Will that reduce the effectiveness of a flush intended for heating?

Not at all, and we've been playing with an idea of having a "fake shot" that flushes out as it gets right above the espresso puck, to preheat things in a hurry. So far, though, it's best to pull a "fake shot" without coffee, and that heats everything up nicely.

can these machines be plumbed in

He answered no previously but admitted that designs are in place.

day wrote:I want to suggest a period of early purchases for hb members:) I can imagine some significant advantages to a decent/sette combo in the mornings...

That's going to be my setup as well

This new video covers our move to China in November to build our espresso machine. Unfortunately, our Hong Kong agent is playing us for fools.

Decent Espresso "Spilling the Beans" [video]

decent_espresso wrote:Our group head design avoids the back flush, because we thought that sending coffee material back up into the machine was a terrible idea, even though it is a common design.

How does this machine handle the usual reasons one might want a back flush/3-way valve?
i.e. pressure relief after the shot and periodic cleaning.

In the previous post he sort of hinted that it is two 2-way valves vs one 3-way. So that the exhaust goes through a different tube (if I understood correctly).

If so - how does one clean the coffee crud that will eventually migrate into the input tube (coffee oils will eventually creep into the tube - even if it a substantially slower process than back flush)?

AssafL wrote:So that the exhaust goes through a different tube (if I understood correctly). If so - how does one clean the coffee crud that will eventually migrate into the input tube (coffee oils will eventually creep into the tube - even if it a substantially slower process than back flush)

I'm not sure how much that will happen, we'll have to wait and see, since clean water is constantly coming through those tubes. At any rate, our using a separate flush for dirty water doesn't change the cleaning procedure vs a typical machine, it just ensures that dirty water goes its own way.

The standard way to clean the inside of the machine is the put some detergent into the water tank, but a blind (no holes) basket portafilter in, and run the machine for a while. That same procedure will apply with the DE1 too. There'll be a need for periodic decalcification as well, just like any water heating machine.

Here's the latest iteration on the manual controls of the DE1.

In this version, we've covered the two side switches (steam and hot water) with a silicone sleeve.