# Thoughts please on my proposed new set up!



## mikeb (Oct 5, 2014)

I recently joined the forum and I have just posted an introduction in the introductions section.

I am due to retire at the end of the year and I am hoping to replace my existing Gaggia espresso pure with a machine that will give me years of service and the chance to develop my very limited coffee making skills! I tend to drink a lot of cappuccinos and I have been thinking about buying an Expobar Leva dual boiler together with a Eureka Zenith 65e. I am hoping to get a setup that give me years of pleasure (and good coffee!) and if possible I would like to buy just the once rather than upgrading in the future.

My budget is around the £1600 mark and I am considering buying from Bella Barista as they seem to have a very good reputation on the forum and they are not too far from me here in Gloucestershire.

I would welcome views from members on proposed setup.

Best wishes

Mike


----------



## aaronb (Nov 16, 2012)

Looks good to me, although I have no personal experience of either so I'll let owners chime in.

What is worth doing is asking BB to do a demo for you of these 2 so you can get a feel for them. Mention you are from the forums, they like us over there


----------



## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

I'll highly recommend the brewtus although it can 'rattle' a bit. For around 1k it's best in class.

Re the grinder, does it have to be new? do you change beans a lot? Would a doser bother you?


----------



## The Systemic Kid (Nov 23, 2012)

Solid combination but here's a thought. The Zenith is a decent grinder but if you were willing to consider buying second hand and willing to look at a commercial, your budget for a grinder would go a lot further in terms of grind quality.


----------



## coffeechap (Apr 5, 2012)

Go second hand on the grinder and get a much better set up. There are a few places that a brewtus can be bought a little cheaper.


----------



## PeterF (Aug 25, 2014)

Very good choice regarding Espresso machine. I bought the Expobar Leva Dual Boiler from Bella Barista last week & I am delighted with it. Bella Barista are an excellent company & give advice & support long after you have parted with the cash. They also bench test the machine & programme the PID while you wait. However the grinder is critical to get the best out of it. I would look at a second hand commercial grinder like the Mazzer Super Jolly.


----------



## awcoffee (Aug 18, 2014)

I was in the same position as you. I bought a machine which is all stainless steel and will not rust. This is to last a good few years. I also live in Gloucester if you wish to see a Verona.


----------



## dougie todd (Feb 4, 2014)

I bought both of those lately and for me they are a great combination, I appreciate what the guys with more experience are saying about the grinder, I don't have that experience to make a real judgement except that I am more than happy - I get great coffee and the machines look amazing in my kitchen. The grinder is sleek and has a really nice blue display and LED under the chute, it is amazingly simple to clean out and it doesn't seem to affect the settings when doing so.It also runs quick enough and is quiet. The Expobar is nice and industrial looking and simple to use, it has a nice curved back, the steaming is good and it seems simple enough to maintain. I don't have hard water so I won't have much de-scaling to do but if you have hard water then it might be worth looking into how easy it is to de-scale? I think DaveC recommended one that BB sell that has easy to drain boilers but I have no idea about how the machine performs in terms of coffee, its maybe just something to be aware of.

BB are also excellent to deal with, Rod is very helpful with advice and Jordan is great to deal with when buying and such, couple their advice with the advice on here and you probably won't go wrong.


----------



## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

To echo and +1 Dougie's comments on the grinder, without having vast experience of other grinders, the 65e does exactly what i need in providing consistent results and is real easy to clean. 3 screws are what hold the top burrs in place ( the bottom burrs are atop the motor, the whole lot moving up and down on the adjuster which is why the settings are not affected). If a warranty is important to you and you are only wishing to buy new then the above from Bella hard to beat but balance this against the fact that a well looked after second hand grinder, especially from a forum member, could provide good value also.

Happy with both the purchase of the grinder itself and buying it from Bella, never felt rushed and the service excellent ( not too far from Worcestershire either)

Hope this of help

John


----------



## PeterF (Aug 25, 2014)

Descaling the Expobar Dual Boiler is not an issue. Bella Barista issue these machines with their own comprehensive user manual which tells you exactly how to descale. It's not difficult, just a bit time consuming, but well worth doing if you want the machine to have a long life.


----------



## mikeb (Oct 5, 2014)

aaronb said:


> Looks good to me, although I have no personal experience of either so I'll let owners chime in.
> 
> What is worth doing is asking BB to do a demo for you of these 2 so you can get a feel for them. Mention you are from the forums, they like us over there


Thanks for the advice re the demo - that sounds like a really good idea! I will make point of mentioning the forums.


----------



## mikeb (Oct 5, 2014)

jeebsy said:


> I'll highly recommend the brewtus although it can 'rattle' a bit. For around 1k it's best in class.
> 
> Re the grinder, does it have to be new? do you change beans a lot? Would a doser bother you?


Grinder does not have to be new but can't have anything too large due to space restrictions - sounds silly but has to look reasonable too, mainly so as not to upset my wife! I don't generally change beans very often but that may become more of an issue as I get to grips with the new set up. Doser would not be a problem but I am not really clear on which wold be better!


----------



## johnealey (May 19, 2014)

Might be worth looking for some images of Mazzer super jolly / major / other suggested ginders compared to what you are already looking at if looks are important, checking dimensions to top of grinder (not top of hopper as most mazzer owners do not run large hoppers seen in photos that coffee shops do).

