# The my machine / grinder isn`t OTT at home club



## DonRJ (Apr 3, 2010)

Given that a fair few of us have gone moderately overboard on our espresso machine and / or grinders, I thought it would be interesting to run a thread about the equipment we have that fits the category.

For me:-

Rancilio Epoca ST1 - 3.9 litre boiler single group HX machine weighing in at a modest 28 kg with a footprint of 385mm x 565mm.

Pros Great thermal stabilty, steam power, shot consistency, copious hot water for Americano`s and ahem, the washing up, easy access to boiler drain for maintenance, big and easy to empty drip tray.

Cons - Its a bit big, the water reservoir is only 2 litres.

Mazzer Royal grinder weighing in at 27 kg and 720mm height.

Pros - Consistency of grind, easily tweaked grind setting, very little grind retention once you have the doser vanes adjusted.

Cons It towers over everything in the kitchen including me,


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## jimrobo (Aug 5, 2011)

ok I'll get involved!

Machine: Expobar dual boiler reservoir/plumb in machine. Linky here

pros - Really makes a great coffee without a lot of hassle. I have hammered it when having friends around and it is very resiliant. Decent steam power. Ability to upgrade steam wand tip/fiddle with the internals for extra pressure. A popular machine that rarely gets negative comments. Heats up pretty fast. Ready in circa 10 mins from cold.

cons - Needs a reservoir empty warning light/system of some sort. Nothing worse than the machine stopping after you have meticulously prepared your shot and stops mid flow! A little noisy! Could do with a pump upgrade but you get what you pay for!

problems since bought....none really? had a bit of a hiss develop from a release valve on the steam valve but it was a 5 min job to clean and hasn't happened again since.

Grinder - Mahlkonig Pro M espresso Linky

Pros - Same size burrs as its big brother the k30 that seems to be the benchmark for grinders or there abouts. Quick. very quick! 6 seconds for a shot. Grind quality really is superb. Timed dosing is extremely accurate. Moreso than I expected. Very small footprint on the counter. Actually looks pretty good.

Cons - Price! Expensive! Out of the box the burrs are nowhere near each other and you need to recalibrate to be able to grind fine enough for most coffees. Complete lack of instruction for this procedure too. Thats about it??


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## garydyke1 (Mar 9, 2011)

*Expobar Brewtus 4* - Dual Boiler (1.5l Brew boiler, 1.5l Steam boiler) PID machine - 40cm H x 26cm W x 45.5cm D. - 26.2kg

Pros - It makes fantastic shots again and again with little impact to temp stability, e61 group forgiving and built in preinfusion, decent steam power, hot water tap, ability to turn each boiler off independantly, ability to adjust brew pressure, steam pressure and temperature very easily. Industry standard parts - cheap and readily available. Huge 3 ltr drip tray

Cons - Time consuming to descale, noisy vibe pump, no low-water warning alarm. Lots of polishing to keep shiny

*Mazzer Royal *grinder weighing in at 26.5 kg and 475mm height (no hopper)

Pros - Consistency of grind, easily tweaked grind setting, very little grind retention once you have the doser vanes adjusted. Single dosing works well, its bloody fast & will live forever...

Cons Its big , heavy , erm its burrs arent conical so maybe not the ultimate in grind quality (?) Needs modifying to get the best out of it


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## jimrobo (Aug 5, 2011)

Just for clarification I believe mine and Gary's are the same machine.

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk HD


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## RoloD (Oct 13, 2010)

*Olympia Cremina '67 *- Springless lever machine, mechanical pressurestat regulated single boiler, 33cm H x 20cm W x 30cm D.

Pros - It makes beautiful, beautiful espresso. Great pre-infusion by design, good thermal stability once warmed up. Simple and amazingly solid engineering (brass and stainless steel), no electronics to go wrong. Almost silent in operation, sensually satisfying to use, built like a precision tank, needs very little maintenance, will outlast me by several decades. Tiny footprint, decent steaming, cult object.

Cons - Ludicrously expensive when new, needs manual 'false pressure' release, needs a sacrificed shot or half-pumps to bring it up to temperature, smallish boiler, tiny drip tray, temperature adjustment possible but non-trivial. Needs love and a certain amount of skill (but nothing like as much as you might think). No pressure gauge on this model. Visually modest. Cult object.

*Mini Mazzer Electronic A*

Pros - Great grinder, easy to use, accurate timer.

Cons - Expensive - that's about it so far.


