An unfavourable review might not ever be welcome, yet if it were factually correct we could use it to improve the product. I know the launch issues of the Vectis in intricate detail yet curiously Lance Hedrick’s review of the Vectis does not raise one of them
The Vectis issues at launch:
1. our Brexit blunder: 200 English forged Vectis groups of which only 111 could be used due to the presence of cold shut flaws in the forging. What did we do? We put 3 years of development, including all the tooling, in the bin and started again. We then went to Italy to get the lever group made by a specialist espresso machine group manufacturer, which took another 12 months. The Italian groups are right first time, the first 10 of which have shipped to customers and another 500 arrive today, a year later in August 2024
2. we moved the mounting point for the sight glass on the boiler after 200 boilers had been cut and this meant using the plasma cutter on the boilers again to cut another hole. unfortunately the boilers were not cleaned out a second time with media blasting and then ultra sonic cleaning. this was careless and understandably annoyed a lot of customers
3. the 16A MA-ter pressure switch we used was inadequate for the power and frequency of the switching of the heating element. they have been upgraded to a 21A unit
4. unknown to me the first batch of orbital guides were cast, not forged. as a result a number of them failed. wherever this occurred they were replaced under warranty
that’s it. that isnt to trivialise any of these issues, each one is a significant shortcoming
What did Lance Hedrick allege were the issues of the Vectis?
Spring lever espresso machines are sold on static spring pressure. To measure this you bleed the air from between the bottom of the piston and the top of the brew water, as it has a cushioning effect that results in an under reading of the pressure
- Lance Hedrick claimed he knew this and the highest reading he could obtain was 5-6 bar. If you listen to his video you will see that he basically cant believe how light the pressure in the hand from the lever arm is and therefore he refuses to accept that it can possibly be an 8.5 bar spring. this is called engineering lance. we spent a lot of time messing with the pivot points to ensure the pressure on the lever arm was light. this is how a high quality spring lever espresso machine is made lance. He says in his video, “oh you can see a tiny leak there (where he has failed to seal his pressure test portafilter against the group gasket), i dont think that would make much of a difference”. A professional would have reshot their video. Lance lazily adds a note saying ‘oh yeah, it might be 8.5 bar’
This is me measuring the spring rating of vectis prototype no.2 at 9.0 bar. We reduced the spring pressure for production units to 8.5 bar as the machine was just starting to lift at the back
2. Lance says the Vectis is ready to pull shots in 15 minutes. This would account for the poor performance he claims he experienced. If I thought the Vectis were ready in 15 minutes i would be shouting it from the roof tops. The Vectis requires 20 minutes to heat up, and a slow flush if you are using a light roast
3. Lance suggests that a 54mm group should have been used. 54mm is a legacy group; it lost the race with 58mm. This ‘advice’ simply exposes Lance’s association with ACS who use a 54mm group
Inexperienced baristas prefer a portafilter basket with a smaller ratio of diameter to depth because it is more forgiving. A deeper puck of smaller diameter gives a shot with more body, but reduces the separation of flavours
58mm gives you a vast array of accessories as it is the commercial standard
3. Lance omits mentioning the biggest innovation ever introduced on a direct fill lever machine; the Vectis filling valve. If you have used a direct fill lever machine you will have received a steam burn when removing the boiler cap even if you waited for the boiler to depressurise as steam still wisps out of the boiler. The Vectis eliminates this issue
4. Lance says the steam wand lacks power. No reasonable person could make this statement and as a result it gives the game away that this ‘review’ is in fact a hatchet job
5. Failing to mention that the Vectis has the same fully serviceable commercial valve as all our other models is either wilful blindness or ignorance on Lance’s part. No other machine in this category has a commercial steam valve
6. The Vectis can be completely disassembled on your kitchen table, without a jig to restrain the spring or a bench vice. This extreme ease of servicing is not something Lance wants to talk about because again, it is a first
7. Lance complains of a lack of body. Body is a function of pre-infusion pressure in a lever espresso machine. All dipper designs preinfuse at boiler pressure, which is considered low pressure. To add body you raise the lever part way up (after about 3 seconds of having the lever pulled right down to fill the brew chamber) until the piston is just exerting spring pressure on the brew water. On the Vectis this occurs when the top of the yoke is horizontal. When the first drip falls in the cup take your hand off the lever. Adjust the flow rate of the cofffee by altering the grind size. Target an average flow rate of 1g/s to get started (it will start off slow and accelerate as the shot progresses, hence an average, timed from the first drip falling in the cup/lever release), and you will have excellent espresso with exceptional flavour separation
LONDINIUM Espresso was a reseller of Olympia espresso machines for 5 years from about 2007, and a number of customers that we sold an Olympia Cremina to now have a Vectis that they are delighted with
The Vectis has sweetness, clarity, consistency, steam power, stainless steel panels, stainless steel piston, commercial steam valve, fill safe valve, 58mm group, and an extreme ease of servicing that an Olympia Cremina simply does not possess
If the Vectis was poor Lance would not have needed to trash it for it would have withered on the vine of commercial reality without his intervention. But no, the Vectis is exceptional and Lance’s task was to strangle it at birth.
Good luck lance, because as the number of Vectis in circulation increases our customers are incredulous at the statements you made about the Vectis. It represents 12 years in the making and if you knew anything about me you would know that i would work on it for as long as it took to get it right
All we learnt from Lance Hedrick is that if you build an exceptionally good product that redefines a market segment and is competitively priced you can expect a response from your competitors and their associates
LONDINIUM. Exceptional espresso without the hobby.