Lever Espresso Machines

beanflying · January 2012

Overdue KK

AM your next I reckon

borat123 · January 2012

Congratulations on the new 'baby' KK. I remember how smooth the shots from that machine tasted :P Now, you really need to get the grinder chrome plated to match

derrilex · January 2012

I think I hear the wolf

Brett H · January 2012

Mate, a huge congratulations!!! I was so close I can't tell you but the Diadema won my heart. I wish you many smooth tiger-striped god shots like we know that machine can deliver! Just remember to lock in the PF properly

Koffee_Kosmo · January 2012

Had a good one to one with the Strega today So I decided to sip on the last coffee of the day and post about it Its an understatement to say that I am over the moon with the taste of the coffee it is producing Just imagine the - trickle trickle trickle of the pour, it just gave me goose bumps I was gesturing to the wife to look - LOOK - at this beautiful pour, just like a child Have received in the mail today a timber handle from a Tasmanian online buddy This is a pull lever handle longer than the original (see photo) Handle feels so much better than the plastic original The extra length is just about spot on @ 180mm Its also, feeling more secure, more comfortable, No twist in the arm & shoulder due to height, most of all "no slip" KK

Koffee_Kosmo · March 2012

An update for the Strega Lever Since its a rainy day in Brisbane I thought it was a good idea for a video This is a naked espresso pour from start to finish including blonding stage and beyond. I used a standard Synesso double basket Just to demonstrate how it looks KK [embed=425,349]

derrilex · March 2012

Mmmmmm, oooozy

Brett H · March 2012

Thank heavens I'd just made a coffee from Mr Diadema. :thumb: Must be disconcerting for my neighbours since I am sitting on the deck talking at the iPad saying: Mmmm nice, oh yeah baby, that's it, okay that's good, what are you doing, stop, stop now, STOP, STOP, Arggghh no, no, no you've gone too far this time... Imagine they're disgust when they find out I was looking at coffee. :thumb:

galumay · June 2012

I have added to my lever addiction, as well as the Izzo Pompeii I now have a little Baby Faemina in as new condition, early model with the bakalite knobs. Also picked up a nice Ararex Caravel to play with and just sit and look at!

Brett H · June 2012

on 1339593647:

I have added to my lever addiction, as well as the Izzo Pompeii I now have a little Baby Faemina in as new condition, early model with the bakalite knobs. Also picked up a nice Ararex Caravel to play with and just sit and look at!

Galumay, I'm sorry to say it but I really must insist that you provide us pictures! I know I speak for many of us when I congratulate you on acknowledging your addiction, and then deciding to feed it! :thumb: Where did you acquire such wondeful new toys? It's okay... you're allowed to say if you'd like!

galumay · June 2012

OK, ok, obviously the pics are from the sellers, the items have not arrived yet, Firstly the Baby Faemina, this looks to be in extraordinary condition and is one of the earliest models with the bakelite knobs,

galumay · June 2012

Then there is the Arrarex Caravel, also a fairly early model and what looks like pretty good condition,

Brett H · June 2012

Awesome stuff mate! Wishing you safe travels for your precious incoming cargo!

UNM · June 2012

PID on a lever. Good, bad or indifferent? I was reading elsewhere that pid vs pressurestat on a lever is neither here nor there. my natural curiosity was piqued. I can't see why it would be any more or less desirable than on any other HX machine. I can imagine that a well designed pid lever MIGHT be more temp stable, or reliable than a pstat, but don't know for sure anyone care to comment? edit: levers generally have heavier groups so more thermal mass. that's one difference.

Brett H · June 2012

on 1339741007:

Sorry... Am over the PID hype and have been for many years... In effect it is just the electronic version of a mechanical system and may have a tighter range. It still relies on a sensor (lots of issues) and just drives an element (thermo effects are many) thus where is the masive improvement. Other than ease of adjustment / maybe ? However there are 1001 other variables that have more of an impact. Besides, once you get the water up into the Leaver body; your pid sensor and any elements in the boiler are useless. Thus the reason why the Strega uses a separate system to try to manage the variables..

Post of the week prize right here :thumb: Only caveat is that I wouldn't trade my machine for quids :coffee2:

UNM · June 2012

and if I was without my pid, I would have crap coffee at least half the time. best bang for buck upgrade to a small single boiler non-lever IMHO. but surely a pid with two thermocouples, one in boiler and one in a lightweight actively heated group head would give more control over extractions. The heavy lever group is presumably at least partly to compensate for poor design elsewhere.

beanflying · June 2012

on 1339746421:

The heavy lever group is presumably at least partly to compensate for poor design elsewhere.