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## fatboyslim (Sep 29, 2011)

*Fracino Cherub* W 22kg	, H 380mm, W 345mm, Depth 490mm, (at least 1/3 is the drip tray), Boiler capacity 2.3 litres, Tank capacity 3 litres.

Pros - Wonderfully simple design with E61 style group and customizable coloured panels. British made - directly saving Britain from a triple dip recession. Fantastic value for money considering the quality components. Excellent thermal stability after a decent warm up time. Insane steam power from 4 hole tip. Extremely shiny! Good distribution of brew water from dispersion screen. Great portafilter design allows basket to sit level on counter for easy tamping. Really minimal cooling flushes needed and only after a long idle period. Steam power strong enough to be used to comedy effect. Feels like a big upgrade from a Gaggia Classic single boiler type machine.

Cons - Thermal stability needs managing (by flushing to warm group) if group isn't up to temperature (about 30-40 minutes). Steam power very difficult to deal with when steaming small quantities of milk (partly my lack of skill). Group gasket could be thicker to avoid occasional problems with slight leak from group during extractions. Boiler pressure could be ever so slightly higher to speed up rebound time but this would require more flushing. Ludicrously small drip tray, needs emptying frequently and can be difficult to remove if full. Also edges of drip tray could cause injury as they are quite sharp.

*Mazzer Super Jolly* About 25kg in height and not too big if used without hopper

Pros - Built to survive the apocalypse. Could probably grind teeth. Grinds pretty fast when burrs are fully seasoned. Doser model gives excellent distribution of grinds into basket. Very consistent grind at espresso settings. Minimal grind retention after running a few sacrificial grams through. Name of model allows you to say phrases like, 'I'll just fire up the super jolly darling!'

Cons - Huge with hopper on, not easy to move around. New burrs require seasoning which means sourcing several kilos of stale beans (could be expensive). Grind retention in chute, easy to brush out but still a con. Grind retention in doser. Doser not particularly suited to single dosing without modification.

This should be interesting to find out the cons of the wide variety of home machines available out there. Most websites won't describe the cons to you in the item description.


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## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

*The Machine*.La Spaziale Vivaldi II S1, same machine recently re-purchased to take advantage of newer motherboard with programmable pre-infusion & group head temperature offset.

*Pros * 1.2 litre steam/hot water boiler plus .45 litre group boiler. So much steam available it's necessary to relearn micro foaming because it happens so fast. Simple drop out of filters(2) & water distribution disk at group head for thorough easy cleaning. Plumbed in water supply. Smaller 53 mm baskets with a larger size available holding a comfortable 18 grams. Programmable water volume control. Very large easily handled drip tray for ease of emptying. Works happily from 13 amp plug with 2200 watts max drawdown. Cheaper to run Econ mode available via switch if you only need to use brew boiler for espressos. Draining plug on both boilers to facilitate descaling. Easy adjustable brew water pressure. Really solid temperature stability. Weighs-in at 30 kilos empty, footprint 41.5 cm x 41.5 cm x 38.5 cm (h).

*Cons * Machine really needs higher feet. Height under PF spouts to drip tray could be higher would save removing grid for higher mugs & take away deep cups. Timer to switch machine on at a pre set time is too costly.

*The Grinder* Versalab M3 now in its sixth year.

*Pros* Completely trouble free operation in that time have changed driving belt once & flat burrs twice. Vertical burrs sustaine very little wear. This machine delivers a 'volcano' of light fluffy grinds direct into the PF which is held on a sprung cradle. No grinds retention, what you put in, you get out. There are hoppers available with variable portion measures for different weight delivery. For home use direct pour onto burrs works best. Excellent distribution with no clumping. Changing the drive sprocket for the newer grooved version is the only upgrade I needed to make. After service & help are first class direct from the makers. Beautiful piece (chunk) of perfect engineered metal. Weighs-in at 28 kilo, nearly as much as the La Spaz, with a very small footprint 18 cm x 35 cm x 26 cm (h). Very quiet motor. Grinder exhudes quality.

*Cons*. Cost is high needs to be shipped from USA. Some pop corning. A hand over the top funnel resolves the problem. Some people have made various slip on covers.

I get great pleasure from my setup every time I use it. Lovely to have things 'that just work'


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## jimrobo (Aug 5, 2011)

wow ron that is a SERIOUS setup!!!


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## RobD (May 2, 2012)

Can i join the Club? but i feel my grinder may let me down.

