Coming to the DE1 in October 2022, with our v1.44 version
I often get questions about “what's coming in our next DE1 version” and decided to answer it today, so that people know, and can decide whether to wait or not, to buy. Two of the 3 things we're introducing can be bought later by existing customers, only the front panel changeover is not recommended.
Below is what I wrote publicly.
***
Coming to the DE1 in October 2022, with our v1.44 version
We're currently building and selling v1.43 of our Decent Espresso Machine. The next version (v1.44) is planned for October 2022.
Here are the planned hardware updates for that version:
- The resin handles will get phazed into production, whenever we run out of the black wood handles. However, it will be at least 3 months from now, because that's how long it'll take for the resin handles to get made. The matte black resin will be provided as part of the machine, and the other colors will be separately purchasable. For white machines, we're staying with the natural oak. We will also have reclaimed Italian olive tree handles, as an optional separate purchase, soon (they're almost ready).
Here are the olive and oak natural wood handles, side by side:
- we're removing the 3 small front screws that hold the front faceplate. We found a way to have the faceplate hang off the steam wand screw, and front standby switch, so the 3 small screws are no longer needed. Some double sided Japanese tape behind the bottom of the faceplate, keeps it from “flapping”. This is just a small cosmetic thing. It'll make repairs slightly more difficult, but it's really rare to have to remove the faceplate, so not a big deal in practice. This change is backward compatible to existing customers (ie, you can buy a faceplate w/o the 3 front screw holes), but I wouldn't recommend you bother, as it's a big job to remove that front faceplate (you have to remove the group head), and this is a tiny improvement. I'll be posting a video about that, once it's ready. We're still in the testing phase on this, as we had to design/build a fancy jig to get the alignment perfect, w/o screw holes. Here's a still photo showing a front face (this one, with screws) being mounted using that jig.
and the new front face coming in v1.44:
- we'll also be phazing in a new water intake thimble filter, switching from the off-the-shelf mesh we've always had, to our own design. That'll be backward compatible to all existing machines, and sold inexpensively for anyone who wants it. Our new design has a much greater surface area, so it should need less frequent cleaning, and not add drag to the pump. Also, it can sit on the bottom of the water tank, without causing a “suction seal”, so that we'll have more accurate water tank level measurements. Currently, we need to have a bit of distance between the bottom of the intake tube and the ceramic, or else a suction seal occurs, and water can get pulled up the tube. The new design also means we can use more of the water in the tank (almost all of it), instead of leaving a bit behind to avoid suction. Existing customers can switch to the new uptake filter, and also calibrate their intake tube downwards into the tank, to take advantage of this.
And all the software stuff we do is (a) backward compatible all the way to the first v1.0 machines and (b) free of cost.
-john
Updated 2022/04/20