okay YouTube I went and pulled this old solenoid block apart I don't know if you can see in there
but it looks awfully rusty inside very red so I think this valve is just rusted up inside
and that's why it doesn't actuate so one thing I did was I wanted to test whether the electrical
solenoid here the black plastic piece was bad so I pulled this off of the two-way valve and put
it on this one that buzzes I think I was able to get this thing working again what I did was took
the valve apart and I soaked it in some of my citric acid descaling liquid and then I added
a little bit of dishwashing soap in there for a little better wetting action and I soaked that
in there for a couple hours this afternoon and I think things are freed up so here we go you
can hear its clicking now so this one is what they call their 2/3 way valve the citric acid
started eating off the plating so they must have like nickel plating on there put this in the vise
and then put a big crescent wrench and I was able to get this top guy to break loose and so there's
the inside of the valve so you can see like right here that's an open passage on that side in the
middle there's a little tiny orifice there and I can shove a wire down and it goes down as far as
that opening there and the in the side solenoid coil goes up here and then here's the metal slug
in the middle and then in the bottom of that there's another orifice and this slug has two
rubber pads there's one on the top and there's one on the bottom so I guess the way this works
there's a spring right there so that spring holds the plunger down against that and seals that off
and this opening would be open when the solenoid is activated this thing pulls up I'll show you
that with some magnets there so you can see if it goes up that's held in place now so this opening
in here is sealed off so I've got the magnets on there and then you turn off the solenoid and the
spring pops out and that opens that pork and then the spring closes the port on the bottom there's
this kind of orange e color I don't know if that's rust or what it is I'm not sure where that could
come from there was enough rust up inside of this part that this wasn't moving so I think what I'm
gonna do is maybe soak this some more and get the inside cleaned out looks like it's a brass
nut and then they press the steel because you can see that's magnetic this part isn't and let's see
what the body yeah this isn't this must be brass so that's brass and then this guy is steel so this
is the OL AB two-way valve or basically it's just on/off and let's see this is the the side that
connects to the diffuser which is shown with the out arrow and then this is the other side in the
middle between the two valves and this one looks like it's got some know if that's coffee grounds
in there it's really hard to see something that looks like dark granular deposit in there what
I was going to do is I put my stack of magnets on there and that opens this valve you can hear
it click shut yeah none on this particular valve I don't think there's any way to open it up but
this is all sealed up here your threads this is I think steel up here or probably stainless
steel the bottom is brass it's not magnetic at all the screws are just very slightly magnet
but this top part this part here imagine is a magnetic stainless I think the only way to get
this open and clean inside is I'm gonna put the magnets on there so I think I'm gonna soak that
in here for a while but I figure well I've got it all apart throw this one in the cleaner so I did
the same thing with this solenoid I dropped it in here although this one I can take apart yeah so I
imagine this other valve is just like this inside it's got the little opening there the plunger goes
down either plugs out or lets it open but it it probably has a plunger just like this so I think
that's about all you can do with these things as far as rebuilding them or cleaning them there's
just that one moving part inside as long as that moves with this one about all you can do is
submerge it in some cleaner like that maybe if you out an ultrasonic cleaner you might be able to do
a little better job with that I think that valve came out pretty clean whatever it was in there is
gone so I think that one's working so let me put this all back together so there was the arrow that
points out to the diffuser that give you a flow direction but I don't think it really matters
because I think the water enters from this side the bottom of the pump comes up from the water
tank and then it goes over into that diffuser which looks kind of like a clear plastic box
and then that hose comes into here and then this goes over to the tee fitting that's between the
two valves so I think this is the main valve that lets the pump water come into the machine yeah so
we've got these back together so the little mark on this valve this is the 2/3 way valve
that's facing out with the solenoid contacts see how this one works here so I've got it
plugged in it sounds good no buzzing let's try the other one here that's got the hose
that goes over to the diffuser and then the little plastic fitting on that side and got
the coil back on top i solid click so this is the way these two valves sit this valve
is either on or off if it's off no water gets through if it's on water comes through so this
key fitting would be in here in the middle so I guess if water comes through then it
can go up the vertical off of the tee fitting there and I believe that one goes up into the
boiler element or the thermal block I think is what they call it in the barista Express
and then this other valve is hooked on to the other side here so this port goes up to the
steam hot water valve I think that's that flow and then I think this goes up to the thermal
block as well yeah when this valve is on you can have flow between these two ports when it's off
you get flow between these two ports but yeah if anyone knows any good references that shows
which valve does what and where the water goes and where it comes back and that would be kind
of interesting but it's possible to repair these would you want to I guess if $60 is a big deal
and you don't want to spend any money give it a try you can probably get these working again the
other option is you can buy replacement solenoids but they're roughly $40 each and if you don't know
which one is bad you're gonna pay more than $60 for two solenoids so I would probably go with
the new one so I'm putting the last pieces of this solenoid block back together so when I was putting
the new solenoid block back into the barista Xpress I had a little bit of trouble with these
little o-ring --zz that go in here so I made up this little tool to make this a ring installation
easier so I had a piece of plastic and I turned this in my lathe this diameter here is roughly
that a outer diameter of the o-ring about seven millimeters stud on the end is just a little bit
smaller than the inner diameter of the o-ring this is maybe three-and-a-half millimeters eighth inch
so now you just shove it in straight put it on the end shove it in and it's there so here's this end
and that one goes in there yeah so that one clips in there slide it on these are a lot easier to get
the clips in then the hoses with these you just shove these in so if you can see daylight right
back through here you can shove the little whippin and there you are so that's all put together the
two-way valve has two in-line screws and the three-way valve has diagonal screws so they're
screwed the two solenoids in and then the last step is I have this right angle piece with the
o-ring inside slide that on and clip in there we go all back together here's my fully functional
original solenoid block I'm just gonna keep this I'll keep my little o-ring tool wide out in here
I'll keep this along with the part number of the one that I received as my replacement so
I guess they call it a solenoid valve assembly and there's the Breville part number if you want
to order it from Breville I not sure if you can order this from Breville directly I didn't see
it on their online store you may be able to call them in special order it but I figure I'm going
to keep the old one because this has three spare o-rings it's got clips it's got these fittings if
you were to break one or something in the future and I think all of those are interchangeable the
solenoid coils if you burn one of the new ones up you could take one of these off and put it on the
other one I'm not sure what the root cause of this buzzing problem is whether it's related to
these old lab solenoids yeah I'm sure these are good solenoids I'm just not sure what the root
cause of the problem are they installed wrong this is the inlet water and the arrow on the solenoid
is pointing that way I don't know if that's on purpose or is that part of the problem again
there's a bunch of differences different solenoid coils different pressure ratings different brand
there's something different here and I'm not sure what the root cause of this problem was but anyway
I think I've got these things refurbished to the point that they would work again if I were to put
them back in I'm gonna keep this in my drawer in the kitchen with all the manuals and everything
for spare parts if I ever need anything I think I'll call this project done if you have any
questions post up in the comment section below and if you've received any of these new solenoid valve
assemblies or solenoid blocks go ahead and post up in the comment section below and let me know what
brand solenoids you have received when you ordered your replacement valves if they've changed brands
I imagine at some point they've also changed what they're putting in new machines so if you
have a newer machine that you've looked inside if you see these all-metal valves you probably
have them the OL ab parts if yours have plastic here you probably have the new jimmy solenoids
yes if you've opened up the back of your machine looked inside and noted which kind of solenoids
you have also post that up it'd be interesting to find out if and when they switched brands but
anyway I'll put said repair videos over here on the left side and as always thanks for watching
you