HB wrote:It's not a bad idea, and I've seen a catch cup underneath the vacuum breaker (e.g., Quickmill), but cannot think of an espresso machine with a cover over it.

The S1V2 uses a plastic shield over the vac breaker to contain spray.

If one doesn't cover all around the vac valve, how can it possibly be contained?

Just to put things into perspective, we're talking about 3 or 4 drops of water, and small ones at that. La Spaziale's solution looks more than adequate. That said, there are other espresso machines without a cover to deflect the vacuum breaker's spittle and I haven't seen widespread reports of failures attributable to it (corrections welcome).

HB wrote:Just to put things into perspective, we're talking about 3 or 4 drops of water, and small ones at that. La Spaziale's solution looks more than adequate. That said, there are other espresso machines without a cover to deflect the vacuum breaker spittle and I haven't seen widespread reports of failures attributable to it (corrections welcome).

Granted the drops are small, and I fundamentally agree with you Dan, but my point is more that if you're going to do something, do it right. How hard would it have been to just put a plastic tube over the breaker than to fold up a sheet of plastic?

Then again, my GS3 doesn't even have this. At least the Speedster does.

networkcrasher wrote:Then again, my GS3 doesn't even have this. At least the Speedster does.

Asked and answered.

Hi Guys,

I've been using my Brewtus III-R since January. It is a remarkable machine and the folks at WLL were fantastic to deal with. The first machine had a small leak in the brew boiler that only dripped ~50 ml of water during heat up then stopped. Todd helped me to determine that the heating element was leaking. He had me try tightening it but it did not solve the issue. The sent me out a new machine immediately...no questions asked. I returned the machine after the new one was received. I was EXTREMELY happy with Todd and the folks at WLL. They have a customer for life. The new replacement machine has been working perfectly. My first shots from the machine after dialing in my Mazzer Mini Type B really redefined my idea of espresso.

My shot specs for Black Cat decaf are
-18g coffee
-Temp 202F
-total volume 2 ounces by weight

The coffee is amazing. I would give WLL and the Brewtus III-R my highest recommendation!

regards,

Joe

OK, measurement day. First off the steaming performance with the stock tip and with the optional two hole tip from Whole Latte Love. I measured (in seconds) the time it took to go from 40F to 160F in a cold pitcher. I did this for 8oz, 10oz and 12oz and I did three runs and averaged them on a Fluke. I started each test just as the steam boiler turned off.

Volume                                   8oz       10oz       12oz
Stock Single Hole Tip                60           74           84
Optional Two Hole Tip              38           48           60

Don't plan on steaming up a big pitcher for a crowd with the stock tip - it is slowwwww. The two hole tip speeds things up considerably. I do have more trouble getting good micro foam out of the two hole tip. I find it hard to control the bubbles. The single hole tip produces superb micro foam. Perhaps a two hole tip with slightly smaller holes would be a good compromise.

One other small note, the expansion valve drips a little bit as the boilers warm up. It bleeds just below the grouphead and misses the driptray cutout. I added a little piece of tubing so it drains better.



Cheers

Ian

woodchuck wrote:One other small note, the expansion valve drips a little bit as the boilers warm up. It bleeds just below the grouphead and misses the driptray cutout. I added a little piece of tubing so it drains better.

It's a bit strange that they not fixed this, as Brewtus II already had the same design quirk...

HB wrote:Just to put things into perspective, we're talking about 3 or 4 drops of water, and small ones at that. La Spaziale's solution looks more than adequate. That said, there are other espresso machines without a cover to deflect the vacuum breaker's spittle and I haven't seen widespread reports of failures attributable to it (corrections welcome).

Unfortunately it's happened to me twice and I know of two other Quick Mill Andrejas who have had the same issue as a result of using very hard water with, what I now realise, pointless Brita-jug filters http://coffeetime.wikidot.com/andreja-goes-pop

Had a chance to get some more temperature profiling done today. I used the factory offset on the PID (I believe it is 10°C), set the target temperature to 200°F and waited 2 minutes between shots. The general profile shows a rapid incline to a knee at about 199°F and then a very small upward drift to about 203°F. The first shot was cool because I hadn't heated the SCACE up yet:



I also did a few shots back to back (20 second intervals). These tended to drift up over time. Not quite enough recovery - but who can pull shots at 20 second intervals. I'll do some tests around the minimum recovery time later.

Suffice to say the Brewtus had a very stable profile.The shots averaged around 202°F +/- a degree F. I could get this closer to the actual display by dialing back the offset a degree. The actual profile itself is pretty flat from 6 seconds out.

Cheers

Ian

Ian,

Did you perform any group flush before the first shot or a screen flush in between the shots?

Thanks

For those with data logger software, ShotPlot can take the tedium out of plotting a bunch of data.

It automatically finds the shot data in the data file, plots the shots stacked with time intervals and a sequential plot.

Right Click on the link to save the file
http://www.ieLogical.com/coffee/ShotPlot.xls

Ian, I have to admit that I don't even have a data logger. Talk about tedious - I set my shot timer up with the Fluke and video the shots. You guessed it - I then go through the video and transcribe the temperature and time values. Yes very tedious

Cheers

Ian

Terry, I did a quick 2 ounce flush before starting the sequence. It doesn't really take much to warm the group up. Just a couple of ounces - that's it.

Ian

Arpi wrote:You can easily fix that by bending it out towards the hole. That's what I did in my first 20 mins of ownership

Hi,

Me too! I simply bent mine out slightly but I agree, this is something either Expobar or WLL should fix before shipping.

Joe

Speaking of temperature and coffee, I had a chance to revisit some coffee Dan and I tested a couple of weeks ago at Counter Culture Coffee. It was an organic espresso blend that Tim was working on and we had a heck of a time trying to get a consistent shot. Sometimes good, sometimes not so good ... all over the map flavor-wise.

I put some of the blend in the freezer and dragged it out today after a long weekend of shooting and no-- I repeat --no espresso! Well, I suspect the reason we were having a bit of trouble was this coffee needs a low temperature, anything around 200F and above and I got the same on/off metallic/alkaline taste we were experiencing at CCC, dropped down to 198 or 197 and the fruit popped out and a beautiful creamy mouth feel returned. I think we were right on the edge with the temperature that the LMs are set for at CCC. That is one thing I like about the Brewtus III, it is easy to temperature surf between shots. Just hit the arrow on the left of the temperature display to get into program mode:



Tap the up or down arrow to get to the right temperature.



And wait for the period on the left of the display to go out (Heater ON/OFF).

It only takes a couple of minutes to move around some very precise temperature settings. Cool.

Dan, we'll have to try that coffee again!

Cheers

Ian

Did a few measurements today on the boiler cycle times. I have the steam boiler set to 1.3 bar. The steam boiler heater comes on at 1.1 bar for 10 seconds then shuts off. It cycles every 160 seconds on average. Good performance - much due to the insulated boilers. The heaters themselves run at 1250 watts 120V for both boilers. The Brewtus III uses SSRs without cooling fans, so the machine is very quiet.
The brew boiler is PIDed so the heater is pulsed to keep it a relatively constant temperature. I got a pulse about every 2 seconds averaged over the course of a 1 minute period.

Cheers

Ian