Akin to the razor-and-blades model, capsule-based coffee machines are an endless grind of overpriced pods and cheaply made machines that you’re supposed to throw out and buy a new one of, just so that you don’t waste all the proprietary pods you still have at home. What this also means is a seemingly endless supply of free broken capsule coffee makers that might be repairable. This is roughly how [Mark Furneaux] got into the habit of obtaining various Nespresso VertuoLine machines for attempted repairs.
The VirtuoLine machines feature the capsule with a bar code printed on the bottom of the lip, requiring the capsule to be spun around so that it can be read by the optical reader. Upon successful reading, the code is passed to the MCU after which the brewing process is either commenced or cruelly halted if the code fails. Two of the Vertuo Next machines that [Mark] got had such capsule reading errors, leading to a full teardown of the first after the scanner board turned out to work fine.
Long story short and many hours of scrubbed footage later, one machine was apparently missing the lens assembly on top of the photo diode and IR LED, while the other simply had these lenses gunked up with spilled coffee. Of course, getting to this lens assembly still required a full machine teardown, making cleaning it an arduous task.
Unfortunately the machine that had the missing lens assembly turned out to have another fault which even after hours of debugging remained elusive, but at least there was one working coffee machine afterwards to make a cup of joe to make [Mark] feel slightly better about his life choices. As for why the lens assembly was missing, it’s quite possible that someone else tried to repair the original fault, didn’t find it, and reassembled the machine without the lens before passing the problem on to the next victim.
FFS just buy a Bialetti moka pot.
Oh my god, this was excruciating. And you said exactly what I was thinking, thank you. I have a Nespresso machine, have wrestled with it. The “one button” seizing up, the cleaning, descaling, finding pods of coffee to my taste, having it decide how to brew what I’ve put in it and overflowing my cup, as well as trying to reuse the pods with coffee I like and aftermarket foil tops. So much wasted life. The machine has sat on my counter several years now unused. It works fine. Don’t have time to fool with it.
I went back to the moka pot. Brilliant, simple, makes better coffee. All errors are operator error.
I’m sorry moka pot, I should have never left you.
Moka pots make the worst coffee I have ever tasted. If anyone ever proudly gets a moka pot out and tells me how great it is, I now know to refuse. If I don’t then they will wothout exception hand me the most undrinkable filth. An Aeropress on the other hand, can make great coffee.
It’s fairly easy to produce bad results from such pots, but also with any other brewing method. They all come with a certain learning curve (which makes them perfect maker subjects btw).
You’ll need slightly different grain sizes in comparison to Portafilters. You’d also need a coffee that tolerates higher temperatures: The pot pushes boiling water upwards, and if you didn’t stop the process before the steam rises up you’d have this “burned” taste.
Aeropress, on the other hand, can easily under-extract coffee due to lower water temperatures.
I personally don’t care that much about the brewing method: It’s hard to destroy a good coffee.
Rather focus on freshness and use a grinder right before brewing; Already ground coffee is easily destroyed.
Mokka pots can make great coffee, but they do require some attention. The first rule is to use it a lot. A brand new one will not make good coffee until it has been used for a while. The most important rule is to wash it just by rinsing it with water, no soap and absolutely no dish washer.
I prefer the aeropress. As low tech as it gets, ~$30 and makes a fantastic cup of coffee (basically a filtered french press).
Been using one for 6 years now. Don’t even buy their filters, just cut them out of regular cheap coffee filters
spend the $8 on the washable metal filter, save you so much time and it lets some of the crema through that the paper ones filter. Just a slightly smoother brew.
ACK.
Though I really appreciate the repair efforts: The root cause lies in the purchase of a “lifestyle” product which not only produces absolutely unneccessary waste, it also tries to bind customers to proprietary refills. They are the kitchen’s printer cartridge equivalent.
As a result we get tons of recycle-“able” aluminium waste wich mostly never gets recycled, just burned (sorry, “thermally recovered”). We also get a high number of over-enginieered machines which won’t last long, while a simple coffee machine, mocca pot or french press would virtually last forever.
