Hi everyone, this is my first post on this site. Hoping I chose the right forum for this discussion...

I've had an Expobar Office Leva for about 3 years, and am getting fed up with how LOUD the vibration pump is. I recently moved into a house and the open concept kitchen means the machine's pump ECHOES out in the house. I am getting fed up, and can't find any info online about possible solutions.

I asked at an espresso machine dealer if there is anything they can do... guy said they could "have a look", but at $65/hr labour this is far too vague of an answer to bet my money.

Do you have any ideas, advice, suggestions, anything!?

I took off the cover of the machine to find the pump model. The pump is an ULKA Model E Type EX5. It didn't appear to be touching any other piece of the machine or the cover which could potentially have amplified the sound.

Really hoping for some advice. Can the pump be wrapped in insulation to muffle the noise? Is my pump faulty? Can rotary pumps be replaced for this vibration style pump? Do others have the same problem?

Thanks very much!

I expected someone else to say "Search is your friend," but in this case if you'd just looked at the first page or two of espresso machines you'd have found:

Quieting down my QuickMill Anita

Which leads to even more topics on the subject.

Ira

Thanks Ira, I'm pretty terrible at navigating these forums. I did some search but probably wasn't looking for the right terms or something.

Thanks for your help!!

Unless something inside has moved and now the pump and or its piping are vibrating against something. Other than having a poke inside yourself to correct perhaps something physical that moved, there's no two ways about it. Vibe pumps are the kind of annoying loud that is heard. You can take some measures to try a reduce it slightly, even then a rotary off the bat is half the volume with nothing done.

Once you go rotary there's no going back.

That or if you have the vertical space, get a lever.

I just took mine out of the rubber brackets and simply placed it on a piece of memory foam (polyurethane) I cut off my mattress top. Not a magical transformation, but noticeably quieter/less vibration than before. Seems to make more of a difference when under pressure though, so through the wand a little quieter/less vibration, but through the brewhead significantly quieter/less vibration. Also noted that it hardly moves from side to side just sitting on the foam, whereas in the rubber brackets it vibrated back and forth quite noticeably. If you don't have foam mattress to pillage, you can get latex anti-vibration foam for cheap at a RC hobby shop. I may get some to see how it compares to the poly.

I just went through this with my new (used) Ascaso.

The pump outlet had a metal connector that was hitting the case. It was SO loud. So, I just made a padding on the case of multiple layers of electical tape (all I had on hand) and that solved the problem for the most part.

Video of the noise:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WXr6peEe0K4

Where I placed the tape solution: