icantroast wrote:Not that the machine sounds loud to me, but are those SPL meter iPhone apps accurate at all? I thought they were was just a gimmick.

They are very good as relative volume devices. So for calibrating the volume of multi channel audio.

Audiotools is pretty well calibrated as well. Within a couple of dan.

But completely useless at assessing the annoyance factor of any particular noise. Pitched or percussive noises tend to be very annoying at low SPLs, whereas smooth, random noises are much less intrusive even at relatively high SPLs.

What is the height from the tray to the bottom of portafilter and then from the countertop to the portafilter?

My tall mugs and travel mugs have inquiring minds...

jdomg wrote:https://www.espressoparts.com/gicar-1-4 ... -flowmeter
What?

To be fair, Amazon has many flowmeters for a couple of bucks. Perhaps they're not espresso level quality but to a layman like myself, easily mistaken.

jdomg wrote:What is the height from the tray to the bottom of portafilter and then from the countertop to the portafilter? My tall mugs and travel mugs have inquiring minds...

13.5cm (5.3") with a bottomless portafilter mounted.

I'm able to put a brewista scale on the drip tray, and then a big Ikea coffee mug on that top that, with about 1cm clearance.

We measured a LOT of professional machines, and this was about as big a gap as we could find. I wanted as much space as we could reasonably grab, without being accused of being so high that the espresso cools too much on the way down.

John,

Thanks for answering my questions so far. I have a few more related to UL certification.

What are the downsides to purchasing one of the pre-UL approved DE1(+)'s?

If one buys one of the early release versions, is there any chance of mailing a UL sticker after UL testing is complete or shipping the unit back to be blessed with UL mark?

What will DE do if UL testing identifies a flaw affecting early release versions?

Out of curiosity, do you have to ship off ten machines to be destroyed by UL every time you make a change to the machine (e.g. switch suppliers for a part, change the firmware, etc)?

Thanks,
Jeff

jeffw wrote:Thanks for answering my questions so far. I have a few more related to UL certification.What are the downsides to purchasing one of the pre-UL approved DE1(+)'s?

Two reviews of the DE1 by Intertek (the testing company) have occurred and we've made all the changes they requested. If there are any safety issues now left, they should be minor.

jeffw wrote:If one buys one of the early release versions, is there any chance of mailing a UL sticker after UL testing is complete or shipping the unit back to be blessed with UL mark?

No, we cannot send you a sticker. There will be minor differences between the UL tested version and the early access version, which prevents the UL approval from being applied to those earlier machines. For instance, the group head on the early access machines will be CNCed, whereas the final versions will be made from cast metal. Functionally, they will be virtually identical, but the change does mean that UL approval would need to be sought all over again, for the early access version.

jeffw wrote:What will DE do if UL testing identifies a flaw affecting early release versions?

If there's a significant safety flaw that Intertek identifies, then of course we would work with you to fix it. If it's something we judge as minor, we would not.

jeffw wrote:Out of curiosity, do you have to ship off ten machines to be destroyed by UL every time you make a change to the machine (e.g. switch suppliers for a part, change the firmware, etc)?

As part of the testing process, Intertek and us negotiation on what is on the "key components" list and if any of those change, then a retest is necessary. I'm not sure what level of retesting occurs, I suspect that's a judgement call on Intertek's part.

Split follow-on discussion to Decent Espresso Machine - PREORDERING NOW. Please continue the discussion there.