copper tubing was impossible, I have some local machine and hydraulic shops and they did find a way to connect it, I have to cut the plastic tube and use adapters to compression fittings, I have part numbers listed if anyone is loking to do the same and got stuck at this point...
ggcadc Senior Member Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 146 Location: San Diego, CA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: QM Alexia Grinder: Mazzer mini E, Virtuoso,... Vac Pot: Yama 3 cup Drip: All of them Roaster: Behmor 1600
Posted Fri Mar 4, 2011, 8:04pm Subject: Re: stabilizing temps on Gaggia Classic
well, I got the fittings, they dont hold pressure, the ones that connect to the stock tubing anyway, have to wait til monday to go back to the store and try another solution
edit-- after doing some more READING, I found the fittings I needed after all at home depot and it works, doest make a big mess, I have yet to make a shot with the new setup, but I'm sure this is old nows by now as all the threads on this topic are years old.
ggcadc Senior Member Joined: 25 Mar 2008 Posts: 146 Location: San Diego, CA Expertise: I live coffee
Espresso: QM Alexia Grinder: Mazzer mini E, Virtuoso,... Vac Pot: Yama 3 cup Drip: All of them Roaster: Behmor 1600
Posted Sat Mar 5, 2011, 4:07pm Subject: Re: stabilizing temps on Gaggia Classic
there are fittings designed to be used with 1/4 plastic tubing with inserts that worked for me, i think it was 1/4 x 1/8 to connect to the brass compression fittings. this one: Click Here (www.homedepot.com)
I believe, I brought the brass compression fitting to make sure it threaded in.
what are you using for a heat exchanger? the copper tube seems to work, but there are limitation from shot to shot it takes time to heat up, and doesnt seem to do much more than just gently warm the water, not as much heating as I wanted. but it's still early, may not know how to properly flush with this setup yet.
Posted Sun Mar 6, 2011, 12:50am Subject: Re: stabilizing temps on Gaggia Classic
That's the fitting I'm considering using. The heat exchanger I'm working on is a 1/4 in copper coil (single or double layer) that will be soldered to a copper plate and attached to the front of the boiler with a heat conductive material. This should give the greatest amount of surface contact between the water and metal. Also, the amount of copper will be just enough to hold heat during a shot but not so much that it will take forever to reach temperature.
The next step is to see how much line to incorporate so that it holds just a little more volume than that of a typical double shot.
I have a vertical mill and could machine an aluminum exchanger like the one above, but this will eliminate sealing, leaks and corrosion. Also, I hope to achieve more surface contact with the water. I'll post up when I get it together.
randytsuch Senior Member Joined: 11 Jun 2009 Posts: 578 Location: LA, Ca Expertise: I like coffee
Espresso: Expobar Office with... Grinder: Baratza Vario Roaster: Customized Alpenrost,...
Posted Sun Mar 6, 2011, 11:09am Subject: Re: stabilizing temps on Gaggia Classic
wcmocha Said:
That's the fitting I'm considering using. The heat exchanger I'm working on is a 1/4 in copper coil (single or double layer) that will be soldered to a copper plate and attached to the front of the boiler with a heat conductive material. This should give the greatest amount of surface contact between the water and metal. Also, the amount of copper will be just enough to hold heat during a shot but not so much that it will take forever to reach temperature.
The next step is to see how much line to incorporate so that it holds just a little more volume than that of a typical double shot.
I have a vertical mill and could machine an aluminum exchanger like the one above, but this will eliminate sealing, leaks and corrosion. Also, I hope to achieve more surface contact with the water. I'll post up when I get it together.
If you're going to do this, why not make a path through the box, someone at HB did it like this. I might have, if I had a mill to work on.
If you did this, you could use high pressure quick connect adapters from mcmaster, I have used them and they don't leak. I have had some leak problems, but the first one was because I had a TC inside the preheater, and the last one(yesterday) was because of the box I used for the preheater, the lid bent and it started to leak there.
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