Five Senses Coffee Blog

Brew system plumbing.

Having installed the brew boiler and brew pump we can now install some tubing to connect it all together. The copper tube from the brew boiler inlet to the pump output should be pretty straight forward but I can foresee a possible problem with the temperature stability of the brew system,  if we don’t include a method of adequately preheating the incoming water. I am thinking that the temperature of the water in the relatively low volume brew boiler will be significantly effected by incoming water with a large temperature differential. I will leave it connect directly for now but I’m sure we will need to revisit this once I can measure the machines temperature stability. I think simply using the heat exchanger in the steam boiler as a pre-heater will probably cause the opposite problem with the group overheating.  I’m going for a very high level of temperature stability from this machine so this will need a good solution. Ideas anyone ?

From the above images you can see that I’ve installed the all important expansion valve and brew pressure gauge on a Tee off the pump output. The pump supply side has a one way valve inline with the supply water inlet tube that runs to the base plate where it pokes through to a standard 3/8 hose elbow connection. The supply tube also connects to the steam boiler filling soliniod through another tee.  Its starting to look like a coffee machine. ~ richard muhl