Originally posted by Jacky link=1149831726/0#0 date=1149831726
Additionally, PIDs are more expensive than pstats and require a lot more tweaking. Not much incentive to put one in if the consequence is that if it blows you have to spend 4-5 times the dough replacing it and heaps more time tweaking it. And if the PID screws up, thats it; your out of commission. By contrast, pstats seem to degrade slowly, so cafe owners will notice that the machine fluctuates a bit more, but will still be able to keep on operating, unnoticed to most customers. They can simply put in a call to their roaster and the service tech will come over and swap the old pstat for a new one. $50 well spent.
Its not even like p-stats are all that difficult to tweak. I mean, if someone attached a knob connected to the p-stat on the outside of a machine it wouldnt really be all that different from using a PIDed La Marzocco or something ... just that you wouldnt be able to tweak as much and the steam pressure would change a bit as well.
This is not to say that I dont like the idea of PID controls. The Synesso is absolutely sweet. St Ali and Maling Room both play around with a lot of blends and the ability to quickly and easily. Its also really sweet to be able to bump the steam boiler pressure up and down really quickly using the PID - you can have your staff dialling in the amount of steam pressure that theyre most comfortable with on each of their shifts!
There are a few PID-controlled commercial HXs, too. The Reneka Viva series, for example, controls the boiler temp via a PID.
Cheers,
Luca

). Lots of info around on how to go about installing it yourself so Ill leave that up to you to work out. All the best,
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