Decent Espresso Machines (DE1) - Any thoughts?

[>decentespresso]

SMORG first look: feedback wanted

Back in March March I mentioned new Decent hire Omri Almagor. Omri had previously worked for Kees van der Westen, where he created the Idromatic group head option. I've occasionally mentioned that he was working on a sculptural Decent.

I expect that the design above will be hated by most. That's OK, because like Tesla Cybertruck, it's meant to be bold, and likely offensive to many. Most will hate it, some will love it. We hope!

I call this iteration "SCI SMORG" as the inspiration is Omri's love for science fiction ships, specifically the Star Trek Romulan warbird, to which SCI SMORG is his homage.



Here are more views of SCI SMORG:



This outer casing replaces the DE1 case, but otherwise the inside remains a DE1. It's made of polished metal, using 3D printing in Germany, and then polished.

The tablet will be placed on the side, with a "Baby SMORG" case that then sits on the tabletop, next to the espresso machine.

Yes, I realize this is a flat out crazy design.

Omri and I have also explored a different direction, which we call "Golden Era Smorg". Here is what that looks like.



Omri and I would both love your thoughts on the this.

Note that our plan is to make SMORG as a special limited edition. We're "testing the waters" for whether there is an interest in a boldly designed Decent.

And of course we'll continue to make "modernist" style DE1 as our main product line.

-john

[338]

Awesome.!!.

[Ted2013]

Well I am hard headed. Does nothing to improve the functionality or durability of the machine, increases its footprint and cost and its aesthetics are questionable IMHO.

[barri]

Agreed. Looks ugly

[Machvayne]

The Sci Smorg feels a little over the top for me, although it could be the purple colour.
I like the Golden Era Smorg with the lower profile wings.

It also does play into my LOTR fandom with that name, as I'm assuming it's referencing the dragon Smaug?

I could certainly see it being the feature of a modern kitchen, protecting the precious coffee beans.

[>decentespresso]

Yep SMORG = SMAUG without a copyright problem.

[EspressoAdventurer]

"Hole..eeeyyy COW Batman...This is incredible.
Your right Robin....Quick Lets get this to the Batcave...Pronto.
Before ....before you know who....
That develish fiendish..... uncontrolled Urger from the Sandbelted Burbs of Melbourne
Gets wind of it ......! "


Sorry John for I have sinned.
Yes I know, I know ...its off to the naughty corner ...again.

[Javaphile]

I can see them on sale at events like ComicCon and the World Science Fiction Convention.


Java "Two to beam up Scotty!" phile

[ElShauno]

If I could sum up my feelings: tacky gaming PC.

[Dimal]

I think it would look great in a shiny piano black...

Mal.

[>decentespresso]

Decent working with Weber Workshops

I've long admired Douglas Weber's many products, from the EG-1 grinder that I own, the HG-1 grinder that I've used, the steam dial. Even the stuff he makes that I don't like, I still admire because it's always bold, inventive, and high quality.

From when we started Decent, I'd hoped Decent could be seen as the other highly-creative company in espresso.

So it was with great pleasure to get a Whatsapp from Douglas Weber some weeks ago. We chatted for about 2 hours, and talked about ways we could work together. It was fascinating to find how many stories and viewpoints we shared.

Today Douglas announced https://www.instagram.com/weberworkshops/ a Decent adaptor for his Steam Dial tip:



I have used the steam dial, years ago, on the two group E61 I owned. I loved it. Sadly, the threads were incompatible with the Decent, until now.

Also, a few weeks ago he announced that he'd tested his new Spring Clean https://weberworkshops.com/products/spring-clean product on the DE1 he owns and can confirm it works well with Decent espresso machines.



As our working together is based on mutual admiration and similar philosophies, I'm looking forward to see what we can do together, in the future.

-john

[>decentespresso]

Why no 3 way valve?

During the first few years we started making the Decent Espresso Machine, I would often hear criticism that the Decent "lacked" a 3 way valve and thus did not flush properly at the end of espresso.

I patiently repeated my answer that this was not a lack at all, but a decision we made because it seemed to us that using the same tube from the water heater to the group, both for clean water in (to make espresso) and dirty water out (to release pressure) was a bad idea.

All espresso machines (that I know of) before Decent did this "backflush". We thought that coffee oils would likely build up in that tube, go rancid, and slowly degrade the quality of future coffee.

