jeremycg Senior Member Joined: 14 Apr 2007 Posts: 1 Location: WA Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Fri May 2, 2008, 10:34pm Subject: Advice Needed to Repair Valve Leak
Hey all,
I am in need of some technical expertise to fix my broken espresso machine.
I've got a Bodum Granos which has started leaking. I opened it up and looked around and found that the plastic 2-way valve that direct water from the thermoblock to either the brew group or the steam wand has a small (maybe 5mm long) hairline stress fracture in the back of the plastic housing (located in the very center of the housing). You can barely see it (easiest to see when you hold it up to the light since the plastic is translucent). The online parts supplier for Bodum products (smallappliance.com) tells me that this part is no longer available since the Granos is discontinued and the part is now out of stock. I can think of three options and if anyone has any ideas I'd appreciate the help:
1) Find a replacement elsewhere - does anyone know where I might find one of these parts? It's official name is "Bodum 01-3020-XY-925 Directional Valve". (It occurred to me that I could buy a broken Granos on Ebay for parts (probably cheap) but just the shipping alone would be too expensive and maybe it's being sold because this is the part that broke...)
2) Repair the part - it occurred to me that I might be able to use plumbers epoxy to seal the leak. That stuff is designed to seal leaks under pressure and tolerate high water temps. The casing of this part is plastic but I don't know what kind. Plumbers epoxy can stick to PVC but not all plastics. Does anyone have any experience fixing parts like this? If so, any advice? If I do use epoxy, are there any brands that are superior in this application? If I could do it, this would be the best solution since the result would be a fully functional machine (brew espresso, steam, and hot water all intact).
3) Bypass the part - the only function of this part is to divert the output of the thermoblock to either the brew group or steam wand. In it's broken state, I can neither brew nor steam. I could buy a small plumbing fitting to simply join the input and brew group to the output tube of the thermoblock in a butt joint. Then, I could brew espresso but not steam or dispense hot water. I'm confident that this fix could be done easily and that the fix would be effective, but it's a last resort since the machine would not be able to steam or deliver hot water.
Any help or suggestions would be very appreciated!
valve Senior Member Joined: 15 May 2008 Posts: 1 Location: NL Expertise: I like coffee
Posted Thu May 15, 2008, 1:20am Subject: Re: Advice Needed to Repair Valve Leak
Hey Jerry,
My Granos experienced the exact same problem (after about a year of use).
Since it was still under warranty, I brought it to an official Bodum repairoutfit. After taking a closer look, the techguy concluded that the machine is unrepairable. That is, he told me that he might be able to fix the leak temporarly (I think he also couldn't get his hands on a replacement valve) but that it would have the same issue again within a couple of months. I'll probably get my money back since Bodum cannot offer me a replacement (nor would I want one).
I reckon the valves are faulty by design :-(
Regarding the plastic: I would suspect it's either PVC or some form of polyethylene.
tweakedbean Junior Member Joined: 27 Sep 2008 Posts: 1 Location: oregon Expertise: I love coffee
Posted Sat Sep 27, 2008, 9:32am Subject: Re: Advice Needed to Repair Valve Leak
Hi all,
Seems like the part used in the Bodum was planned for failure. I have the same problem and was curious if Jerry or anyone else has resolved the problem to their satisfaction. Having owned the Granos for three years, I am assuming by its performance in the past that I only got about 2 years of use before it started to lose pressure and now although it still makes coffee it is not making a great cup anymore.
Although I consider myself somewhat handy in taking things apart, it does not seem obvious to me how to get that part out without a major disassemble of the machine. Any tips??
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