Just added a DHL Express shipping rate for LONDINIUM I to Japan

its GBP146.38

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

Conti Classica PM

I tried a HasBean espresso on one of these at the Caffe Culture exhibition in Earl's Court this week

It was perfectly extracted, with excellent definition (i.e. the taste of the espresso was complex, which I think is an essential element for an espresso)

Mechanically I found the Conti very interesting as the lever mechanism is completely different to any other lever machine that is still in production - I'd never seen anything quite like it before

So if you are considering your options in lever machines you should go and try a Conti

If I'd been thinking I would have thought to grab an image of the espresso

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

Communication improvements

a weak point in the LONDINIUM I process to date has been our communication link with the production team - the order in which machines were built was always something of a 'lucky dip', with us only being told when completed machines were ready to ship as to which orders they related to

so for the first time set out below is a list of the machines that are currently being built and i would expect to ship at least some of them by the end of next week:

Jacobsmühlen

Glassner

Micheel

Brook

Coccia

Greene

Taibi

Windle

Sherman

Sanders

Kahn

these are these kind of refinements and adjustments that just take time to get in place, and it feels like something of a milestone to be able to publish this information in advice so you have some idea of how far away your machine is from shipping

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

LONDINIUM I shipments

 Machines for Lyn and Bullard ship tomorrow, friday17 may.  I sincerely apologise for the unacceptable delay Mr Bullard.

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

you wait ages for a bus, then 3 come along at once

 5 machines shipping today

new build being set up on at least 10 more

tampers close

wooden handles close

L2 sign off next week

parking tickets to pay

accounts to update

coffee to roast

and lots of other stuff

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

LONDINIUM I: as thermally stable as a PID machine

he's what an L1 customer has published today

we'll publish the numbers from our demo machine too when we get a chance

after that we'll repeat the exercise on a 110V machine, just in case you think a thermosiphon can be picky about its voltage

oh, and Eric, every one of your emails I discuss with the Managing Director of the company that manufactures the LONDINIUM I; i take all customer feedback seriously

don't think for a minute that I haven't ridden the manufacturer hard on this issue; i've given them a cross examination that any legal counsel would be proud to call their own

as a result I have taken up hours and hours of executive time addressing your 'i could build it better/the manufacturer is a monkey attitude'

the more you spout, the more i know how much you really know

in your latest email you say that you have installed your own non return valve in the feed pipe for the heat exchanger and that it does not solve the problem

you go on to state emphatically that the issue is the boiler fill level/boiler fill level varying from time to time

i have raised your latest assertion with the Managing Director also and this too has been dismissed as being inconsistent with the laws of physics

the message i was told to give you was to adjust the fill lever of your boiler to any level you feel like, 3/4 full, 2/3 full, 1/2 full, whatever

it won't make a blind bit of difference to the performance of the thermosiphon - the heat transfer from the boiler to the heat exchanger is effective regardless of the extent to which the heat exchanger is immersed in water

i was surprised too, but unlike yourself I'm willing to take advice from a professional engineer who has earned a living from espresso machines for more than 50 years

what will absolutely kill the thermosiphon is the presence of air in the circuit

we will send you the upgrade, but you are still going to have to bleed that air that you have introduced into the circuit as a result of taking it apart

we fully expect you will continue to refuse to do so, but our upgrade fully resolves the issue

oh, and a thermosiphon connected to a horizontal heat exchanger will operate effectively in either direction, unlike a TS connected to an inclined heat exchanger, which is the more conventional scenario

a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, and no where is this more in evidence than with the resident experts on forums.  if they were that good they'd be making machines themselves, surely?

_______________________________________________________________________________________

ps - we encourage anyone to perform and publish a rigorous temperature study on their favourite espresso machine as we've trawled the internet and we cannot find any that are as thorough as the approach we have taken, even on machines like Synesso

lets see the data was the clarion call from the LONDINIUM I naysayers.  Well, now you have it

LONDINIUM I is as stable as your favourite PID machine, and we don't mean the neutered numbers on the display, we mean the actual temperature readings - go and take some - we think you might be surprised.  CLUE: they're not the same as what is on the display

PID is marketing hoopla for the punters - go and have a quiet word to the men who actually build espresso machines and see what they say.  They'll say I don't believe in PID at an engineering level but if i don't put it on my machines I won't sell any, so what to do

Marketing rules the world.  LONDINIUM are never afraid to push back against marketing hoopla, which is how the LONDINIUM I came into being

Lever machines can deliver a shot every bit as good as the best PID machine with vastly improved reliability and greatly reduced total cost of ownership.  They're also a lot more fun

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

Wooden handle sets and button tampers very close now

expect to see them in stock any day now 

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

Elements have arrived

 that more than makes up for the dismal weather.  those 5 machines should be completed tomorrow and another 10 go onto build.

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

Sensational stuff from forum 'experts'

to help you understand the dramatic 'L1 temp instability charts' being posted on the coffee forums by our good friends who only want the best for us;

1.  if you get air in the thermosiphon it will stall.  you will see the group surface temperature drop down, perhaps as low as 60C.  Dramatic stuff indeed!  if you can't be bothered to eliminate it, it will continue to stall.  In fact if you stall it properly the temperature of the group will fall close to ambient temperature - there's an idea for tomorrow's dramatic post guys!

2.  if you have air in the thermosiphon the thermosiphon circuit by definition is not full of water, so when you pull down on the lever you will get a surge of boiler temperature water coming up into the group, as it does on a dipper design.  this allows the 'experts' to post pretty coloured graphs with terrifying spikes close to 100C.  if you've got too much time on your hands it probably constitutes fun.

in a fraction of the time they have spent on temperature studies they could have bled the air from the thermosiphon

but making an ass of me in public is much more fun isn't it boys?

when the thermosiphon is free of air it does not stall

when the thermosiphon is free of air water at boiler temperature can not surge up into the group

simple stuff really

the LONDINIUM I is thermally stable and does not require cooling or warming flushes, as advertised, but you can break it if you are minded to do so

much like any other product

we have already acknowledged that the spring can push back on the thermosiphon in certain conditions which can cause the TS to stall and push air into it

we have introduced an upgrade and all machines are now produced with this upgrade

Andy_S is the only customer to have raised this issue with us and we are working with him to effect a solution to his satisfaction

we'll do a temp study on our machine soon, and another on a 110V in the not too distant future too

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May

Amprobe TMD-56 finally arrive. All we need now is our L1 back!

Amprobe software is not exactly cutting edge, but it will get the job done.  4 x AAA batteries per unit make me glad that we're set up with rechargeable batteries already.  Ideally we would have bought a 6 or 8 channel data logger that came with software that works on OSX, something like this.  I have spoken with Picotech and while the software does not yet run on OSX, it will soon, so keep an eye on their website.  It will already run in a Linux environment if you need it to

The way we have gone about it is rather inefficient, although there is a benefit in being able to compare the readings across all 3 units at the start of a data run to check accuracy

Our demo L1 is out on loan this week, but as soon as it comes back we'll start running some tests

* ps - as you might expect we've performed temperature studies at the factory, but their instruments are not set up to record to computer so i've gone out and bought a set of equipment so we can run various scenarios without placing a burden on the manufacturer who is working hard to deliver a number of projects at present.  The most expensive thing with this kind of work is simply the labour hours that it sucks up, so that is something we can do down here in London at our leisure and let the manufacturer get on with completing the open projects

• Reiss Gunson
• 2013 May