The zenith 65e as supplied by BB comes with a short hopper and just fits under a std gap below kitchen cabinets, which may be important if you need it to blend in a bit. Mine is black (you can get a white one) and only move it forwards out from under the cabinet when i fill the hopper with out daily does of beans which can be up to 200g, then move it back under and dispense happily with controls at front and adjuster top front side.

To dose or not to dose, will leave those with experience to answer as the 65e is an on demand so once have weighed out a grind "shot" at start of day, dont weigh again just hit grind button for large ( i set mine for triples, 22g into a VST basket) or small ( 1 second blast). Small pretty grinders do exist they just don't tend to offer the grind quality / consistency that the larger ones do. A good read around the site will lead you to this conclusion as the new route seems to be Iberital mc2 or similar then Mignon (new) or Mazzer (pre used) before people move up to bigger / better grinders such as those you looking at.

If you want drop dead gorgeous (with grind quality) and dont mind a bit of exercise the HG1 is about £2-300 above the price of the 65e and one sold on here in the last couple off days, almost new.

Grinder probably the most important element to get right so worth spending some time researching, reading, taking advice and even playing with just don't get swayed to spend more money on the coffee machine at the expense of the grinder, too many threads on here tell that story.

Best of luck, hope the above of help and advice from others to assist you in your choice ( IMO the coffee machine is right based on what you have said and too much of my time spent procrastinating / playing with the machines at BB....)

John

p.s. check out the deals section if mind set on 65e as believe the offer still stands for forum members and there some good info in there buried in the thread which may be helpful.


----------



## gman147 (Jul 7, 2012)

If you don't mind the noise, a vibe pump brewtus is an excellent machine. I'd never go back to vibe after using Rotary now however.


----------



## peterpan (Sep 25, 2014)

gman147 said:


> If you don't mind the noise, a vibe pump brewtus is an excellent machine. I'd never go back to vibe after using Rotary now however.


Why is that gman147? Because of noise or some other reason?


----------



## gman147 (Jul 7, 2012)

Yeah the noise really. In the cup there's not a huge difference.


----------



## gman147 (Jul 7, 2012)

The biggest difference is grinder. The jump from Superjolly to Royal was massive


----------



## mikeb (Oct 5, 2014)

awcoffee said:


> I was in the same position as you. I bought a machine which is all stainless steel and will not rust. This is to last a good few years. I also live in Gloucester if you wish to see a Verona.


Thank you for the offer of looking at your machine - unfortunately the price of the Verona ia a little outside my budget so may be better not to look and there I won't know what I am missing!


----------



## mikeb (Oct 5, 2014)

johnealey said:


> To echo and +1 Dougie's comments on the grinder, without having vast experience of other grinders, the 65e does exactly what i need in providing consistent results and is real easy to clean. 3 screws are what hold the top burrs in place ( the bottom burrs are atop the motor, the whole lot moving up and down on the adjuster which is why the settings are not affected). If a warranty is important to you and you are only wishing to buy new then the above from Bella hard to beat but balance this against the fact that a well looked after second hand grinder, especially from a forum member, could provide good value also.
> 
> Happy with both the purchase of the grinder itself and buying it from Bella, never felt rushed and the service excellent ( not too far from Worcestershire either)
> 
> ...





dougie todd said:


> I bought both of those lately and for me they are a great combination, I appreciate what the guys with more experience are saying about the grinder, I don't have that experience to make a real judgement except that I am more than happy - I get great coffee and the machines look amazing in my kitchen. The grinder is sleek and has a really nice blue display and LED under the chute, it is amazingly simple to clean out and it doesn't seem to affect the settings when doing so.It also runs quick enough and is quiet. The Expobar is nice and industrial looking and simple to use, it has a nice curved back, the steaming is good and it seems simple enough to maintain. I don't have hard water so I won't have much de-scaling to do but if you have hard water then it might be worth looking into how easy it is to de-scale? I think DaveC recommended one that BB sell that has easy to drain boilers but I have no idea about how the machine performs in terms of coffee, its maybe just something to be aware of.
> 
> BB are also excellent to deal with, Rod is very helpful with advice and Jordan is great to deal with when buying and such, couple their advice with the advice on here and you probably won't go wrong.


Thank you both for your helpful and very reassuring views - also I have yet to read anything other than praise for BB which is very impressive in this day and age!


----------



## mikeb (Oct 5, 2014)

PeterF said:


> Descaling the Expobar Dual Boiler is not an issue. Bella Barista issue these machines with their own comprehensive user manual which tells you exactly how to descale. It's not difficult, just a bit time consuming, but well worth doing if you want the machine to have a long life.


Hopefully when I retire at the end of the year I should have a bit more free time so the time element won't be a problem! However, clear instructions will be very useful!!


----------



## kfri (Oct 2, 2014)

I purchased this combination in the spring 2014:

Izzo Vivi Pid 2014 heat exchanger

Mazzer Mini Electronic A grinder

This set works very fine for me... You could consider the Alex Duetto with double boiler... and the possibility of connecting to water supply.


----------



## DoubleShot (Apr 23, 2014)

On the second hand commercial grinder front, what would the knowledgeable folk of these forums suggest to go with an Expobar Leva dual boiler in say £250-300 and £350-400 price bracket? Mazzer Super Jolly keeps getting mentioned so that's on my short list. Not sure what the usual second hand prices of a Mazzer Major or Royal are or which other grinders in above price brackets would compliment a Brewtus IV?


----------



## jeebsy (May 5, 2013)

Major or royal would be excellent partners for the brewtus, 350-450 depending on condition


----------