But our position was alone. Nobody else backed us up or agreed with it.

And people usually didn't believe my explanation, likely because we were the only ones (it seemed) arguing this position. I think people thought I was trying to do "marketing spin" on a "problem with the product" instead of perhaps, maybe having a valid point.

Until I read James Hoffman's "Best of 11 years' writing" book https://decentespresso.com/books where I found out that he'd explicitly called this out as a common source of bad tasting espresso, and thus how important it was to clean this part on conventional espresso machines.





James wrote this 4 years before we even started designing the Decent! I wish he'd published this book earlier.

Here's the relevant quote from his book:



With the Decent, we release pressure through a separate tube that only ever is used for dirty water. The clean-water-in path holds its its pressure at the end of espresso, forcing water out this path.

Here is a photo of the inside of the group head on a Decent:



The brown tube brings water in (brown=making nice coffee) and the black tube on the right (black=dirty) flushes it away.

We call this approach "forward flush" to oppose it to "backflushing"

It's been a few years since I've heard the "why don't you flush like a normal machine" criticism but I think it's still not commonly known that this common design feature of traditional machines is not great.

This topic came up yesterday, because part of the goal of Weber Workshops new Spring Clean https://weberworkshops.com/products/spring-clean product is to clean this "backflush tube". Decent owners were asking whether it was worth buying Spring Clean, given that we don't have this same cleaning problem as traditional machines. I don't know yet, but I'll be getting a Spring Clean myself soon, for testing, and will report back what I find, about the job it does on a Decent.

-john

[338]

Why no 3 way valve?

All espresso machines (that I know of) before Decent did this "backflush". We thought that coffee oils would likely build up in that tube, go rancid, and slowly degrade the quality of future coffee.


-john

You should get out more! The Decent has introduced a lot of firsts, but I don't believe it was the first machine not to backflush. There is a little known branch of Espresso Machines invented in 1945 by a guy called Achilles Gaggia, they are called Lever Machines. You can still get them today. I could also be wrong, I am sure someone will correct me, but most don't backflush. Of course you may not be counting a Lever as an Espresso Machine.

[>decentespresso]

You should get out more! The Decent has introduced a lot of firsts, but I don't believe it was the first machine not to backflush. There is a little known branch of Espresso Machines invented in 1945 by a guy called Achilles Gaggia, they are called Lever Machines. You can still get them today. I could also be wrong, I am sure someone will correct me, but most don't backflush. Of course you may not be counting a Lever as an Espresso Machine.

Hey, good point. Manually created-pressure espresso machines never have backflush, as far I can tell.

-john

[338]

Meant with no disrespect, Decent have so many firsts we need to let others be correctly acknowledged . Easy to overlook levers, especially in an electronic world

[>decentespresso]

What we learned by delaying v1.4 for ten days

We finished building our first 50 v1.4 machines in early September, about a month ahead of schedule.

During our temperature accuracy test, we found that about 30% of the machines were not acting as they should, with water temperature about 2ºC above the goal temperature.



All 50 machines were identical, so what could be the problem?

We tried a variety of theories.
- Maybe the flow constrictors were mis-mounted?
- Maybe the temperature probes were of varying quality?
- Maybe the pumps were defective?
- None of our theories were right.

So, we proceeded to take 1 part at a time out of a "good" machine, and replace it in the "bad" machine, until the problem re-appeared.

The problem finally re-appeared when we replaced the section where "water mixing" happens. That's where 110ºC superheated water meets room temperature water, at varying flow rates, so that we can give you the exact water temperature you want.

So then we started taking the "bad" parts apart, and measuring everything. We couldn't find any difference between the "good" and "bad" part.

After 4 days of delays, I decided to put all 50 machines aside, and start building another 50. I then assigned 3 engineers onto the problem full time here in Hong Kong, while Ray (Seattle) and Ben (Australia) also worked on this issue remotely.

We eventually figured out that no component was defective. The problem was a temperature sensor we'd moved.



We had moved the temperature sensor closer to the point where the water mixing happens. The new position gave us slightly faster sensor feedback. We'd been testing this for almost a year with no problems, so why does it not work now?

We finally figured it out.

The new temperature probe location is right where the hot and cold water mix.

It turns out that teeny tiny changes in the angle of water flowing into this mixing chamber, caused big changes in how well, and how evenly, the two different water flows mixed.

