Group Head Heating Jacket

[Endo]

I have an idea.

The Scace has once again reminded me of one of the things that bugs me the most about the S1; the cold nose and required warmup flushes.

I also do some astronomy and one of the nifty inventions used by many astronomers is a "dewbuster". It's basically a vecro band that surrounds the telescope with a heating element inside that runs off a 12V battery.

http://www.dewbuster.com/heaters/heaters.html

I'm wondering if anyone has considered tapping into the S1 electricals and running a similar style heating jacket (embedded resistor or nichrome wire) around the S1 grouphead to bring it closer to the brew boiler temperature and therefore reduce warming flush volumes? Would this work or am I just in for a world of "zap!".

[JohnB]

How much are you flushing now? I only needed one 2oz flush after an idle period with the offset I used on my S1. Push a button & continue dosing while the machine runs the flush. I still run some water through the Speedster's group to heat up the basket,ect if I haven't pulled a shot for a couple hours.

[Endo]

Before I got the Scace I would do 2 warming flushes of 1 oz each.

I plan on a doing some more testing with Scace to work the right warming volume into my routine. I want to work out a regular warming flush routine for when the machine is stabilized (30 min +) and I also want to see if I can work something out for a 15 min warm-up (when I'm pressed for time).

One thing about the Scace I didn't think about before is that the flow rate is meant to simulate a SHOT and not a warming flush (which is much faster for the same volume). I suspect this reduced warming time means we should probably being using 3 flushes. Since water is limited on the Mini, I may increase warming time by adding a rubber disc with a hole in it to the basket during warming flushes.

[JohnB]

One thing about the Scace I didn't think about before is that the flow rate is meant to simulate a SHOT and not a warming flush (which is much faster for the same volume). I suspect this reduced warming time means we should probably being using 3 flushes. Since water is limited on the Mini, I may increase warming time by adding a rubber disc with a hole in it to the basket during warming flushes.

Its easy enough to see if it makes a difference. Just loosen or remove the lower restrictor & let more water through to simulate your flush. When I checked my Speedster with the Scace I used several different custom restrictors & saw little or no difference between 50ml & 80ml of flow in 30 seconds.