it has taken until today, with hundreds of LONDINIUM Is in service all over the globe, for us to have a single issue reported to us with the vibratory pump that we use to load water into the boiler of the L1
the machine on which it occured is only a couple of weeks old, and a spring broke inside the pump. it is bad luck – the spring presumably had a weak spot in the metal. it can happen with anything that is mechanical, even electronic
we will have a replacement pump going out on DHL on Monday to the States & id be surprised if it isnt with the customer in 48 hours of us shipping it
we have not had any other issue reported with the pump. none.
why? unlike a pump driven espresso machine it simply isnt operating under any significant load in the LONDINIUM I; it is not loading water into the group – it is a proper, traditional spring lever espresso machine, the result of which can be found in the cup
all the pump in the LONDINIUM I does is provide sufficient pressure to overcome the low (1.3 bar) pressure in the boiler so water can enter the boiler. it is a pump that is designed to pump at 11 or 12 bar, so it is hardly under any load at all – its just idling along
if we had used a rotary pump the machine would weigh a lot more, which would increase the shipping cost, and the size of the housing would need to be enlarged on the machine to accomodate it, and the pump itself would cost a lot more. a rotary pump would simply be more than what is needed for the task on a LONDINIUM I. thats not to say i dont appreciate the significantly superior performance of a pump driven espresso machine that has a rotary pump instead of a vibratory pump – of course this is true
aditionally a vibratory pump is very light to economically send around the world on DHL Express, in the unlikely event that you do strike trouble