Preventative Maintenance (PM) is a term to describe why I tear our equipment apart every now and then, on purpose, to ensure that it is in top condition when we’re open for business. A little PM now can help avoid a major blowup and the resulting downtime that would essentially cripple our business. I had tinkered around with our espresso machines on occasion, but I wanted to learn more. After all, a new machine will set you back somewhere in the neighborhood of $10 large. I can’t really fix my own car, but I do have a mechanical engineering degree… I should be able to do this.
When I traveled to Seattle last month, I was able to visit my heroes at Synesso- makers of the bad ass espresso machines we use in both of our shops (the Cyncra). I’ve written about their temperature stability and the ability to adjust brew water temps to within half a degree Fahrenheit. I’ve also written about how barista-friendly these machines are. They’re just so well designed. After visiting their manufacturing facility a few weeks ago, I can also tell you that these things are built like tanks. It’s rare that so much thought goes into designing a piece of equipment to make it easier to service, but that’s exactly what they’ve done. Jeremy walked me through the systems and explained how to go about servicing the machines. He also made me a damn fine macchiato with some of 49th Parallel’s Epic Espresso. So Jeremy’s walkthrough basically filled in some of the blanks for me and gave me the knowledge and confidence to tackle some of this PM stuff on my own.
This is what I was doing after hours…
I did some general cleaning, drained the steam boiler, replaced the steam tank’s low water level probe, greased the brew group switches, cleaned the drain system, greased the steam wand actuators, and adjusted the steam level probe. Took me about two hours- no down time and I made it home with plenty of time to watch the Pens throttle the Flyers and take a 3-0 lead in the East Finals.
When I do get in over my head… Mark, Sandy, Elizabeth, and Scott have all been there on the phone to talk me through the tough spots. That’s why I like working with Synesso… great machines, great people.
