It's tech time! Equipment breaks, that is just a fact of life. How and why it breaks depends on the way we maintain (or don't maintain) it over the corse of its life. right now there are thousands of bars working on machines that are either about to break or are well on their way because of improper care. Today we are talking with Counter Culture Coffee NYC equipment tech extraordinaire, Melissa Vaiden. The goal of our conversation? To help us avoid an untimely demise for the equipment we depend on.  Melissa Vaiden is a service technician for Counter Culture Coffee in the NYC region. After working as a barista for years, she found a tech internship at Boxcar Coffee that sparked her love for fixing coffee equipment. She speaks on panels sharing her experience as one of the few women working in the technical field. She also is a stage manager for the Coffee Champ's Cup Tasters competition. In this conversation e cover a LOT of information and best practices for your brewers, grinders, espresso machines and filtration. If you follow Melissa's advice here you will be sure to save yourself a world of suffering form needless maintenance issues.  We cover: Preventative maintenance for Espresso, brewer, grinders Why so many businesses get behind in their machine care Mindsets for getting the most from your equipment Budgeting for inevitable costs in machine care Filtration best practices Purchasing the right machine for your business Links: Counter Culture Coffee   Related episodes: Talking Tech w/ Tom Ritz Terry's Top 10: How not to Kill your Espresso Machine Supplying and Selecting Equipment w/ Steve Rhinehart   Got questions, comments, feedback? Want to work with KTTS Consulting? Chris@keystotheshop.com   Visit our sponsors! www.prima-coffee.com/keys 5% off your purchases at Prima Coffee until January 31st! Just use the code "HOLIDAY5" when you visit this link!    Want the best plant based beverage for your coffee drinks?  www.pacificfoods.com/food-service