How to repair/remove the on/off switch on a Breville BCG450XL conical burr grinder

The Breville BCG450XL is a great conical burr grinder that my father loves for its ability to help him produce an amazing cup of coffee. However, it has a serious design flaw: the on/off switch, which is redundant with the start button, tends to fail and render the whole unit useless.

This instructable is all about how to remove this redundant switch and continue being able to use your unit.

Step 1 What you need & warnings

Warnings: This WILL violate your product warranty if you still have one. This also requires you to be comfortable with a soldering iron, which can burn you if you are not careful.

Here's what you need to get started:
 * A broken Breville BCG450XL grinder
 * A TA18 triangle head screwdriver (I used this kit, see picture)
 * A soldering iron
 * Some solder
 * Pliers
 * Wirecutters

Optional, but a good idea:
 * Some electrical tape
 * A small length of wire

Comments

[chill090888]

This document helped me immensely, thank you so much for all of this. My only words of advice for anyone else attempting this:

If you do not own a triangle-head screw driver (which you probably wouldn't), be prepared to scour your tools for a small enough flat head bit. And when you can't find one and you're entirely fed up with it, you'll want to find a file and simply start grinding down the smallest flat head bit you can find. This was my solution after a long and frustrating time.

Also, after you remove the four triangle screws and the cover they hold, if you are trying to get into the machine further, you'll have to use a very long phillips head screwdriver - this is only if you are doing some other project though. (such as this one that I found: http://www.leemcarthur.ca/2009/08/breville-bcg450-burr-grinder-modification-instructions/ )

I had such a troublesome time with finding a screwdriver that could handle the triangle screw, and when I finally did find it, I removed the cover only to discover that the people over at Breville, had the common decency to use a phillips head screw on this set of screws. Absolutely frustrating. Why wouldn't they just use phillips head the whole time? Nooooo they have to use the triangle one, just to really 'screw' with you. Jerks...

Anyway, it was a great article and it was very clear. I did however forget that the grinder does not turn on unless the grind depository is in place, so when I tried it the first time it didn't work and I was a little depressed, then I remembered to put it in and when I tried it, voila!

Thanks again!

CH

[smartperson]

Wow that's really interesting! I had no idea other people were playing with this grinder. I provide a link to the triangle-head screwdrivers that I used in the instructable, which hopefully you or someone else finds useful in the future.

Keep on enjoying your coffee, and thanks for the additional insights!

[pfred2]

Hey Smart Person think about this whole deal for a bit then think how you can blackmail Breville to pay you hush money about the whole debacle.

Security screws

service door

failed switch

They knew!

Tell them you're thinking about starting a Facebook class action suit page and they should get back to you with a figure to distract you ...

[smartperson]

That's an unusual suggestion :-)
I've heard the new models don't have this switch at all, so I think they learned their lesson.

I can't imagine it was intentional, and it really is a great coffee grinder!

[pfred2]

Of course overall it has to be a great unit. The company cannot afford to be replacing all sorts of different things in the unit. Some stuff they'd end up losing money on! But if you design in one cheap time bomb then you setup the potential of profiting all over again. This is exactly what they intentionally and rather obviously did.

It is a pathetic example of planned obsolescence. We have the ability to make products that last for generations. We've had it for quite some time now in fact. What we don't have is an economic model that allows companies to survive doing so. At least they worry that they cannot.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=endUcoHsCVY