An Opportunity

No. It's not so much that.

I rarely drink espresso on the job.

I did an install for Starbucks today. It was for a food service account. The cafeteria at a corporate headquarters.

I had to calibrate the shots. The Starbucks rep was there & I get the machine to where it's pouring shots that meet his criteria.

He tasted it. I didn't have to.

But, at some level you have to be an expert. part of what you're selling is your expertise. So, a tech that doesn't drink the stuff at all would lack some credibility.

You have to know the difference between a good shot of espresso and a poor one. It can be just a little sip. You can even spit it out if you don't want to be up all night.

I have a commercial machine at how. (It's for sale ) I usually have one drink in the morning and that's it.

 

Awesome. It's by far the best, most comprehensive class you can take. You'll learn a lot and what you learn will transfer well to other machines.

It's also great to meet the folks from different manufacturers face to face. They control a lot of business. They can send you installation work or warrantee work. They can also refer you to customers.

There are also two espresso machine manufacturers within a days drive of you.

Astoria/General Espresso is in Greensboro. They make traditional machines that are very popular.

They offer a one day class on the. It doesn't look look like they've updated their website recently, but check here and/or call/email them: http://www.espressobrewer.com/shows.phtml?sid=57

When I took my class there, I was the only one who showed up, so I had a one-on-one class.

They also make a super automatic machine that I am not fond of. They offer classes on it as well. If you take both classes, it's two days. Maggiano's uses their super automatic and Hudson News in airports and such use it.

Also, Franke is located outside of Nashville. They make a very popular super automatic that is used by Panera Bread and Caribou Coffee. J. Alexander's too. I don't see anything on their site, but contact them & see if they have classes scheduled.

I was lucky enough to take their class when they offered it in Chicago.

(Though since none of my customers use their equipment, I would have no idea how to work on one right now.)

 

I'll get back to how coffee machines dispense in a minute, but a couple of more thoughts for those interested.

Coffee Fest is a big coffee industry trade show. A lot of the top roasters attend as do most of the major coffee & espresso machine manufacturers.

It's a great place to learn about coffee and to network.

It's offered in four locations around the country this year and will be in Chicago from February 18-20.

http://www.coffeefest.com/

I will probably attend at least one day.

If anyone wants to go, let me know & we can meet up.


Also, the National Restaurant Show is in Chicago every May. It's scheduled for this year from May 21-24:

http://show.restaurant.org/NRA11/public/enter.aspx

This show is incredible and covers much more than just coffee, but all of the brewer & espresso manufacturers will be there too.

When I moved here, I timed my move to coincide with the NRA show.

I drove from Tampa. I stopped off in Springfield, IL for BUNN's three day class and got to Chicago just in time for the NRA show.

I made some very important contacts at that show that lead to a large portion of my current business.


Lastly, the Specialty Coffee Association of America has its annual show in Houston this year. It's scheduled from April 28 - May 1.

I've never attended, but it's a good one too.

I haven't been to Houston since I moved away in 2004, but may attend this show as an excuse to see old friends.

http://www.scaaevent.org/



It looks like there is also a coffee & tea festival in New York City in February. i dont know anything about this show, but the link is here: http://www.coffeeandteafestival.com/

 

OK. Time to get back to coffee brewers.

Let's discuss how they brew.

The programming and interface of each machine will be a little different. The programming can be the hardest part to deal with at first, but once you get used to it, it's very easy.

You're going to start a brew cycle by pressing a button or pushing a rocker switch. Some machines will have two or three different settings so that you can brew different sized brews.

But most of them work similarly.

Once you start the brew cycle, a valve will open allowing water to flow through it and over the coffee. A timer will regulate how long the valve remains open.

All of these valves work similarly. A current is applied to a coil, magnetizing it. Within the valve, a piston is held in place by a spring. Once the coil is energized, the piston pulls towards the magnet allowing water to pass trough it.

(Inlet valves work the same way. Most steam valves on espresso machines are manual, but the ones that aren't work this way too.)

OK. So, the valve opens, water flows through it and it closes based on how long you've set it to remain open.

The water flows from the pressure created by it's own weight in the tank. It just flows out once the valve opens.

It will flow through a fitting in the tank through a hose and then through the valve.

On American Metal Ware/Grindmaster machines and FETCO machines, there are separate timers. On BUNN machines, it's built into the main board.

There is usually also a tube that leads to a manual valve for hot water that can be used for tea. The valve on it looks like the one on the water cooler in your break room.