Fun fact: Premium coffee production does not start with a coffee machine, it starts with a proper grinder and fresh, high-quality coffee. I senselessly upgraded a number of machines over years until I accepted that simple fact. Also, high-quality coffee is the minimum requirement If you wanted the farmers to get paid decently.
OK, this hack aint really about coffee, it’s just my personal trigger ;-)
Anyway, book recommendation: Cory Doctorow, “Unauthorized Bread” (German: “Wie man einen Toaster überlistet”). We’re half way there already.
I use K cup brewer with a stainless steel reusable cup and freshly roasted and ground premium beans from my local coffee shop. The coffee is always less than 2 weeks from roasting and freshly ground. The beans come from independent growers who get a fair price. (Yeah, call me “woke”- I wear the title proudly) I monitor brewing temp which remained optimal for the 15 years I’ve had it. I clean it regularly and replace the internal filter every 30 days. (I make my own) An economivcal great choice of the best imported coffees of the world!
You really have to excuse yourself for being attentive or acting responsible?
What kind of world is this?
Great toolbox, anyway!
Mine is less complex, but I self-roast for family purpose (saving the EUR 2.19 / kg German coffee tax, re-invested into quality beans with transparent purchase chains; Plus it’s a realy fulfilling “making” hobby).
There’s a huge downside, alas:
Once on this track you can’t just have a coffe at a random restaurant / coffee house: Most of the mainstream stuff becomes unbearable, especially considering the price tags.
‘Right to repair’ is secondary.
Primary (in this case) is ‘right to buy a GD French press’.
They won’t ever stop making this stupid garbage until it rots on the shelves, especially the shitty coffee capsules themselves.
Strip it for parts, fine, but don’t fix trash.
Fresh roasted coffee degasses.
If your coffee comes sealed, without a gas release valve, it was deliberately left to get stale before being packaged. (e.g. ALL cup type coffee makers)
Otherwise the containers would bulge like Scandinavian canned rotten fish.
My Vertuo capules all bulge a bit. I live near sea level, don’t know if this is why.
I’ve had two Vertuo brewers die. The first suffered a power supply death and the second was the water pump coil going open-circuit. Neither were repair friendly, being difficult to open and most of the wire connectivity being soldered. Both were diagnosed. Neither were successfully repaired.
Even after sitting ground and open for a week or more, there is some remaining degassing to do.
If the coffee was packaged fresh it would split the packaging open.
To say nothing of the fact that all K cups contain mixtures of ground coffee, essence of misery and instant powder.
I’m seeing a thread full of people underselling the convenience of pod/drip machines. “Put coffee in, push button, go do something else.” is a useful feature. Yes, the coffee isn’t phenomenal — but most people don’t care so long as it’s decent. The wastefulness of the pods is the only argument I’ll accept as the rest is just personal preference.
I was a coffee snob for years and still enjoy a well made cup when I have the time for it. I also use a single cup drip machine when it’s more convenient.
They make boiling water dispensers for your sink that can turn a French press into ‘instant coffee’.
Neglecting required steep time.
But ask yourself: ‘How does the K-cup get around steep time? Am I drinking instant w useless coffee making theater? Wouldn’t just buying instant coffee be cheaper?’
We have a k cup machine so I’m a huge hypocrite anyway but it’s for my elderly parents when they visit.
But. Seriously how hard is it to make coffee? I got by with a simple pour over for ages that required a source of hot water only. And made better coffee, required almost zero clean up (toss filter, rinse cone with same hot water used to brew) and cost next to nothing.
Maybe people have just only ever had garbage coffee that requires tons of sugar and cream to even be a little palatable and I probably envy them. I don’t think people like burned rotgut diarrhea inducing brown garbage water but I guess millions can’t be wrong. Why you’d pay MORE for that privilege is truly mystifying.
I have a coffee grinder (Virtuoso+) works great and I can choose the grind fine-coarse which does change flavour. I buy whole beans.
