Hi all,

I have a Magister Stella Pro E61 HX, and since were moving, there's a possibility of getting a direct water line to the machine. Now, the retailer has told me that this is a strictly pour-over model with no possibility to plumbing in. I can appreciate that there might not be a ready-made kit to convert to plumb-in available, but the tinkerer inside me can't understand what can make a machine "non-plumbable".

Perhaps someone else has gone through this and can talk me into accepting no as an answer? What am I missing that makes the conversion impossible or non-feasible? Alternatively, maybe someone here can talk me into it

From the FAQ: Converting a pourover espresso machine to direct connect.

Anything is probably possible. Question is whether it's worth the hassle.

Your subject refers to E61, but the brew group (E61) is not relevant. The magic happens at the pump. Plumbed in machines typically have a rotary pump that can accept line pressure water. Your magister has a vibration pump which cannot. I believe it's still possible to plumb in a vibe pump but you need some sort of pressure regulation in front of it, and would not be able to do line pressure preinfusion with such a setup.

h3yn0w wrote:Anything is probably possible. Question is whether it's worth the hassle.

Your subject refers to E61 , but the brew group (E61) is not relevant. The magic happens at the pump. Plumbed in machines typically have a rotary pump that can accept line pressure water. Your magister has a vibration pump which cannot. I believe it's still possible to plumb in a vibe pump but you need some sort of pressure regulation in front of it, and would not be able to do line pressure preinfusion with such a setup.

That's the piece that was missing from this puzzle. If I can't benefit from the line pressure (most suggest setting the line pressure at .5-.75bar, which will not help with preinfusion) then the only advantage would be to avoid having to fill the reservoir...

Thinking then that the float-valve from the FAQ will serve that purpose just fine.

On the bright side, the e61 already has some built in pre-infusion, coupled with the slow ramp up of a vibration pump and you get a good amount of relatively soft pressure on the puck as it is. It's a pretty good setup.

Mike,

There are two aspects, fill and drain. For the fill, you've already got some good advice. However, there is another possibility that you may wish to consider. The vibe pumps apparently have a decent suction ability. Therefore, you can simply drill a little hole in the counter under the machine, extend the water tubes down through the hole into a big jug of drinking water of your choice. I like this solution, as it eliminates any possibility of a minor flood should something go wrong, as there is no pressure water involved. It would be easy to try this out with a bit of tubing before drilling the counter.

For the drain, many manufacturers and after market conversions are available. While they are often sold for specific machines, some look like they will could be adapted to work on others. Chris's Coffee has a bunch of these. You could even make your own by putting a skin fitting on the drip pan. It should be simple to drill a hole in the drip pan, put on the skin-fitting, drill a hole in the counter below it, then plumb it in to the sink just like one would plumb a dish washer drain. If you want your Stella to move about, or a strategically placed hole did not line up well for the drain, you could perhaps add an elbow. You might have to add taller feet though, as the feet on the Stella are about one inch tall.

I've not done any of this, but have been tempted. Please let us know what you end up doing.

Edit: BTW, in Italy, Magister sells a drip pan for the Stella with the drain already fitted...never seen one advertised over here though.

Nunas wrote: extend the water tubes down through the hole into a big jug of drinking water of your choice.

That probably is not a good idea. My experience with espresso machine vibe pumps is that they don't do a very good job lifting water.

The following is from the instruction sheet for the fluidotech vibe pump found in several espresso machines: "It's advisable to install the pump under the tank in order to avoid cavitation" This is how Rancilio has set it up on the Silvia which uses a similar Ulka vibe pump.

With the right regulator, house water pressure can be regulated down to a very slightly negative pressure. Ie, the vibe pump will have to suck just a little bit (less than drawing from an under-counter tank). This creates a system that is less likely to flood. Priming the pump might be necessary.

One can also do some re-plumbing with a check-valve and send both house water (at say 50 psi) and vibe pump output to the boiler - which ever is higher will have precedence. Of course this loses the safety of the first option. A dimmer or variac on the vibe pump would be more flexible.

You should use this fitting to connect the Ulka pump suction barb to your regulated and filtered water supply:



https://www.espressoparts.com/7mm-barb- ... on-fitting

On vibration pump machines which "come from the factory" to draw water from either source, I always see this fitting. True, a typical barbed fitting can take a little bit of pressure but there is always that moment when . . .

You could also consider what I did... I wanted to reserve the tank and not modify the water pressure so I got a mini float valve (think whats in your toilet tank) and it installs into the side of the espresso tank, requires little work and did exactly what I need. No water line regulation needed.

Entire setup is this:

PVC Water Pipe -> Refrigerator water line tap -> refrigerator water line -> mini float valve -> espresso

The float valve keeps the machine filled up from the water line and voila.

Cheap and easy: http://www.amazon.com/Kerick-Valve-MA05 ... 0077RAP1I/