October 6, 2007

You and I both know that because I’m talking about the Chocovision Delta tempering machine, and because this blog is so well indexed, that anything I say will come up when someone searches for tempering machines or Chocovision, so I best choose my words with care.

Well, my Delta failed again. It went down in flames. I was ready to pull the plug and not ever use it again and go to a competitor. But I’m stickin’.

The Chocovision team, in the form of Joe Cravino, and Mike the engineer have brought me back in to the fold. They are having problems with their board, and yes, Mike, it is with the board. Remember, we didn’t get the bad readings from the bad set of baffles until after you replaced the board. So, no, it wasn’t JUST a bad set (2) baffles. My worst cracked baffle and the new one that Mike brought were the best working ones. (Remember, I’m also running these baffles though my dishwasher.) And yes, please make these out of polycarbonate and not PVC. Ugh.

Well, to make a long story short, they gave me a Rev X, another Chocovision machine, and they put a new board in my Chocovision Delta. They all seem to be working. More importantly, I’m going to be a tester for them. Sort of off site QA and QE. And for those of you that know me, there is no better QA or QE on the planet than moi. Just ask the directors and managers of QA/Release Engineering that have worked for me.

I remember going to a party, a bugfest, that is a company sponsered testorama at Kim’s company. The QA director, after getting my test results and my beautifully written up, clear, concise bug reports, wanted to hire me. I had to tell him that I already had a job as VP of Engineering. Too bad, kids. So, you know that I will not only put these machines though their paces, the Rev X has the new board in it destined for the Rev Delta, but I’ll also give good bug report.

They’re talking about giving me the chance to test the 25 lb machine. With this kind of customer support, what’s not to love?

Finally, I think this company is on the right road. I’ve found bugs that they’ve fixed and have reported a host of additional bugs that I know Mike is now working on. I’m comfortable. Overall, this is the best game in town. Chocovision is reworking the machine and it will be the premier machine for small batch tempering, 10 to 25 lbs.

So, go out and buy one. That’s what I recommend and tell them that Mark sent you. This is a fantastic tempering machine and for small dipping and small amount of molding etc., there is none better. Eventually, I think their design could scale to 100lbs but right now their niche is a small scale tempering machine for hand work. This doesn’t mean I couldn’t push two hundred pounds of chocolate thought his machine per day, but you have to have a largish melter and some technique for doing that.

You taste my chocolates, look at them, feel that snap and you tell me if my chocolate isn’t properly tempered. Of course it is.