Has anyone with a recently purchased (and still in warranty) GS3 contacted their dealer or LM directly for an in-warranty replacement of the shorter supplied braided hose with the newer, somewhat longer one? What was the response?

I pose this question particularly to those who bought "new old stock" machines in the recent "fire sale(s)." Current production machines would already have the longer hose, and ones that are now out of warranty would be facing a different situation, from a customer service standpoint, I think.

ken

Ken,
I bought my GS3 last December. My vendor is getting me the longer hose, and I don't think they are charging me. I'm sure that they are curious to see if it fixes the problem. I certainly am!
Rob

Ken Fox wrote:My machine did have a very marked improvement in its noise problem when I rotated the pump, although after a couple of weeks a tiny bit of the noise was returning (and getting worse) and I can imagine having to do this maneuver every month or so as vibration undoes the "repair."

I've noticed this on two different GS/3s when I don't use cable ties. It doesn't take a couple of weeks to happen, though. Usually, I'll get the pump and hose oriented just right, the machine will be dead quiet for a few uses of the pump, then suddenly it'll be vibrating again. A few uses of the pump later, the noise will go away.

I don't think it's slippage of the pump in the motor clamp. I think when the pump kicks in, the hose moves around slightly. Eventually it makes contact with something that makes a racket. Further use of the pump reorients the hose again, and the noise goes away. The lurching motion of the pump that you see when the steam boiler is filling pulls pretty hard on the hose, so it may be the biggest contributor to movement. We use the tea water wand a lot here, so maybe that's why the change occurs more frequently.

Cable ties per the photos previously posted worked pretty well on my previous GS/3. A tie between the pump outlet and frame keeps the pump from lurching forward, and a second tie where the hose makes its turn from the front to the back of the machine keeps the hose away from the boiler. I haven't gotten around to installing cable ties on the new GS/3.

This new machine, by the way, has a much noisier drain tray. I'm pretty sure that's because I had been using the previous GS/3 in pourover mode until the very end, and the pressure of the spring-loaded tank against the drain box dampened the vibration. Now I'm plumbed in and the tray rings when pulling a shot. I'll probably have to go with some sort of damping material.

Vibration and noise is one of the best reasons (IMHO) for off-boarding your rotary pump.

malachi wrote:Vibration and noise is one of the best reasons (IMHO) for off-boarding your rotary pump.

+1 (again). This is with my TMFR pump; the outboarded pump (the FOT 073 pump from inside the machine) is actually a bit quieter than the TMFR. Even a well-dampened pump doesn't compare with having the pump under the counter.

My GS/3 Paddle arrived today. There is nothing louder than a hum while it brews, which suggests that they have fixed the vibration problem in the newer machines currently leaving Florence.

Actually, everything seemed to worked fine right out of the box. It arrived by UPS Freight, strapped to a pallet, without so much as a ding on the box. The UPS man was nice enough to remove the straps and staples and help me lift it onto the bar counter. He was very curious about what it was.

Roger at LM USA walked me through the pressure bleed setup process, which had a few extra steps over the standard GS/3.

I normally don't post first-day observations, since it's always rose-colored glasses time, but vibration was my greatest worry. I'll post, if any surprises pop up in the next few weeks. Currently it's on reservoir. When I'm sure everything is really fine, we'll drill through the granite and plumb it in.

Marshall wrote:My GS/3 Paddle arrived today. There is nothing louder than a hum while it brews, which suggests that they have fixed the vibration problem in the newer machines currently leaving Florence.

Marshall,

First congrats; enjoy the machine in good health!

As Bill Crossland previously posted, the noise and vibration problem was pretty simple and caused mostly by having used a braided SS hose that was a little bit too short. Once LM became aware of this problem, they corrected it in later machines by using a slightly longer hose. Since your machine has the shortly longer hose, it is not at all surprising that your machine would not have significant nose or vibration problems.

I contacted my vendor and they have ordered a longer hose to me, which I will not get until early December because I'm headed out on another trip and won't be back home until just before Thanksgiving.

Still, any machine with an internal pump is going to have at least a little vibration in it during pump operation. Unlike other machines I have owned, the GS3 has a SS top on the drip tray that lies naked on top of the outer SS wrap on the drip tray itself. This design "feature" does pose some risk of rattling at the site of the drip tray, and that rattling is intermittent and related to exactly how the top of the tray sits on the tray itself, which will vary. I would be surprised if you do not experience this mild rattling from time to time, as you become more experienced with your machine.

ken

EricC wrote:Hello Bill,

I was just wondering if there had been any news back from LaMarzocco with regards to the longer hoses?

I have also put in a request with the importer here in the UK, Mulmar, to enquire about it for me.

Regards
Eric

Not Bill, but I did contact my vendor earlier this week and requested a new style longer hose. The vendor was going to call LM (for this reason and several issues he had pending from other customers) and I have not heard back. From our last communication I am expecting to get my new hose the first week of December, that date having been chosen due to my planned absence next week, and the shortening of the following week in the US due to the holiday of Thanksgiving.

Braided hoses like this are not the sort of internal part that gets replaced often. The length is custom (I already inquired of friends in the parts business and they can come close with a generic hose, but do not have this exact size). I doubt that LM has 1000 of them sitting in a box somewhere, so they would likely need to place an order for additional hoses were they to get a large number of requests.

ken

I got the new hose from my vendor the other day. The new hose they sent me is 20 inches long. Unfortunately that's the length of my current hose. I don't think the one they sent me is the new longer one, because I don't think that an 18.5 inch hose would even be able to make the connection. My vendor is looking into it. Anyone know how long the new hose is supposed to be?
Rob