Here's a generic brew (sometimes called dump) valve:




Now, FETCO makes machines that use brew valves too, but the ones I work on most do not. They've come up with a design that is quite ingenious -- at least in theory.

On these machines:



There is a handle on the outside of the machine. (You can also see the red hot water tap in this picture.)

When you pull the handle down, it moves a tube that extends into the tank below the water line. Water then flown through the tube, through a spray head, and over the coffee.

A magnet holds the tube in place.

Once the time programmed has expired, the timer turns off the magnet and a spring/coil "pops" the handle (and the tube) back in place. The tube is now above the water line in the tank, and the water stops flowing through it.

Page 10 of this link shows how it works:

http://www.fetco.com/06_USERS_GUIDES/CBS-5000.pdf

The idea is that hard water won't build up because the opening is up and out of the water. There's no valve for it to get into.

As we'll see, it's not perfect.

 

I just paid $3.87 for a 12 ounce Pumpkin Spice Latte that didn't taste as good as the one I can get at the gas station for half the price and twice the size. I feel ridiculous for paying that much for a 12 ounce coffee.

 

Gas station coffee should replace hot dogs and apple pie as the quintessential American product.

 

So, what can go wrong with the brew cycle?

Well, if you've been paying attention and guessed hard water, you're right.

Let's start at the beginning. Most machines (the FETCOs with the handle are an exception) won't brew until they've reached the proper temperature.

I often get calls with the complain that the machine won't brew. The actual problem is that the machine isn't heating. Once we address that, the machine will heat and then brew.

Occasionally a brew valve coil will go bad. It's pretty rare, but it happens. You can use your voltmeter to check. (Don't get intimidated.) Basically, if there is power at the valve, but it's not opening, you've got a bad valve. If there's no electricity at the valve, then your problem is something else.

A bigger problem can be poor water flow resulting in a brew volume that is less than desired. This is called '"short potting". (Because the machine measures time, not volume.)

Hard water can build up on the tank fittings reducing flow. It can build up in the valve. Or it can build up in the tube.

To work on these issues, you need to unplug the machine and drain enough water out of the hot water valve so that the water line drops below the fitting on the tank that leads to the brew valve. This will let you remove the hose and/or the valve without getting 200 degree water all over the place. (Unplugging the machine will stop it from filling as you remove water. It will also kill all electricity. Just turning off a machine will not kill all of the electricity.)

If the hard water build up is on the fittings, you can usually chip it off with a scratch awl. You can replace tubing as needed, and replacing a brew valve is easy too.

Sometimes a machine will short pot because of a clogged water filter. We discussed this earlier. basically it can't refill quickly enough an will run out of water. Replacing the filter will fix this.

FETCO machines have a three part spray head. If it's put together wrong, it will severely restrict flow and result in short potting. I used to get one of these calls a week from my customer with their machines. (About 30 stores.) I would talk them through putting it back together correctly. (They take it apart to clean it.)

FETCO machines can 'long pot" -- that is over brew for a couple of reasons. Because its brew tube must move, it sealed with teflon seals. This prevents it from leaking, but allows it to "swivel".

But, if hard water builds up around the tube and or the seal, it will not "pop" back to place when the magnet lets go of it at the end of the brew cycle.

It will release, and move a little, but not enough to bring it back above the water line and water will continue to flow through it.

It's fairly easy to (unplug the machine and) drain water through the hot water tap to reduce the water level and then replace the teflon seals and, if necessary the brew tube.

They even have a special tool for it.

Just recently I had the same problem twice that I had never previously seen in five years. In these cases, the spring that "pops" the tube back into place broke, so when the magnet let go, the tube didn't move and water continued to flow.

It's very simple to replace the spring. (I wasn't even sure I had the spring since I had never replaced one. But I did. The manufacturer will provide you with a list of part that they recommend you stock. The spring must have been on their list because I had it.)

One problem I had on the American metal Ware machines was the result of a bad part. Their machines had a "T" fitting in the hose that leads to the brew valve from the tank. It tees of to a bypass valve. It's basically the same thing as the brew/dump valve, but it lets out water in a different place. The water flows around the paper filter that holds the coffee. It basically dilutes the finished product.

Some coffee roasters recommend a certain amount of water flow through the bypass valve. (It's programmable and can be set to a certain percentage.)

Well, the 'T" fittings kept leaking. They eventually cam up with a new one, but in the mean time I was busy. It was a pretty easy fix if the customer noticed that their machine was dripping & called it in.

But, many customers won't call in a small drip. What they don't know is where it's coming from. Water will drip down through the machine and will eventually end up dripping on the counter from its lowest point.

