Recently Coffee Physics was challenged with the task of rebuilding the 4 group La Marzocco Linea. It's an understatement to say that this espresso machine gets a lot of use, with coffee lines 30 people deep slinking out the door on a summer day, this La Marzocco gets put through some of the highest volume usage I have seen an espresso machine go through. Not to say that the owner doesn't love their espresso machine, they do, but from time to time a million mile check up has to be done.
This machine was taken all the way down to the frame. The only thing that was not rebuilt, repaired, or replaced was the main power switch and the CPU deck.
Like any high usage espresso machine, it was dusty, with some hardened wiring, there was some scale in the boilers and in the copper lines, signs of a couple of degraded gaskets, but no serious defects. Then I set to work taking it down to the frame.
The coffee boilers, group heads, and all the copper tubing got an acid bath to eat away any build up of hard water deposites and to generally clean up the surfaces to mate with new gaskets and seals.
Once all the mechanical hardware and boilers were back in place, I installed the wiring and the upper front panel, complete with new button pads and manual switches. all the body panels got a little polish, but the authentic patina created by years of steady use still shows through.
It was a pleasure to preform such a thorough rebuild.
rp
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