Machine is a recently refurbished & insulated Expobar Office Leva, its only the lowly single boiler model but takes up just as much counter space as its bigger brother the Brewtus H = 400mm W = 260mm D =460mm and about 22Kg, 1.5ltr Single boiler HX with an E61 head, 2.3ltr drip tray, bigger than the water reservoir on some machines







love the leaver to pull a shot.

Pros= Very quick to warm up 10 -15 mins and temp stability is really good, even as a beginner like me its very easy to produce good coffee, it is heads & shoulders above my old Gaggia, i did wind the stat up to 1.2bar and its a complete steam train now, single hole steam tip is helping loads with learning microfoam, and love the how water tap for warming cups and even made my partner a cup of tea from it, talk about brownie points. as far as making espresso & other drinks im more than happy with it, as an engineer i appreciate the build quality of the taps and fittings and while not as stylistic as some machines the 2mm thick side panels tell me that it will last the test of time.

Cons (more minor niggles) = the pump is quite noisy, the water tank is not visible, could do with a better designed filling system and there is no warning when its empty, remembering to do a flush before pulling a shot i have forgot and its not nice, im sure there is more but its my new machine and im still quite smitten with it.

i look at it occasionally and think cor thats mine









Grinder = Iberital MC2 Doserless, it does what it says.

Pros = Small light weight, cheep, solidly built in an almost utilitarian way, very consistent grind with virtually no clumping and has almost infinitely fine adjustment. cant fault the product it produces.

Cons = Was designed in the ugly tree and hit every branch on the way down, its no looker, the PF holder cant hold a PF and the biggest pain is that because it has such fine adjustment, it takes about 5 full turns from one bean to another and unless you have a desire to give your self RSI then going from espresso to cafetiere its a no no, it could be the next thing that is usurped by upgradeitis


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## DonRJ (Apr 3, 2010)

That Versalab grinder is a bit wild, strangely reminds me of the engineering in a high end hifi turntable.


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## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

gotta say your view really looks at it out of context.

View attachment 1396


maybe I'll try some old 45s on it:waiting:


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## DonRJ (Apr 3, 2010)

It was the engineering that struck a chord so to speak and if you check this link which I have just found, there is definite link.

http://www.versalab.com/server/versadyn/players1.html

Don


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## ronsil (Mar 8, 2012)

Well thank you for that Never seen that before. I knew Versalab did other things like photo equipment as well as a gas operated tamper & an espresso machine & I did know John Bicht is an excellent engineer. Apparently as a young man during the war & later in racing cars he was in the UK & contributed to a lot of projects. His Wife Laura, an engineer in her own right, assists in building the grinders.

I will now see my machine from a different angle........

Now if only I could find those old 45s:time-out:


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## funinacup (Aug 30, 2010)

*Nuova Simonelli Oscar* - HX Machine - 2.3ltr Water Tank | 2.3ltr Boiler | 1ltr driptray | 17.7KG | 54cm x 54cm x 30cm

Pros - ABS Plastic means it's light and portable, easy to keep clean! Can steam and pull shots simultaneously since it's a HX. Big driptray, big cupwarmer up top. Ample room between driptray and pf spouts. Easy access to water tank. Full of commercial parts & big enough name meaning readily available spares.

Cons - Vibe pump. Plastic feels slightly cheap but doesn't bother me much. Could do with a pressure gauge. No anti-vac valve on the boiler as standard which is irritating!

*Anfim Caimano Timer* 18KG

Pros - Consistency of grind, really neat dosing = very very low wastage when used in commercial environment. 2KG Hopper

Cons - Feet aren't sticky enough to stop it moving around when dosing - mod needed. Stepped grind adjustment can be annoying but upgrade available to decrease the distance between steps. Chute holds roughly 10g so not ideal for single dosing. A digital timer & smaller steps would make this almost perfect!


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## DonRJ (Apr 3, 2010)

When I was contemplating my next (final he says) machine which was planned to be bought next summer as a retirement present having had to delay my retirement planned for this year, I had two paths in mind. One was the throw financial caution to the wind and buy something along the lines of an Izzo Alex Duetto or La Spaziale Vivaldi, the other was to go for something like a Fracino Cherub or Nuova Simonelli Oscar getting maximum machine for the least outlay.

Needless to say, I got to roaming around the internet just in case a "bargain" came up that I could not resist. I nearly put offers in for a Heavenly, La Cimbali, Rocket, Iberital and an Expobar but always decided against it in the final analysis. Rather glad I did as I am smitten with the Epoca but it is great to see some of my possible choices being used and enjoyed by fellow Coffee Forum members and I`m sure with equal enthusiasm to my own for the lovely espresso that results.


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