A welcome from me as well- It is always good to have good folks sourcing for good folks...

Received mine on Monday. Opened the package to find the seals individually labelled. Nice!

They look pretty good. I can't wait to get mine back and tear into it!

Quite a day that begins with one's espresso machine producing something less than espresso. When this occurs in the evening at least one can add a bit of bourbon to sweeten it up but.....

As Timo warned the large seal in our La Peppina kit has failed due to the heat. Seems the continuous pressure and heat rearranged the molecules a bit and caused it to cup downwards meaning a loss of seal. High temp rubber on the way including Viton to alleviate this and the new ones will be sent out asap. We got almost a month out of the FDA EPDM rubber, but it evidently does not have high enough heat tolerance (220F) so NSF high density (max temp 300F) is on the way to retool.

Barb is working with Parker Seals to try and get some kettle lid gaskets made, even though we never use the steam wand it would sure look nice to not have all the cracks visible on top of the lid gasket. Since I had La Peppina apart so many times today I began wondering just why in Milano the small group washer is large in comparison to the machined depression around the holes? A small one to fit inside the depression is now installed and it is nice to not have that washer cupping when installed, for it seems odd that when installing the screw into the small washer that it would be cupped over the lip of that depression. So far my best theory is that a smaller flat washer could be prone to getting a bit of crud stuck under it and the larger one would be more forgiving, but I also theorize that they had a bunch of the larger ones on the shelf and so just slapped them on, with the depression around the small holes being a machining convenience. Barb thinks that this depression has a purpose, so far undiscerned. Any thoughts on this?

We are also one gasket away from having an economical Olympia Cremina piston rebuild kit ready to go.

The recent setback in our R and D department is a bit disconcerting but It still seems that having these La Peppina rebuild sets sitting on ebay is a good idea and we thank Richard for his encouragement.

Doug

Hello Doug and Barb,
Your candor and honesty are refreshing! Thanks for the update!
Happy Thanksgiving!
Sincerely
Richard

Richard.....we have been so sideways over this seal issue that we completely forgot what day it is, or almost is.

Happy Thanksgiving to you as well!

Regards,
Barb and Doug