The General ACS Minima Thread

Loonster Looking at how badly things could have gone for you, you are fortunate. The lady could have kept the machine. She didn’t. ACS could have told you to pound sand. They didn’t.

Mistakes suck. Unfortunately they happen. Reading about how ACS is handling this, I am very impressed.

@Abstracted I realise you are upset at having had to wait a long time for this to be sorted out…but sometimes life just happens in the wrong order for things to go smoothly.

I think @Loonster gives a fair way of looking at it….ACS are a small company, this will cost them dearly to the tune of two machines…for which 1 has been paid for, so really they are a whole machine down on the deal, plus the time and expense of multiple air/land shipments…Something they can ill afford. However, they still got your back, still prepared to make good on the deal and are not leaving you out in the cold.

I even wonder if the machine was unboxed and then repacked incorrectly by the lady concerned (minus pallet as they are band strapped on…we will never know. You have seen the thickness of the stainless on the base…so it must have had some super rough handling. I’ve known of some Italian box shifting retailers who try and make their customers deal with the courier companies when there is damage!!

Evgenibgr

here the pump details with flow diagram. the machine it’s set at 9 bars.

ACS are almost invisible in the USA, and their expensive machines received mixed receptions when they were distributed here. However, stumbling on this thread aroused my curiosity and too many hours spent reading it, and then many other such threads. My conclusion based on owner comments, photos of the internals, and reviews, is that the Minima is a gem, a true standout for build quality, reliability, serviceability, high performance in this price range. Thanks to all who posted here for elucidation. I am greatly impressed.

They certainly seem to be a quality-oriented firm, and to have profited by their experience curve. Learning about the Minima clarified much of the enthusiasm for ACS in Europe for me. A firm worth watching ;-).

BrendaninBrooklyn They certainly seem to be a quality-oriented firm, and to have profited by their experience curve. Learning about the Minima clarified much of the enthusiasm for ACS in Europe for me. A firm worth watching ;-).

They also care about their customers and continuous improvement of the products

Yes, that aspect also impressed me. Clearly customer-focused. I’m delighted to have one more premium option ;-)

It seems that we have finally fixed the issue with “abstracted” due of the impossibility to bent the frame back we have shipped a brand new machine with wooden accessories as a gift for the problem occurred. I hope that in the end he is satisfied.

Loonster In the US, unordered merchandise is considered a gift. The lady that received the machine was in her legal right to keep it.

That may not actually be correct in this case from what I gather: remember it was delivered by mistake to an ACS customer with a similar name (not to that woman), so not to the woman at the address and he was no longer resident there. She actually had no right to accept the machine and the US System should not have delivered it without proper identification! The following ruleset probably applies, but she certainly couldn’t claim under the other law you mentioned.

39 U.S. Code § 3004 - Delivery of mail to persons not residents of the place of address

However, at least it has been made right, @abstracted has his machine and of course mistakes do happen. ACS for getting the name/details wrong and the customer @abstracted in not spotting this and correcting them. Ultimately it’s whether it is properly resolved…sure it can be frustrating and sometimes take much longer than we would like.

Just for ACS benefit, if it were my company (which it’s not), as soon as I found out the machine had been delivered to the wrong address, I would have shipped a new unit immediately…I would not have wanted a customer to wait 6 weeks s to get their machine. Hopefully ACS have learned and would do this next time as I know they always wish customers to be happy and satisfied.

I believe that would have led to a far better outcome for everyone. I say this because it was almost 100% certain that the machine would arrive damaged from the lady who was so uncooperative about admitting she had the machine or forwarding it. She would have probably opened it and have been unable to replace the pallet, which is band strapped on.

I have very hard water here in Berlin.

Are there any machine specific softening solutions anytime would suggest?

I’ve seen some resin ball packets that sit in the water tank, another that attaches to the water intake pipe.

Long term I’m starting to consider a filter on the water line, any suggestions? Reverse osmosis send too expensive and buying bottles seems wasteful.

mjswooper Long term I’m starting to consider a filter on the water line, any suggestions? Reverse osmosis send too expensive and buying bottles seems wasteful.

The one guaranteed way that works, is reverse osmosis and then add a touch of bicarb back. My machines all use RO water and I really don’t get problems due to hard water. As 90% of machine problems are hard water…I basically don’t get problems.

Just ran my first descaling with citric acid, 50g per litre (2litres), service and brew boiler. I’m looking at this water and it has a bunch of metallic flecks in it?

Also for reference, found some sort of grease between the e61 shower seal and head. Was giving a very weird smell, cleaned it and now fine.

mjswooper Just ran my first descaling with citric acid, 50g per litre (2litres), service and brew boiler. I’m looking at this water and it has a bunch of metallic flecks in it?

Also for reference, found some sort of grease between the e61 shower seal and head. Was giving a very weird smell, cleaned it and now fine.

Mystery, theres not really anything that can grind and make metallic flecks?

DavecUK

I was thinking the same… should I contact acs support? I have a video if you are curious. My theory is that its from manufacturing and it was settled on the bottom of the boilers, kicked up by the repeated boiler refills. Worst case could be stripping the chrome?

mjswooper I was thinking the same… should I contact acs support? I have a video if you are curious. My theory is that its from manufacturing and it was settled on the bottom of the boilers, kicked up by the repeated boiler refills. Worst case could be stripping the chrome?

The boilers are thoroughly washed out before installation, so it’s not from manufacturing…hard water affects/damages the chrome on the mushroom, then the descaler, can and does strip/loosen the affected chrome from the E61 mushroom. Perhaps it was this you saw.

Very hard water is a bad thing, you definitely need to find a solution to your water.

Thanks for the super quick replies. Does your answer change if the flecks are coming out from both sides/boilers?

mjswooper Not really, are they?