Java Jons - Java Jons 6B Marsh Street

How did you get your start in servicing espresso machines?

As an electrician, I concentrated my career in complex industrial Automation and control diagnostics. We spent time in Adelaide, and I enjoyed a lot of coffee. When we moved back from Adelaide in 2006 our first purchase was a Breville Coffee Machine (yes Breville….) and went on a local barista course (wouldn’t call it that now).

There weren’t a lot of opportunities, and I landed a job with a firm that was servicing steam and hot water boilers. The business started to struggle, and I decided to start looking for other opportunities. We looked at purchasing an electrical business, but then that wasn’t my thing. I saw a local shop selling their servicing and repair business. 

In our business, we deal with a lot of different brands. My apologies if any of our customers/suppliers feel their machine(s) are better to use. I think the Wega Nova brand would be the most straightforward machine to carry out our servicing on. The access to all components is relatively straightforward from a standard service. Also, there are not too many restrictors to deal with blockages, and they are easy to get to. There are no plastic panels (always a pain when servicing due to high temperatures involved, they become brittle).

What’s the most common form of machine misuse that you see baristas do?

That’s hard as I am not a Barista, I don’t understand the reasoning why it would need to be done, but my pet hate is watching a barista knocking the side of their handle with the tamper. However, this is great for our business because over time both the handle and tamper become damaged and require replacing.

​Finally, any “what not to do” stories you’d like to share?

I have made a few, but the most notable would be working on a La Marzocco within my first year. The handover of the business was very short and not a lot of information about machine repairs given (probably another ‘how not to buy a business’). I had an issue with the sight glass leaking and had turned the machine off and drained the pressure from it. I removed the drain plug below the sight glass, but due to the stress of getting the job done quickly, I wasn't able to check if the pressure had correctly drained from the boiler. The result, the boiler water scalded my stomach.​