Potential new one group from ACS

A haven dedicated to manual espresso machine aficionados.
daveyb
Posts: 151
Joined: 11 years ago

#1: Post by daveyb »

Hi, I am not sure if anyone will have seen this news, released yesterday. It appeared on small UK coffee forum I am sure not many will have heard about, but run by Davec. In the early days it was a support forum for the ACS Vesuvius.
https://www.tapatalk.com/groups/vesuviu ... -t430.html

kitt
Posts: 837
Joined: 17 years ago

#2: Post by kitt »

This was announced back in 2015, and all they have is a case with a group mounted to it? :D I'd love to see it come to market, but won't be holding my breath for anything soon. We have a Vesuvius at work and the workmanship is very good

Paolo
Posts: 551
Joined: 17 years ago

#3: Post by Paolo »

I became excited about the prospect of owning a single group Vostok when it was first discussed years ago. It is fabulous to hear that the concept has not gone away, like I thought that it had.

I definitely would find the space for one of these babies should they come to market!

daveyb (original poster)
Posts: 151
Joined: 11 years ago

#4: Post by daveyb (original poster) »

@kitt
I understand your comments matey, and I can also agree with them! However, this is more than just a frame with a lever bolted to it. If you read the post of coffee time, you will see that the problem has been to simply scale down the existing two group to a single group has been very problematical. The main area of concern was that with the Vostok using a la San Marco group, it had 2 springs fitted. The extra grunt required to cock the lever caused tipping, hence the project became buried in amongst other stuff.
My good friend Davec took the project up and approached it from a different angle. His post explains that the Vesuvius has a 6mm thick front plate and the mock up was built (wasting a perfectly good case!) to see if the machine flexed. This is going to be a Vostok in a Vesuvius case not a Vesuvius lever! I believe the other components are coming from existing ACS machines so it is a question of a bit more r & d. Perhaps Dave might chip in as he gets more news and eventuallyI am sure a timescale will be revealed!

daveyb (original poster)
Posts: 151
Joined: 11 years ago

#5: Post by daveyb (original poster) »

Ladies & Gents, quite a while since I last updated this thread. As you know, when an idea is formed you sit around for ages waiting, then all of a sudden three red buses come along at once! The following was released yesterday by DaveC:
DavecUK wrote:The prototype test bed is going to be sent to me. The lever group needs to be changed for a current one with a Manometer, they just bolted an old one on as proof of concept. The V front panel will obviously be recut to fix the Vostok display for now mine will be stuck on the front of a standard panel. When I get the machine I will start testing to ensure it works correctly and there are no problems. Fortunately because the software already existed for the single group, the components have all been tested in other machines (e.g. Boilers are Minima boilers), there shouldn't be any surprises. I will be focussing on temperature tests as it will be in a different boiler configuration to the normal Vostok, but due to the cartridge heated group, this shouldn't make any difference at all. Another unknown component to me is the particular Fluid O Tech gear pump, especially how it performs with respect to flow rate, vibration and noise.

cont'd
The photo is of the very first Alpha machine. I know it has no side panels and bits are held on with string and sticky tape, but look past that!

bgn
Posts: 560
Joined: 17 years ago

#6: Post by bgn »

Interesting. 2600Euro is a lot of coin. Is it Europe only? Personally the dual boiler wouldn't suit my usage. The pour over/plumb option is nice.

DaveC
Posts: 1743
Joined: 17 years ago

#7: Post by DaveC replying to bgn »

As far as I am aware...ACS have no plans at this time to make a US model. Whether that will change, I have no idea. I would say the price compares quite favourably in Europe vs the price of other lever machines, especially as it has a much higher build cost and more expensive lever group. From your comment, it does sound like it might be too expensive for the US market, even sold factory direct....I guess even more reason for ACS not to bother.

ACS have a lot of experience making Lever machines...but the Multigroup commercial Vostok simply didn't scale down well enough to fit on the average kitchen counter and remain stable using a double spring lever, instead of removing 1 spring. It was effectively mothballed. I roughed out some suggestions for a way forward using some other existing technologies they already had in house and boilers used in the Minima, these boilers have proved reliable in service. I did some calculations on the existing Vesuvius case and figured a lever would be OK on it with the addition of minimal rear weight. Fortunately the all stainless Vesuvius case is very thick and heavy. It only needs a change to the front panel used.

I will get the Frakenstien Alpha machine end of next week, I've been told it works well...but I'd like to see that for myself. It should be a very interesting project for me and a lot of fun. Especially as it was only discussed at the end of October and I know ACS were busy with other things until the Christmas break. I think it's one of those "lets see if we can do it" projects for ACS as well. I've played around with levers before, but the Vostok tech interested me and after using a multigroup Vostok at Host Milan 2019, I realised a 1 group just had to be built....persuading ACS to do it was a different matter ;).

CoffeeRyokou
Posts: 64
Joined: 4 years ago

#8: Post by CoffeeRyokou »

I am super interested in a dual boiler lever from any manufacturer. ACS is even better - I've had interactions with Paolo before via email, and he seems like a great guy! I was going to buy a Vesuvius direct from Paolo, but ended up having major trouble with bank transfers here in Japan. I ended up just getting a lever machine from the US.

My main complaint with my Pro800 is that when I bring the temperature down to get my coffee extracted how I like it, there's barely any steam pressure left for good milk texturing.

If the opportunity arises where I can get a dual boiler ACS lever, I'd be knocking on that door right away.