With slight differences in angle, the new temperature probe location was measuring ever so slightly more cold water than would eventually be in the final mix. And therefore our mathematics were compensating for that cooler water by putting warmer water in. Which then gave us 2ºC hotter water, when finally measured at the coffee puck.

The bright yellow and green water tube in the upper right part of the photo, is carrying mixed water to the "old position" temperature sensor. That tube is only 1.2mm wide. There's not much water in there.

It turns out that squeezing the mixed water from the chamber, through the tube and back into a chamber, causes the water to be thoroughly and evenly mixed. Measuring the water temperature earlier gave use readings that still had hot and cold eddies flowing around.

Once we figured this out, we moved the temperature probe back to the old position, and all our machines now worked as expected.

The exercise, though stressful, was quite worthwhile. We learned something new about measuring water temperature, and mixing, and eddies.

In our latest firmware (about to be released), insights from these ten days have led to revisions to our mathematics, and specifically we now are able to stabilize our coffee puck temperature significantly better, with very slow "thick" shots that have very little added water through them. This has been a case where we typically ran about 1ºC too cool at the end of the shot, and we'd not been able to understand why. Our better understanding of water mixing dynamics has helped Ray to crack that problem.

We've never before achieved this level of "measured at the puck" temperature accuracy, with such slow shots (in my test, a 38 second espresso).

Note how, in the photo, the puck temperature is only 2ºC too cool at the start, thanks to our slight 2ºC over-temperature bump for the first 2 seconds. Traditional machines typically start 6ºC to 8ºC cooler than the goal, because the puck is at room temperature. And then the rest of the shot manages to stay with 0.3ºC at the coffee puck, during the entire shot. I'm happy!

[>decentespresso]

A new way of addressing the Decent backlog

If you've been watching our order queue https://decentespresso.com/queue you might have noticed two things:

1) the queue has been getting longer
2) the order of the queue is a thorough mix of different models and voltages

We've been sloooowly improving our speed of making machines, from 17/week in January, to 23/week in August. Progress has been too slow.

I've been removing complexity everywhere I can find it, in an effort to speed things up.

In the past, we've done "mixed runs" of different models and voltages. No more. That slowed us down.

Now, each week, we build 50 of whatever model has the most number of backlogged orders. You can see that list on the bottom right of the photo.

Even though we have 270+ orders backlogged, this is spread over quite a few models. One effect of this "one model only" change is that we will, at times, have built more machines of that model than have orders. Wow, stock-at-hand of Decent machines! That would be nice.

I wrote recently that I switched to a "master" system, where we build 50 machines at once, and there's an employee who is designated the "master" of a sub-assembly. The build it, test it, install it, and train their apprentice. That way, they know what to do, every day. No need to micromanage.

My idea was that as we've completely build 50 machines, we'd move to the 2nd assembly table, where we'd start building another 50 while the previous ones were tested.

That basic idea worked well enough. We were able to build 50 machines in 8 days, or 150 machines/month, assuming a 6 day workweek.

We ended up modifying that idea, though, because I managed to speed up testing quite a bit with new software and test equipment, so that it now takes 4 days for two people to test and calibrate 50 machines. That means the assembly line is free on day 5. And it turns out that at around when the 50 machines are 60% built, we have the staff available to start building the next round of 50 machines. This "overlapping build cycles" tweak, this has allowed us to build 50 machines in 6 days.

With a 6 day workweek, that's 200 espresso machines/month. Now, we're finally getting somewhere! At that pace, we can make 44 machines more than were sold (we sold 156 espresso machines last month) and so make progress at the backlog. Previously, sales were growing so much faster than our speed of building, that we were getting progressively further behind.

I don't know that we're going to succeed, but my hope is be totally up to date with our backlog by the time Christmas comes along, so I can give my employees a well deserved break and maybe a bit of a Christmas present as well.

And ideally, every client who ordered would have received their machine by then.

I might be dreaming, but it's good to have goals!

What can slow us down is if we don't have enough time to get the "sub assemblies" done in order to keep up this pace. Small problems, like the recent "group head handle position" problem, lost us a day and a half (not too bad) and slow us down.

-john

[Ted2013]

Have you tried building them the way Niche do with their grinders where they offer a specific batch for delivery well before manufacture and then make that batch? That may let you build them more efficiently and pass the savings to the customers