I'll get a call that says, "the machine is dripping from the back." Well, that's where it's dripping out. That's not where the leak is.

Unfortunately for them, it often dripped right on the main board, ruining it and turning a cheap (relatively) repair into an expensive one.

Boards are expensive.

I often get called out for a broken hot water tap. They'll break the handle & it won't work.

Easiest money ever. I can run in with a new handle & a vice grip and be out of there in 10 minutes. I can either get it to open and drain (after unplugging it) with my vice grip or I can carefully unscrew it to let the water drain out and then just screw in the new tap.

(FETCO machines also have a boiler drain, so you can remove water from the tank using it.)

My job the other day that so upset Point of Order on the other thread was a non working hot water tap.

When I got there, I expected to just replace the handle, but even when I removed it, no water flowed through it.

So, I drained some water out of the tank and took the hose off of the tank fitting. It was completely blocked with hard water deposits.

I was able to dislodge the build up with a little scratch awl, put it all back together and was out of there in 20 minutes.

That's about it. Once in a while times go bas, but it's rare.

If I didn't make this clear, or if you think I skipped over anything, please ask.

We're pretty much done with coffee brewers now.

If you've read all of this, go back and look through the manuals I lined to earlier. They should make more sense now.

Don't worry yourself with wiring diagrams. If you take the BUNN class, you'll be taught how to read them, but you'll never really need to know how to read one.

If you're into that kind of thin, they can be cool, but if they look intimidating, don't worry about it. Just skip them for now.

Post any questions or PM me.

If you want to do this, you can do it.

If this isn't for you, think about whether something related might be.

Expensive things need to be fixed. My business is up because people would rather make repairs -- even expensive ones -- than buy a new machine.

And, my job can't be sent overseas.

 

God bless you.

You and 20 something kids that don't clean or properly maintain their equipment keep me in business.

 

Gas stations own tons of coffee machines. You can make a living just repairing gas station coffee machines.

 

I was installing fixtures at a quiktrip recently. They must have 15 machines for coffee. It is pretty amazing.

 

We'll get to Fill, Heat, Dispense on a traditional espresso machine shortly, but first, let's make sure everyone is clear on what espresso is and then we'll cover some of the basics about espresso machines.

Espresso is basically coffee prepared in a specific way.

When you see coffee labeled as an espresso roast at the grocery store, it means that the roaster has created a blend that is best suited for an espresso preparation. But, you could also use that coffee in a coffee brewer or a french press. You could also use any roast in an espresso machine.

Generally an espresso roast is a darker roast.

Espresso roasts are generally blends. Like Scotch, coffee roasts are either blends or single origin. (As opposed to a single malt.) But, more and more specialty roasters are putting out single origin espresso roasts.

The way you produce espresso is to take finely ground coffee, pack it tightly (the term is "tamp" it), and pump water under pressure through it.

Using strict definitions, a single shot of espresso is one ounce (or 30ml). A double shot is 2 ounces.

Espresso is a concentrated coffee. It will have as much caffeine as a full cup of regular coffee (more or less).

A shot of espresso should pour slowly and when done well will have the consistency of warm honey.

When poured (or pulled in the espresso vocabulary), it will look like a mini pint of Guinness -- dark at the bottom, brown & creamy in the middle, and light and foamy on the top. (The foamy top is called "crema".)





In Italy -- and really all over Europe -- espresso is often drank straight. That's pretty rare here. Here, it's used as the base to build a drink.

Espresso is the base for a cappuccino, a latte, a mocha, an Americano, and lots of other variations.

The definitions can be somewhat ambiguous too. That's because we have the straight Italian definition and the looser American definition.

In Italy, a latte is equal parts espresso and steamed milk with just a dollop of foamed milk on top. A cappuccino is equal parts espresso, steamed milk, and foamed milk.

But, in America, a typical chain will put a single (one ounce) shot in a 12oz drink and a double shot in a 16oz and 20oz drink.

If you want to learn more, there's tons of information on the web. YouTube particularly is great. Lots of demos.

Google a glossary of terms.

Check out this thread: http://coffeegeek.com/opinions/coffeeatthemoment/11-12-2002

Also, go find a good cafe (check coffeegeek.com for recommendations) and get yourself a good double shot of espresso or a traditional cappuccino (no more than 6oz total served in porcelain).

 

I have pdf's of several espresso machine manuals, but i don't have a link to them on the web.

If anyone wants to follow along when we go through this, PM or email me and I will send you the manuals.