The FloJet setup.

I have started to use the Nuova Simonelli Musica with the FloJet setup for a little bit and thought that it might be appropriate to give it a little review for those who might be in the same situaltion about plumbing in your espresso machine. As I have previously blogged about, the Musica version that I have is meant to be plumbed into a water source but because I'm unalbe to run a water line to my machine I had to figure out ways to feed the machine the water that it need in other ways.

First, what I did was just dropping the hose into a water bottle and let the Musica suck up the water that way. It was fine for a little while but it developed some problems as I have indicatedhere in my previous blog post: http://www.roaste.com/CoffeeBlogs/sontondaman/Another-Machine-Problem-Nu...

Then I figure that the Musica needed positive water pressure to work properly so I decided to rig up this contraption: /files/u14133/Nuova.jpg" width="500" height="375" /> 

that worked fantastically for awhile but then again some problem occurs. No matter how much silicone I used, there was alway a slow leak coming from the joint where the tube is connected to the water container! So I decided that I have enough and dropped $150 to buy a Flojet setup that has proven to work well for other people who own a plumb espresso machine.

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So now this is how the whole setup looks like. I have a big 5 gallon water bottle next to my machine and that is where the flojet pump get its water from. From there, there is a 1/4 inch tube that subsequently feed the water to the Musica. The most challenging thing was finding the right adapter to go from 1/4 inch to the garden hose size connector that the Musica use. For this, people from HomeDepot was most helpful to me in finding the right connector. 

Now it is working very well; the only annoying thing is when ever I pull a shot, the flowjet pump is pulsing away along with the pump in the Musica. Some people thought that the pulsing of the flojet pump is creating a variation in pump pressure but I have yet to notice any negative in the espresso taste. Perhaps I should get more demanding espresso blends to test this out. The possiblity is I might need a accumulator in series with the flowjet to equilize the pressure; we will see!