Ah, okay, then I firmly stand behind any socket-buying and guitar-string-tricks. It's kinda hard for me sitting here in Finland to judge the LM tech availability in the USA when I've never been there, but you lot always make it sound like that you just have to throw a brick over your left shoulder to find an espresso technician. Closest LM tech to me is probably 600km away, but then I would be in the capitol of Finland and I would have traveled across half of the country.

another_jim wrote:The middle of nowhere is closer to an LM tech then Ken

And me, here in the boonies of West Central New Hampshire. Part of what we sacrifice to live in paradise.

The cost of insured shipping for a GS/3 would be on the order of $250 and requires truck freight. Chris Coffee ships them strapped to a pallet, which increases the weight beyond what UPS will take. Truck freight is always a pain for me because I have to arrange to meet the driver, and big rigs have trouble backing out of our 1/4-mile long driveway.

I guess the machine could be shipped without the pallet, but at greater risk of damage. Given the weight and large number of physical and electrical connections inside a GS/3, I think it's fairly susceptible to shipping damage or at least movement of critical parts. I believe that's the reason some GS/3s have been unacceptably noisy out of the box -- the pump shifts position during shipping so the input hose gets pressed against the brew boiler. I'm fairly certain my (replacement) GS/3's random reboots (now apparently gone) were due to loose connections in the control box that probably occured during shipping.

This is why I drove 300 miles round trip to Chris Coffee to pick up my first GS/3, and drove there again to drop off that machine and pick up a replacement.

When I first got into espresso, I didn't realize that I'd be rooting around inside the machines so much. But after only a few weeks of use, I was about to tear apart my Silvia to add one of Eric Svendson's thermocouple adapters to the group head. I avoided that surgery when I bought one of the bargain basement GS/3s, but then encountered a nagging flow rate problem, evidently caused by a clogged gicleur, that had me doing serious disassembly and testing inside the machine. When my replacement machine exhibited the random reboot problem, I took the control box apart, cleaned and reseated everything, and put it back together again.

Chris Coffee techs spent a lot of time on the phone talking me through the flow rate troubleshooting. They understand that the shipping cost and liklihood of further damage are not trivial, and are willing to help qualified owners repair their machines. For owners near a larger population area than me, they'll arrange for a local service company to come to your house. But that wasn't feasible for someone living in a rural area like me.

When my Baratza Vario's display started blanking while grinding, Baratza sent me a replacement display and I installed it myself. That was a lot easier than packing up the machine for shipping and being out of commission during repair. In fact, after I took the PCB out of the display I found the likely cause, a cold solder joint, and realized I probably could have fixed it myself without a replacement display.

Yet another story: I just received an EPNW custom 4-hole steam tip for my GS/3. The theads were incorrectly tapped, so it doesn't fit. Turns out the whole lot the received from the machinist is bad. They're sending a new tip when available, but meanwhile I re-tapped the threads myself.

Luckily, I'm a builder and a tinkerer, so none of this is foreign to me. I have many tools and lots of electronic testing gear on hand (heck, you need an assortment of metric spanners and other tools just to set the pump pressure and drain the boilers on the GS/3!) I generally don't hesitate to tear into a brand-new expensive piece of gear to attempt repairs, even if it's under warranty, to avoid shipping. I'm a little crazy, I guess, but aren't most people who are obsessed with espresso?

Yeah, it ticks me off that I've had to do so much to get my hardware working, especially given the high cost of the equipment, and I now see that the espresso equipment industry is too small to invest in proper QA processes. But I've found the same thing with high-end audio and amateur radio equipment.

I should add that none of the repair work I've had to do compares with the steep learning curve of making good espresso and microfoam. I'm doing pretty well now, but that's been a far greater source of frustration.

Chris Coffee advertises "Our price includes Free Shipping via common carrier strapped to a pallet and insured, bench testing of the machine prior to shipping, and ON SITE service in the first year for any Major problems. You need to call our office for pricing."

I guess that what constitutes a "Major" problem is open for interpretation but if LM couldn't get someone to come to my house I would certainly expect them to cover all shipping costs.

Stuggi wrote:Ah, okay, then I firmly stand behind any socket-buying and guitar-string-tricks. It's kinda hard for me sitting here in Finland to judge the LM tech availability in the USA when I've never been there, but you lot always make it sound like that you just have to throw a brick over your left shoulder to find an espresso technician. Closest LM tech to me is probably 600km away, but then I would be in the capitol of Finland and I would have traveled across half of the country.

You pick the wrong direction to go and it is over 850KM straight line distance just to get out of my state. Without a point of reference some people in other places in the world loose the idea of just how big nothing can be in the western parts of the US.

-Cecil

Well, 600km in the other direction (north) and I start reaching the frozen waters of the arctic circle, so I'll just take my chances with going south.

But yeah, the USA does have a lot of "empty" space in it, which is kinda hard for people like me to fully get into our heads after having lived all our lives in a country were there only live about 14 people per km^2, but where you would still be hard pressed to find a spot from were it would be more than 10 km in any direction to find a living soul. (Not counting the big open wastes in the north were there are more reindeers than people. )

While just side commenting on the beast to people ratio I would rather be where you are than in downtown LA or NY.

There is nothing like coming out of work in downtown LA and finding a dead body of a homeless person next to your car.

If you get in the downtown area of LA you can spend 1/2 of a day just going to get away from everyone, and only then if you like the wilds of the desert.

I am not a giant fan of big cities even if you get the best coffee shops.

-Cecil

I actually live in Los Angeles and it isn't what you might think. I commute 22 miles to work everyday and it takes me 21 minutes door to door. I motorcycle the Angeles Crest highway in the Los Angeles National Forest and am crowdless 10 minutes after leaving my house. There are ski runs in the winter we can reach in about 45 minutes or surf the waves in 20. We routinely hike the canyons above Malibu and have a clear view of the ocean from Pacific Palisades to the Channel Islands on a hike that takes 90 minutes.

My neighbors even have deer, mountain lion and black bears running through their yards. We even see deer in Griffith Park right between Burbank and L.A. next to the I5 freeway.

And I haven't parked next to a dead guy in years.

I used to live in the most beautiful city in North America (Portland), but I got to say it doesn't suck here. Even with the fire and the earthquakes. I am looking at blue sky and another 78 degree day. Again.

OT Apologies :
Horsehockey. There was a gun battle not far from where Marshall lives a couple of days ago. Last year there was a double homicide home invasion a block from my house. Best I can manage to UCLA Medical Center is 22mph any time of day. Water is crap, full of chloramines and rationed. This ain't Shangri-La.

mteahan wrote:I actually live in Los Angeles and it isn't what you might think.

. . . I haven't parked next to a dead guy in years.

Could you tell us about the last time?

ken

I think it was in Woodland Hills, or the last time I was visiting Marshall.

That's why Marshall comes here instead.

Apparently those are pretty dicey places compared to Glendale. I guess there's a lot of traffic, too.