beancounter

Open Lab Coffee Club

Coffee Club has bought a “bean to cup” coffee machine which is in the Open Lab kitchen. Anyone can join the club which is a self-balancing fair system: you buy the beans in proportion to your use.

🎉 Joining the club

To join the club:

  1. Scan your access card
  2. Select your profile

If your profile is not available, choose a temporary profile to begin with. You can add other cards (or RFID tags with a stable value – do not use your phone!) by scanning and choosing your profile again.

☕️ Making Coffee

Record each coffee shot by tapping your access card on the reader on top of the machine (the display will confirm the recording). The scheme works out who should next buy a bag of coffee by calculating the ratio of your coffee shots to how much coffee you’ve purchased. This system remains fair in the long run assuming that the number of shots of coffee per bean weight (from the dose) remains the same, and that the price of coffee remains roughly the same.

Note that the “double shot” button adds approximately 25% more coffee to your shot – this is ignored by the scheme and assumed to generally balance out. Therefore: tap once if you have a single or “double” shot, and tap twice if you have two full single shots.

You can keep track of your usage (and see when you are due to buy a bag of coffee) on the interface. It is each member’s responsibility to ensure that the machine is clean, tidy and ready for the next user.

Coffee beans Coffee beans are refilled under the top-left flap, and the rest of the bag is stored in the jar next to the machine. - **Empty bag** — When the bag is empty, it should be replaced with the oldest bag from the supply box next to the kitchen. - **Last spare bag** — When we're down to the last bag in the supply box, scan the "Last Bag" card or the coffee jar itself. This alerts the system to the current stock level and the members next due to buy a bag will be told to buy coffee. - **Settings** — Please do not unduly change the grind/dose/water dials on the machine as they are tweaked for each coffee and may make bad coffee if adjusted!
Water When the water tank is empty (LED indicated): take out the water tank (right side of the machine), empty out any old water, fill with fresh water and replace.
Grounds and drip-tray When the machine grounds are full (LED indicated), or the drip tray is full (red plastic indicator floats up): open the front of the machine (grab either side of the central pourer and pull), pull out the drip tray and empty it in the sink, take out the grounds hopper and empty it in the bin.
Power Keep the machine connected to power at all times. It is left in "Eco mode" to minimize power usage, and is regularly used throughout the working day -- manually turning it off and on in the would needlessly waste time, wear it out, and likely save no significant power. The front "power off" button can be used to power down the machine at the end of the day, but it will automatically power down if not used for a while.
Cleaning The machine will periodically rinse the brew unit (especially when powering down), you can manually make it rinse by pressing the button on the front. If you use the frothing wand, rinse the plastic sleeve and clean the wand itself immediately after each use. Periodically, the drip tray, grounds hopper and internal base of the machine, and entire brew head will need cleaning through.
De-scaling The machine will need periodic de-scaling.

🫘 Buying coffee

It is each members’ responsibility to buy coffee when you are told to do so. When there is low stock, the member’s with the highest consumption-to-purchase ratio will be prompted to buy coffee.

We recommend buying coffee beans in 1 kg bags, for example:

When your coffee arrives

You must register your purchase!

  1. Write your name and the current date at the top of the bag.
  2. Scan your card and press the button indicating you are not registering a coffee right now.
  3. Use the handheld barcode scanner to scan your coffee bag’s barcode.
  4. If this coffee is currently unknown, select the weight of the coffee you have purchased.
  5. Put the bag in the supply box by the kitchen.

✉️ Members

We have a mailing list ol-coffeeclub@ncl.ac.uk.

To join this mailing list, so that you can be notified about the coffee machine and the club:

Coffee machine

The original purchase was for the De’Longhi Esam4000.b Magnifica Bean to Cup Coffee Machine, 15 Bar - Black on 24-Nov-2016 for £251.19, plus 3x bags coffee – between 7 founding members at £36 each (two additional members joined at the original rate). Manufacturer’s page: De’Longhi ESAM 4000.B Magnifica Bean to Cup Coffee Machine (Black).

The original machine developed a fault where it always dispensed too little coffee, similar to another reported case, and appears to be a faulty front control board “DEL5232110000”. Amazon sent a replacement unit (22-June-2017).

When the machine finally needs replacing, the cost will likely have to be shared between members – potentially crediting the contributed value to each member (e.g. convert coffee Kg to £ credits).