Vesuvius Pressure Profiling Machine - General Discussion

tbf at nearly 10yrs old, thats not bad, my old machine that was 2014 i had to spend a good chunk on a service.

dchinn Quite annoying to discover that I was sold a prototype.

It fairness it’s actually lasted well with only the normal issues you would get from any machine. I assume the pump was not always making the full pressure you set before it finally wouldn’t start. The Cobalt samarium drive magnets are potted and it wasn’t done correctly on a batch. FOT (the pump manufacturer) had no way of knowing which pumps were and weren’t affected. This is because you can’t see it and air ingress degrades the magnetic material over time. So they test perfect for possibly years.. Over time the magnets corrode and lose their power, due to the action of oxygen in the air attacking them. They should be a lifetime component really.

You might be able to get at the pump from the bottom access hatch, if it has one…

Hi @DavecUK, are you able to say if ACS is giving the Vesuvius an update to bring it up to current trends/standards?

Bar and updated screen, it would be nice to see it have the same group as the minima,

But it’s already a great machine that is under valued imo

One final question - how do I contact the factory to order the parts?

DavecUK Would the modification be feasible on the current machines? How much of a stretch is to go from E61 to Minima version? I hope physically a solenoid can be accommodated but I do not know how difficult it would be.

You probably could

You would need to change the brew group lever, to a blank and use a on off switch. Then a solenoid would need screwing in place of the vent area of the group,

I wonder if the minima group is different to an e61 group? And also if the solenoid part of the group could be bought from acs.

I don’t know if you could piggy back the feed off the switch for the solenoid though. Depends what voltage it is etc.

Love my Vesuvius after 5 years. I want to get their Lever Vesuvius now. Same pressure profiling ability just not programed. I’m selling my Vesuvius if anyone wants to get one.

Stick is in the classifieds section

Cuprajake thanks, new to this forum. I’ll do that.

Kape17 hello, I myself has a Vesuvius circa 2014 October. I am in the US, I ordered the magnet here in Fluid O Tech USA for $36.00 plus shipping. I am keeping it as a spare part just in case.

A sound move, mine is from the same date. I doubt you will ever have a problem, as it would have showed itself by now, in fact you would have seen the beginning of the effects years ago, with the machine not quite making full pressure, or not over 8/9 bar.

Having the spare magnet ensures one thing…that your magnet will never go wrong. It’s a law of the universe…“called sods law”. Also why toast always drops buttered side down.

I replaced mine in the first year. You know because the motor will sound different than you will have gotten used to hearing. It’ll spin higher and pressure will not correspond. From what I’ve read it was a bad batch not design so once the internal bit is replaced you are good. That was 2018 for me. No issues since.

Hi. I have the same setup. There is a disconnect somewhere because when I run without coffee the pump pressure achieves close to target and the group remains at zero.

My guess is that there is a check valve and an over pressure valve and with the PID interaction the pump can depressurize after overshooting and the higher pressure will remain downstream of the overpressure valve and register at the group. That side of the system is never meant to be closed.

I can test on my system.

Kape17 Greetings from SoCal USA! I just want to get some solution if it is a problem or an issue with my Vesuvius machine. I just installed a manometer on my group head today. My profile (gear pump) is set to 9bar but when I tested it with a blind basket the group head manometer is reading at 10.5 bar.

There is absolutely no problem with the machine. I’ll explain briefly in bullet point steps of what’s happening. You clearly have a blind filter installed, so the system can’t work properly. I think I explained it in the manual somewhere, and probably in a video about the Vesuvius on my YouTube channel.

• System has 1 way valve after pump
• blind filter prevents the slightest bit of excess pressure leaving, not even a single drop, which wouldn’t happen with coffee.
• Pump runs up to pressure PID sees target approaching stops pump as quick as it can, but slight overshoot…you can change pump PID settings and pump acceleration to minimise that. Not possible to entirely eliminate some slight overshoot for a brief moment
• Pressure is now locked in, cant go forwards, can’t go back, can’t go down…
• sealed brew circuit heats water, which expands, so maintains or even increases pressure

In a sealed circuit added even 1 drop increases pressure hugely as water cannot be compressed. With coffee this wouldn’t happen, or with a scace 2 that has a valve, this doesn’t happen as water can escape at the same speed as through espresso.

Moral of the story, don’t check the machine with a blind filter, you prevent it working as it should. Hope that helps.

DavecUK thank you! I will make another video using a coffee puck instead of a blind filter.