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Originally posted by ozscott link=1181202738/150#150 date=1182073215
I am a bit obviously happy with it hey!
Cheers matey.
Well what can we say other than "We told you so" ;D
Gave mine a boiler flush today (like to do it every so often to remove any build up of salts etc).....
I must admit I wouldnt go back to a normal domestic machine.... these might be big and power hungry - but the coffees they make are just so good (and milk texturing - WooHoo....) They truly grow on you after a very short time.
Hows the pump pressure (and the pump itself) on yours by the way?
Originally posted by JavaB link=1181202738/150#151 date=1182074515
Originally posted by ozscott link=1181202738/150#150 date=1182073215
I am a bit obviously happy with it hey!
Cheers matey.
I must admit I wouldnt go back to a normal domestic machine.... these might be big and power hungry - but the coffees they make are just so good (and milk texturing - WooHoo....) They truly grow on you after a very short time.
I agree with you there javaB.. I tried out my silvia for the first time in a few months, it was painstakingly slow on the steaming, and the vibe pump was LOUD... Once you get too comfy with a commercial machine in your house its hard to go back... And I paid less for my 2 group Futurmat than I did for my silvia, even with shipping and repairs!(so far)
Upon taking my machine down for a cleaning of the SS front plate and drain system I saw/realized I had in fact used some thread sealer during the rebuild. I used some teflon tape on the adapters for the pump that the flare fittings then attached too.
As a general rule of thumb, if its a flare fitting it needs no thread sealer as the seal is not done via the threads but rather the flare. Only where the threads themselves form the seal is thread sealer needed.
I highly recommend the use of teflon tape over a liquid or paste sealer. Unlike liquid and paste thread sealers teflon tape is chemically inert. A very important consideration in any food/beverage environment! The other advantage of using teflon tape is it makes dissasembly much easier!
Since I descaled the boiler in my Futurmat and installed a commercial (cation exchange) water softening unit, I have made it a routine to drain a litre out of the boiler every other day. I do this after the Futurmat is shut down for the evening and still has steam power to push out the water from the water tap.
I refill it using the sight-glass water level to gauge how much to put back in....again with the machine still turned off.
My boiler is rated at 13 litre capacity but probably holds 5 litres of water under operating conditions. This water just wont get stale or retain sediment!
JavaB - I know...I know...you all said it. Its great! The pump is holding up nicely so far, although late yesterday the pump pressure guage fell before my eyes and then it wouldnt go to more than 6 Bar just passing water through the shower screen sans the PF....let it sit for a minute and then did it again and it was fine...and today it was used pretty hard (domestically that is)....but I have a feeling that at some point I will need that pump....
Thanks for the tip on the tape...I used the white tape when I plumbed the machine into the mains.
Sorry to hear about the scale Ozscott. Although the machine is doing its job of producing coffee drinks, it can be a ticking "time bomb" in that pieces of scale may --without warning --block a pipe or, more likely, one of the groups at some time. Mind you, the mesh strainers ought to prevent that.
My scale was relatively mild, and I opted for the in-situ descale and flush. Since there is no tap on the boiler, it was a painfully slow and messy process. In addition, many pipes were removed and soaked in a citric acid
bath.
As to removing and replacing pipes, remember you are dealing with softish copper which doesnt take kindly to brute force. Excessive pressure on a stubborn compression nut can result in the pipe itself twisting out of shape.
Its your decision...keep going and hope for the best (...if it aint broke etc...) or pay for the peace of mind with a lot of dismantling and reassembly work.
Thanks Robusto - I might opt for a de-scale fairly soon. I will probably do it in situ if possible by taking off the least number of fittings as I can get away with. My boiler likewise does not have a tap, but rather a bung (bolt) oin the bottom of the boiler that makes it messy....there is probably just enough room however to stick in some angle alloy under the machine and let it drain forward to a bucket under the lower end of the allow into a bucket on a chair or floor.
Just a thought about blockage....the water for the groups run through the heat exchanger....unless the heat exchanger also has some sediment then the groups will not be potentially blocked by what is in the boiler itself.
I managed to get rid of the milk taint and slight discolouration from the hot water wand by doing the drain plug thing and flush that I mentioned above. Its good now.
I just did a 40 second (including drips at beginning) single pour with indian peaberry monsooned 48 hours after roasting and it was a thing of beauty with extremely dark crema that held itself nicely in the cup - tasted very good.
I should change the group seals - the most used one is pressed quite flatish and the other is OK but I should do both. Is it just a matter of undoing the recessed screw holding on the shower screen and I assume there is a hex bolt or somthing to undo? I will have to investigate.
If you want to check the scale in the HX circuit you can just unscrew the nut on top of the group that gives access to the jet/gicleur. Then youll have a pretty good idea what the arteries are like inside.
....I have had good pours with the Sunbeam - and consistent - but the intensity of the Faema is step higher....is the pressure guage on this slightly over-extracted pour anything to worry about?
Originally posted by ozscott link=1181202738/150#158 date=1182119094
Just a thought about blockage....the water for the groups run through the heat exchanger....unless the heat exchanger also has some sediment then the groups will not be potentially blocked by what is in the boiler itself.
Cheers
True, but much, much more water with its calcium and magnesium deposits passes through the heat exchangers than through the boiler. Boiler water is only slightly depleted through steaming and making soup! Whereas youll use water through the group for actual brewing, for cool flushes for flushing grounds from the shower screens, backflushing etc.
The amoung of scale deposits is related to the amount of water throughput.
Originally posted by robusto link=1181202738/150#162 date=1182166995
Whereas youll use water through the group for actual brewing, for cool flushes for flushing grounds from the shower screens, backflushing etc.
The amoung of scale deposits is related to the amount of water throughput.
-Robusto
Yep,
You will find quite a bit of scale in the heat exchanger if the machine has had a fair bit of use.
Re the pressure during extraction - Id be reducing the pump pressure a tad.
Just makes extraction a bit more controllable as if it stays at 9 Bar for a gusher and a ristretto then only the grind will be varied to achieve the desired pour..... but if the pressure varies with pour rate they will work against each other - finer grind and more pressure the pour will tend to change less.
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