I've built my own home espresso machine, mostly from scrap parts. I repair espresso machines on a daily basis and quite often have access to free scrap valves I can clean up and re-use. I'm trying to figure out what the best brew valve to use is. I think switching to one with a smaller orifice may slow down the initial rush of water into the portafilter (no actual pre-infusion the way it's built now) and give me better shots, but it's hard to tell what each valve is like without taking them apart.
I've noticed each Parker valve has numbers stamped (etched?) in the side of the base, but can't find those numbers through google, through the parker website, or through any number of supposed parker vendors. As an example, two of the valves I have in front of me read:
128IRA.5 G0510
128IRA.5 D22
Does anyone one know what the numbers mean? Are they a code where each digit tells something specific about the valve (orifice size, connection type, etc) or simply a part number? Is there a good place to search by these numbers and find specs on the valves or to cross reference these numbers with other, more relevant, part numbers?
Granted, I can take each valve apart and measure the relevant parts, but it's time consuming and a lot of them are so junked up that it would require significant clean up just to get to the point where I could examine or measure anything. If I could tell just by reading the numbers whether a valve was even worth working on, it would be a great help.
Any insights would be greatly appreciated.
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