#Breville Dual boiler tripping power with no leak, help

42 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

stable trail
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I was given a dual boiler for free that was broken as I wanted to try my hand at fixing it. From what I was told I assumed the issue was going to be a leak and just needed it's O'rings replaced. After inspecting inside there was no evidence of a leak, I ended up leaving it for 2 weeks in hopes that the triac board had dried out so I could power it on and see if there was a leak. After this 2 weeks it is still tripping power, now here I am months later and still tripping power.

What exactly is happening is:

  1. Machine is turned on
  2. Sits idle for 2 - 3 seconds
  3. Pump starts to work (sometimes temp goes up by 1 or 2)
  4. then power trips

I had some advice saying that it might be the Solenoid so I tried unplugging all 3 of the plugs and starting the machine with it disconnected. It still had the same issue.

I'm a little bit at a loss of where to look now. I will attach a link to a video I recorded so you can see the issue in real time.

https://youtube.com/shorts/YC4pqLsCB3E

YouTube
Honker
dual boiler fault
▶ Play video
atomic portal
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There is definitely a leak somewhere if it's tripping GFCI like that

stable trail
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It has no water in the machine and hasn't for over 3 months, there isn't a leak

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well if there is, that shouldn't be what's causing the issue

steep field
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Try disconnecting the element wires (make sure they’re loose & not touching anything) & turn the machine on

steep field
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Doesn’t have to leak anything to trip GFCI, the element itself can be damaged due to overheating.

If there’s really no water in there, prob both of them are damaged by now

stable trail
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Hey mate thanks for getting back to me. By the element wires, do you mean the wires connecting to probes that go down into the steam boiler?

stable trail
steep field
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Without water the heating element quickly burns out, make sure there’s always water in there.

You can replace the element that is broken, and should probably fix your issue. Make sure you fill it up with water before actually connecting the element again, so it doesn’t burn out again

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I can’t help you more, I have never had any BDB

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And which element is damaged you can ofcourse check by connecting them one after the other and seeing which trips the GFCI

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(Don’t touch the machine when doing this, and please at your own risk and always on a grounded socket)

stable trail
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Thank you, I only unplugged the 3 in the steam boiler and that seemed to work. Today I will leave them unplugged and fill the water tank so it can fill the steam boiler, after that I will test each probe unplugged to figure out which is causing the issue and report back

stable trail
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Update: In the picture you can see one of the heating elements with the blue wire. If that wire is unplugged the machines will heat to about 69 degrees celcius. I tried replacing that probe with a working one from another machine, once I plugged that blue wire back in the machine started tripping again. I'm assuming maybe that wire needs to be replaced?

Dual_boiler.jpg
atomic portal
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Oh that's not a good sign, if that's the heating element (I'm not certain it is)

stable trail
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Following the wire along I did just see this part which looks like it could be damaged. Hopefully its damage to the wire and not the board it connects to

blue_wire.jpg
steep field
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No it’s not the wires, it’s probably the heating element itself. I’m not familiar with the heating element setup in the BDB. I have never seen 3 probes.

Maybe one or more of them is for level sensing, I’m not sure how the BDB does that.

So you’ll have to try to fish someone that is.

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I think you’re stuck in the idea that it’s a wire getting touched to the casing (with water or not) causing a current leak tripping the GFCI. This is usually not the case in espresso machines, the wires go into the boiler, into the heating element. This element can get damaged and therefore leak current into the water, tripping the GFCI.

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Since it’s a breville im not even sure you can replace individual parts or have to replace the whole boiler

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Could also be that the element wires are connected at the bottom. Or you removing the wires causes the pump to stop filling which actually is the culprit.

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(I don’t spend time on breville appliances for a reason, it sucks servicing them)

stable trail
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The heating element is the probe, I replaced the heating element with a working one and it still tripped the power when plugged in. Its fine when unplugged

steep field
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Try plugging in the probes and unplugging heating element at the bottom of the boiler

silver horizon
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Unfortunately they are very hard to unplug

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Steam boiler heater wires are on the bottom of the boiler.
But if your GFCI doesn't trip after unplugging the fill level sensor I assume bdb doesn't turb on the steam boiler heater

atomic portal
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I'll revise my statement: Heating element's toast. I'm not sure they can be replaced on BDBs. May need a new steam boiler.

stable trail
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Thanks guys for clearing up the confusion. I'm receiving some conflicting information. It's weird that with that probe(which I mistakenly thought was the heating element) unplugged it DOES heat the water which made me think it was the probe that was damaged. I'll have a look at seeing if I can unplug these wires and see what happens

atomic portal
stable trail
atomic portal
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It is

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the display shows (roughly) brew boiler temp

stable trail
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oh sorry I thought you were saying the picture I uploaded shows the brew boiler haha. Yes that makes sense then. So to sum up what we have all been talking about, even though the probe being unplugged causes the machine to run without tripping, we are still leaning toward the problem being the heating element. The way to test that would be to unplug it from the bottom of the steam boiler which is a difficult task.

I will try to get to this today and hopefully can get some answer

You guys have all been awesome, So glad I found thing community. Thank you guys

silver horizon
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You can check the steam boiler temp in the diagnostic menu.

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And see if it's heating up there

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Or just touch the boiler 🙂

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Ok, don't touch

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It's tripping GFCI

stable trail
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The hot water tap spits out water that is decently hot. definitely not fully heated, not sure if that comes from steam or brew boiler

atomic portal
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Unlike most other machines the hot water tap is from the brew boiler