Northern_Monkey

@Espressonic Fingers crossed you get on with it! Not directed at me, but the flow profiling is really handy as it lets you mimic other machines, whether it’s slayer-a-like low pressure preinfusion or a lever style pressure drop profile. Also let’s you go super fine if you have a big grinder, by allowing you to adjust as needed on the fly. Or start creating your own shot profiles from scratch. For the money the e61 flow kits cost, you get an awful lot of options typically only found on more expensive machines. Dave C has some good bits on his siren in terms of starter approaches

@sturner04659 - That is a bit strange really! I use mine almost every day closed off to hold a low pressure of say 1-2bar to get a few grams out and then ramp. About a year of use on my Mara. I think they must have had people with a limited amount of “mechanical sympathy” wrench it tight closed when cold and expanded when full temp, then have problems with the needle or gicleur. I don’t think it would cause a major issue closing it off, should just open the OPV when run closed. Edit: Lelit’s instructions say it should shut off fully if turned clockwise.

I sold my Aergrind and bought an Aerspeed, really happy with it as it is so much faster. Chomps through 20g for Aeropress or Rao V60 in less than a minute for most beans.

@MonkeyHarris - Not tried to order from them since Brexit but these people were great in terms of Lelit spares. I think the Mara-x and Mara PL62 wands are the same fittings, so you can get a full replacement one with seals etc for not that much if you need one down the road. https://www.lamacchinadelcaffe.com/en/ricambi-rubinetti-vapore-lelit.html

@HRC99 - My work did this a bit ago, 500ish coffees is about 9kg a week. They have it tied in with a contract for weekly maintenance and they supply the beans as well. With that volume and not to end up being the person responsible for fixing it, maybe see which companies are local and contact them? We had a few free trials of machines for a week and beans before they agreed on an acceptable combination/service. Likely won’t win any awards but should be fairly consistent and powdered milk is far easier than a chilled/heated fresh container in terms of maintenance.

@John Yossarian - The BZ10 looks pretty swish with the heated group feature at that price. Only downside would be you couldn’t add a flow kit like on a traditional e61 group or modified version on the Minima which still accepts one.

@Espressonic - Not sure to be honest actually, but sometimes the modded versions do come up for sale on the UK or US forums. I read the version one are built using imperial sizes, I believe the later versions are metric and not compatible with the Voodoo Daddy cup mod. If you like the hand grinding and have bench dogs on your worktop already, it might be easier and about the same price to just buy the version two? I know the Niche is smaller burrs but the convenience.... 😂 @BlackCatCoffee - Any industry trends you are aware of we should watch out for? Move away from e61s, heated

@Tennistim - I found it a lot neater and other half friendly to pop a little tray under the front so the mess is contained a bit. IKEA do small ones for £2 that fit nicely. If you do the famous octopus funnel mod 🐙 to replace the doser, it’s neater than using the sweepers. A small dosing cup could rest on the portafilter fork quite nicely. Kept it neater for single dosing and contained any stray grinds etc. by leaving there when not in use.

No, all super secret so far! There have been whisperings and hints for a few years now. There is a forum thread on it here as well. Basically, about £1K, spring lever and 58mm portafilter. Maybe A4 footprint and should be UK made. I think it’s being user tested as we speak with more details early this year. Should be good based on the Londinium track record, but has been pushed back a fair bit in the past.

@Tennistim A camera lens hood and puffer lid does reduce it down a fair bit. Still taller than my Mara in my old set up though. Shuffled our cupboards along in the end as at 45cm from the counter was too tight really.

If you are happy with the Pharos 1 then maybe look at the “Voodoo Daddy” mods to grind into a cup underneath to make the workflow easier? A couple of years could see the Londinium Compact reach the market at that price point 🤞 A little bit more, but shiny and good quality is the ECM Slim? That and a flow paddle kit would be great. If/when my old style Mara breaks irreparably that’s what I would go for actually. Personally the Mara-x has too much electronic wizardry in it and I would want something simpler...

@gilbodavid Erm, it’s not universally loved on the US forum by the way! There are a range of views both for and against, have a gander at this thread as the pictures are quite interesting. 😉 ”To conclude - as somebody who works in mechanical design - I can nothing but be disgusted by what I see. There are so many common, mechanical sense no-no-s, that it makes absolutely no sense how such product couldn't have been released to begin with. This is the worst piece of throw-away, plastic-fantastic rubbish I've seen to this date. Makes the crappiest and cheapest Breville's contraptions look

Return, they have major reliability issues with the plastic gears. If it was my only grinder and cost over half a grand, I wouldn’t want to have one. I would say a Niche or bump the budget if possible for an Atom 75e instead? The bigger atom is meant to handle single dosing a bit better than other hopper grinders, plus the coarse and fine adjusts are handy for brew.

@El carajillo - Bonus points for doing a nice thing and not breaking your bench or tools. Hoping you didn’t thread lock the flash new walnut one on autopilot? 😉 No idea why they use such a strong kind when the thread is so massive on it.

BB have got the wattage wrong, they put the RPM there instead of the 300w it runs on. Not “1650 Watts”, that would be the same as an EK43. Some concern on Home Barista about it being underpowered for a higher RPM and burr size in comparison to the other Eureka models. Quite interested in reading a proper review of it though.