How, in two years, our coffee machine technician course has grown in content and number of participants, and how we are developing it with SCA protocol.

The coffee machine technician courses were at the beginning our answer for many baristas and coffee shop managers who didn’t feel completely confident in their shop without the basic knowledge on how the most important equipment works.

Initially the training program was a simple introduction to the basic hydraulics of the most common espresso machines and some simple practical exercises for some “easy fixes” like changing a gasket or burrs in a grinder. Things that a barista with some safety precautions can easily do.

In very little time our coffee machine technician course started having more and more people registering to the course and even professional technicians. Partecipants were looking for updates or explanations to things they had been doing for years without completely understanding them. At this point we understood it was very important to increase the level of our program and start explaining more advanced concepts.

Our first approach was to find service companies willing to share their knowledge, experience and tips to include in our course. It wasn’t easy to put it all together and we found very little theoretical knowledge on the field.

Technical information isn’t really easy to have access to, we can find some diagrams or exploded views of some machines but there aren’t any books or courses for people who are trying to understand them more in depth.

espresso machine repair training – Espresso Academy

SCA and the Espresso machine repair certified technician training

The SCA (Specialty Coffee Association) noticed this problem many years ago in the field of coffee growing, roasting, tasting and extraction and they have been working on developing structured courses that can certify professionals and give them the basic knowledge and a universal vocabulary to work with.

Their next step, thanks to the enthusiasm of the new Coffee Technicians Guild, is to develop a similar certification training system for coffee technicians which will be divided in 6 modules with 3 levels just like the other SCA certificates.

At the moment the actual program is still in development and we hope we can contribute to speed up the process by providing our experience in these types of courses.

Coffee machine technician training program

espresso machine repair training – Espresso Academy

For now the program seems to be the following:

• Coffee Machines: Learn about the essentials of coffee machines including the categories, models and components. Develop the ability to knowledgeably advise customers and peers about the history and proper applications of essential coffee equipment.
• Hydraulics: Learn the practical skills you need to safely locate, troubleshoot and replace hydraulic components in coffee equipment, as well as how to connect machines to a water supply and dissemble and reassemble a variety of espresso machine group heads.
• Electrical & Electronics: Learn how to safely navigate coffee equipment electronics, including how to identify, remove and replace electrical components in coffee machines, accurately communicate the power supply needs for a coffee machine to an electrician and connect machines to a power supply.
• Cleaning & Preventative Maintenance: Learn the essentials of how to conduct a thorough cleaning and preventive maintenance procedure on common coffee machines. Also learn to analyze and resolve water quality issues.
• Operations Management: Learn about the key concepts of successful management skills including efficient technician workflow, customer communication, work order procedures and production/inventory control programs.
• Coffee Preparation: Learn how to properly test and calibrate coffee-brewing and milk-steaming equipment. Teach customers to do the same.

The coffee machine technician training  will probably focus mainly on the Hydraulics and Electronics modules, since they reflect the spirit of our current classes and we already cover many of the other things during our barista and management courses.

At the moment our course is split in 3 days (for those who want to stay that long). We start with the history and development of the espresso machine, from the first Bezzera boilers to lever machines, the introduction of heat exchangers and hydraulic pumps, automatic dosing, temperature profiling, preinfusion and so on.

Each type of machine is then disassembled by the students and we try to identify their components and common failure points, we explain how to test solenoid valves, switches, relays transformers, heating elements and so on, after a brief introduction to basic electronics and the use of the multimeter.

In the training class we talk about the correct way to prepare a coffee and test the equipment, we look at the types of grinders and burrs, how to keep them sharp and working.

Water is also an important part of the course, testing it and knowing how to treat it is the only way to guarantee a good result in the cup and a long living machine.

Finally we learn to disassemble, clean and fix water softeners, simple glass washers and some different types of coffee machines like capsule machine, super automatic office machines and so on, depending on the student’s needs.

We are very curious to see how the coffee machine technician training will develop in the future, all we can do in the meantime is to keep gathering information and try to make our course as useful as possible.

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