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Hi Chris,
While you were under the hood, did you see anything at all in the layout of anti-vacuum valve, tubing etc. etc. that might have been conducive to allowing this to occur-
I have had my Achille for 5 weeks now and the anomoly continues. Mine is (as far as I know) the only one of the initial batch of 6 machines that has this defect. It seems to have completely stumped Quick Mill.
I sent them a video clip of the water level misbehaving on pressure build up. I can send it to you if you would be open to comment.
At this stage no, but we didn't look for it either.
My techie Phil is a wizard, sol I'll throw the problem at him on Tuesday and see if he can see anything there in the design which would contribute to your problem.
Phil and Rick (aka The Coffee Machinist) think it may be a "hybrid" design which has aspects of both HX fed and lever due to the design of the HX loop and the behaviour of the machine when cold. I didn't have time to stay for that part of the poking and prodding on Saturday- so cannot better explain at this point. Rick visits CS regularly, so perhaps he may see this post and chime in.
From a very quick observation of the hydraulics it does appear to have a hybrid heat exchanger / dipper feed. There is a HX-style loop from the group to the boiler, but the HX appears to be fed from boiler pressure only, there is no pump input to the HX. So in that sense the HX still functions to heat up the group, but in use it functions the same as a dipper tube. Odd, but it seems to work very well in combination with the much larger than expected boiler. If the boiler was only the normal domestic 1.2L or similar, this design would place a huge load on it.
From a very quick observation of the hydraulics it does appear to have a hybrid heat exchanger / dipper feed. There is a HX-style loop from the group to the boiler, but the HX appears to be fed from boiler pressure only, there is no pump input to the HX. So in that sense the HX still functions to heat up the group, but in use it functions the same as a dipper tube. Odd, but it seems to work very well in combination with the much larger than expected boiler. If the boiler was only the normal domestic 1.2L or similar, this design would place a huge load on it.
That's interesting Rick - maybe the setup is similar to the Londinium I - where the thermosiphon loop also feeds the group?
I've been getting some excellent pours from my QM Achilles, and very tasty coffees from a triple basket that I got with my OE nakid group handle (Note this wasn't a perfect fit, the lugs are 1mm too thick).
I'm hoping that Chris/Jack can provide some of the info re electrical/pump noise to the early adopters like myself, Sniff & Paolo. At 40kg it's not really worth shipping to Chris or Jack to tweak, but a local coffee tech might be able to look it over if we could give them a list of things to tidy up.
Overall I'm extremely happy with my machine. For me this is the ultimate cure for any upgraditis.
Well, to update this thread, super Phil has created a much quieter kitty kat of a machine. My guesstimate is that 90% of the racket is now gone. The list of mods is extensive..
Still to solve is the reason for the slow fill and we want to do some shot testing and play with temp a bit.
We are close to a machine which meets our quality standards for noise and internal build. Many hours, but well worth the effort.
Many thanks Chris, Phil and Rick on your input in bringing the best out of this machine. No doubt present and future Achille owners will all be thankful.
hope this question is not too off the topic. I am just wondering what countries accept machines that are so far off Australian spec/expectations? Do importers typically have to to a lot of fine tuning for their specific market?
not sure if this is ignorant of how the espresso machine trade works but it just seems odd that a lot of the issues mentioned above are not sorted out at the factory in QC.
Absolutely, Australian importers generally go to great lengths to ensure their machines are fit for purpose, but you hit the nail on the head - 'fine tuning for their specific market'. That's the reason this place isn't called CoffeeYobs.
Chris, the other fine CS equipment retailers and their respective customers expect a certain standard from their equipment, and it is seldom met right out of the box. In most cases the equipment manufacturers are primarily concerned with mid-range commercial machinery where expectations of tuning and fit and finish are honestly quite low - it does the job, to a price point that the market will support.
So, the upper echelon of domestic machinery is a high margin but low volume sideline for these guys, and the standard approach with new machines seems to be to lob a bunch of components into a case and hope for the best. From my experience, the importers that care are then left with the task of bench testing to their own personal standards, in some cases changing out sub-standard parts, re-wiring, re-calibrating PIDs, adjusting OPVs, etc etc. This is all then fed back to the manufacturer to hopefully be implemented as factory revisions for the first shipment.
FWIW, this is an extreme case. Most machines which we see are already pretty good. They may need tweaking, but not a full rebuild. This really was pretty much reduced to a boiler, autofill board, pump, motor and group attached to the chassis and then completely remanufactured from there.
To make a list of what Phil has done with this Quickmill is nigh on impossible now as there is so much and some was literally on the fly. He fabricated a bracket, rerouted plenty of the hydraulics, modified some electricals to make them safe and a host of other changes. What I will endeavour to do is take some photos around the machine and list what we remember. Owners can play spot the difference and have a tech implement some changes should they choose.
We'll feed back to Jack for Quickmill as well.
We are confident that we have the best example of this machine in the world now and we will no doubt eventually sell it (at a premium) when someone wants it. Phil's amazing work and big brain need to be compensated accordingly.
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