The Synchronika does not rattle when the pump is on. It's relatively very quiet to most machines. Your cups can rattle if they aren't set evenly on the warmer tray, but it doesn't rattle at all otherwise, just rotary pump noise.

pnassmac you probably shouldn't stereo type engineers because you ran into one that couldn't install something on a bike. Sounds like confirmation bias on your part.

Just got mine on 5/25/2017 and I am loving it. First espresso machine ever. Waiting on my Ceado E37s. This thing is made like a tank.

mike guy wrote:pnassmac you probably shouldn't stereo type engineers because you ran into one that couldn't install something on a bike. Sounds like confirmation bias on your part.

I will have to respectfully disagree...

The one story I cite is not exclusive. My observation is not limited to co-workers and customers but also engineering friends and neighbors. I've explained the same observation and they ALL agreed. They've admitted they get so focused on the minutiae the context becomes lost.

Here's another stereotype; engineers do not do well effectively communicating their message in writing. A masters aeronautical engineering student at OSU is mentoring undergraduate engineering students to write cohesive, coherent, grammatically correct sentences. She was a Destination Imagination participant for many years and I asked her what her take-away was from the experience. To paraphrase, she said engineers struggle to write and that she has two work with them (plural) to help them understand basic sentence structure. She wasn't flippant. She was honest and she knew that as a profession it was an area of weakness. That's her stereotype. Is she wrong to think it while she's mentoring?

Phil, I would respectfully disagree as well

Human brain has amazing capability and it comes as a package with amazing flaws. While it can process and integrate vastly dissimilar information gathered by variety of sensors at a lightning speed, it does so at the cost of accuracy. This ability, while saves our life, is also source of our biggest weakness, our biases. Technically it is a wrong example, but just to make a point understood, a person bitten by snake tends to easily confuse stick or rope as snake.

Yes, I have seen fairly large number of people with advanced degrees missing the big picture. However, in my non-scientific anecdotal experience similar to yours, I have seen equal number, if not more, of people without advanced degree to miss the big picture as well. On a separate note, ability to look at big picture is a skill vastly different from, say, solving differential equations. So, it's not that having an advanced degree makes people loose an ability to look as big picture or select against it. It's more like an advanced degree does not guarantee (or has no bearing on) that you will have ability to look at big picture, as it's a very different skill set.
I think your example of language and comprehension can be applied to most professions. Again, communication is very difficult skill, mostly underrated. Having other skills does not guarantee that you will have this skill too. You will have to work for it.

pnassmac wrote: They've admitted they get so focused on the minutiae the context becomes lost.

And that's literally what you are doing right now.

The plural of anecdote is not data.

So, Jeff, how's the machine?

Whew...glad were back talking coffee machines and not about engineers.....

Thanks for asking - Its fantastic! I love it. Really fun and learning. Having got a grinder and my ECM at the same time I had some dialing in to do. A while back I asked about how to beat a simple Nespresso shot as I was not able to with my Breville Barista Express. Well now I am blowing that away and still have a lot to learn.

When you spend $3,000+ on a coffee machine you always question it. Boom - Money well spent and super happy. And the learning curve continues. I am sure I will have many more questions as I become smarter and ask better questions.

Filter baskets is my thing now. I have a range of Decent baskets and a friend says VST baskets are the way to go.....humm....back to my research.

Thanks to everyone that helped me make this decision....super happy.
Jeff

Yeah, some people
Really happy you're satisfied and banging out great shots! I use the 15g and 18g VST baskets and couldn't be happier

I read on a retailers website that these cannot be descaled by the consumer and require professional servicing for this task? can someone confirm this?

That's the manufactures recommendation. I assume it's for liability reasons. There is no technical reason, that I know of, that a consumer can't do this task themselves. There are break down videos of the profitec 700, which the ECM nearly the exact same machine internally. Following those videos, there is no reason why someone with basic DIY aptitude couldn't complete this task by themselves.

In fact I would argue that it's quite a bit easier to take on this task for the 700/Synchronika than it is for other machines. The machine is really easy to service and remove the boilers.

If there is some technical reason why someone can't do this, they haven't published why, or what harm it would do. It is my opinion they just probably had a couple machines come in from warranty that a customer tried to descale themselves and botched it and so now they just say that so they can reject support for when that happens. Just my guess though. Until ECM specifically states why they feel like the machine is not consumer serviceable, there really isn't any other explanation.

I can understand why the manufactures say this kind of thing, but technical customers should look past CYA statements and look at the tear downs to understand what's possible.