Why are people so lazy using this cup crap that is terrible to recycle and more plastics/aluminum involved in the machines. Additional environmental costs from the e-trash they make.
If George Clooney likes it, it must be good.
of course he likes money, don’t we all?
I don’t. The only reason I need money is to purchase tools for my nerdspace and some food to stay alive. (Although I find eating food disgusting because later I have to expel it as feces which is very creepy.)
Can I have your disliked share?
I collect those, especially the paper-based ones.
You can optimize it to the point of not needing food at all just by using a drip instead.
It can provide all the nourishment your body needs, and the best part is, no dirty feces. Additionally you can make it even better by connecting the drip at night, so that you don’t even need to waste time eating. No need for food, and no need for coffee, in fact you can have the caffeine added directly as the last part of your drip just before you wake up in the morning.
$20 Ninja drip I bought off Goodwill. Makes an excellent cup of coffee every morning and I’m the second owner.
ProTip: Measure coffee by weight and match to volume of water used.
The real problem is the pods that contain everything but coffee. Sure, their quality varies but I have never encountered a brand that produced a decent coffee, let alone a good cup.
But buying a Jura automatic grinding coffee machine also brings it’s problems like proprietary filters with an RFID tag that nearly enforces you to buy 4 filters a year, each costing 15-20 euros and Ali-filters won’t be accepted. Turns out covering the RFID antenna with some aluminium tape makes it think you are doing without a filter but still, it’s annoying.
But it makes good coffee, that’s the most important part.
If you love coffee then you have two options :
– going low tech (pretty inexpensive) : Bialetti moka pot, French press or weird drip vases
– going hightech but OSS and repairable (expensive but you buy it once) : diypresso machine
There are ground-coffee espresso machines available (in the UK high-street at least) for around £70. These are basically the same coffee brewing process (admittedly there is some extra finesse in the pods), but without the waste and complications.
i’m with the people saying you should just use a real coffee maker. There are plenty of great cheap options. Make it exactly how you want it. But if i was going to repair this machine, i wouldn’t repair its barcode reader, i’d bypass it. I don’t have any idea how configurable / capable it actually is but clearly there’s no value to these pods, whereas just a basic steam machine can be used to brew real coffee one way or another
Hmmm nobody brought up roasting your own.
Cant brew decent coffee using burnt beans, cheap beans, or unknown age storeage mass market junk. Why do you think purchased coffee purveyors have unground beans stored in plain sight?
Hmmm nobody brought up roasting your own.
Cant brew decent coffee using burnt beans, cheap beans, or unknown age storeage mass market junk. Why do you think purchased coffee purveyors have unground beans stored in plain sight?
This machine screams of unnecessary bad engineering.
Having a motor to spin the pod for the barcode reader the ID of the pod is a recipe for problems.
Adding an optical sensor in such a location is plain stupid when you consider that these machines are the ones that will make user buy their pods.
I’ve had a couple of the De’Longhi magnifica super automatic machines now. Ridiculously easy to get running well. One button coffees that are nearly perfect every time. Feed it beans and water. Farts out great coffee. Compact enough to stash in a cupboard. I’m amazed at how available parts are for them too. Looks like the internals haven’t changed for years. Snagged my current one second hand. Needed $30 worth of parts and a quick rebuild. Been humming for years. Love it. 10/10 would buy another one.
Took off the pod holder and used a Melita #2 cone and filters on a pumper type one cup (3 sizes) brew machine. Got a 5 stage water filter later, I no longer see mineral crumbs in the metal basket. Mineral chunks or coatings kill many of these high tech coffee makers. Use filtered water.
People talking smack about this machine have obviously never used it… Or at least have used it minimally. The barcodes are not just some funny drm. They completely change the temperature and the brewing process. It isn’t cheap. It creates some extra waste… But the coffee is fantastic and dead simple.
the one I took apart recently was made in switzerland, very well made unit, the parts are pretty nice