Commercial lever groups is where this discussion should stay to be fair too, smaller stuff is a whole other can of worms. As written elsewhere by me elsewhere today if memory serves and that's the bit you are referring to

E61 type groups I think are around 5 or 6 kg, lever groups are 9 or 10kg. Lever groups are generally an evolution if not a straight out copy of the early ones. Mass is one of the stabilizing factors as is distance from the boiler plus a host of other things including heat sinking of the frame. If you raise the boiler 1 degree over time the head of the machine assuming it is well designed will also come up a notch. Use it outside in a strong cool wind and a long heating flush is sometimes needed after an idle period. There was a shocker some time back on HB that the head simply wouldn't warm up in standard form so well designed and proven is a caveat. If you boiler oscillates +-0.1 and gets checked 100 times a second or +-1 degree with a boiler coming on and off every other minute won't mater a darn as the TIME taken to see the head move up or down is way slower than the boiler cycle time on a P/Stat.

galumay · June 2012

on 1339738044:

PID on a lever. Good, bad or indifferent?

I wouldn't rate it high on my list of things to have, but it's very nice if the machine comes with it. My Izzo Pompeii has one and it certainly makes temp profiling easy to fine tune particular blends or beans, so I would rate it 'good' but 'nice to have' rather than necessity. I don't understand the emotion one way or the other, to be honest.

Wonder · August 2012

Hi all, I thought Id post as I've finally found my cure for upgraditis, with a move to the lever side.. Just got my Faema Lambro out of its box and up and running. Well it's on the kitchen bench and Ive just pulled two shots with it... I must say its a beast compared to my vbm jr, it's so quiet, heats up faster and it's oh, I don't know 50-60 years old... I think there's going to be a lot more roasting so I can get a lot more practice in on this beauty. Oh and I owe a debt of gratitude to the coffee lover who I convinced that I needed it more than he did... :thumb: Pics will be posted once I can

Note - Photos supplied by the previous owner and posted More of my home setup on a later post

Brett H · August 2012

on 1344261704:

Hi all, I thought Id post as I've finally found my cure for upgraditis, with a move to the lever side.. Just got my Faema Lambro out of its box and up and running. Well it's on the kitchen bench and Ive just pulled two shots with it... I must say its a beast compared to my vbm jr, it's so quiet, heats up faster and it's oh, I don't know 50-60 years old... I think theres going to be a lot more roasting so I can get a lot more practice in on this beauty. Oh and I owe a debt of gratitude to the coffee lover who I convinced that I needed it more than he did... :thumb: Pics will be posted once I can

Wow, a huge congratulations. How wonderful that another of these glorious pieces of functional art lives on. I can't wait to hear the pictures!

derrilex · August 2012

I think you just breached trademark regs Brett. Function Art (TM) is mine :rofl: :rofl:

Koffee_Kosmo · August 2012

That's a beautiful Lever Wonder With equally beautiful photos :thumb: Hope you have beautiful coffee shots over and over again KK

Lacehim · August 2012

That is very nice Wonder. Your very lucky to own one! Must have made a dent in your wallet though! More photos required when you get it all set up, and a video of a shot being pulled would be fantastic.

You can never get enough photos of sexy levers!

derrilex · August 2012

Now that's retro funk :thumb: :thumb:

Ol Grumpy · August 2012

Hi Guys, I have a question which will clearly display my ignorance of things 'lever coffee' but it is a question I ponder and I'd appreciate your feedback. Actually, it's 2 scenarios... 1) Do you guys leave your machines turned on and ready all the time or do you turn them on and off- on demand? If the latter... Then let's say first cup of the day... How long is the morning ritual- from Goah to whoa. Turn- on till clean-up and out the door? 2) I'm fascinated by the Rossa Portapresso. Clearly I don't have the hands on experience myself with either, but from a position of blissful ignorance I see many comparisons to a lever machine. Especially in the profile setup on the Rossa. The Rossa easily extracts to 9 bar but Ross, in his website notes, has indicated a smoother and 'softer' brew at around 6 bar. So do you guys test and record your profiles or is it a 'by feel' & taste, is 'good enough'? BTW I'm a tradesman with 35 years experience so I consider myself a Craftsman- not yet a Master Craftsman, but still practicing... Not blowing my trumpet- rather just sharing the perspective I'm coming from.... Ie after using power tools all my life I find now more and more I reach for a hand tool and get much better work for the effort... I see the Rossa as the 'hand tool' and the 'Strega' as the 'power tool', if you get my drift. Thanks, OG

Koffee_Kosmo · August 2012

on 1344646294:

Hi Guys, I have a question which will clearly display my ignorance of things 'lever coffee' but it is a question I ponder and I'd appreciate your feedback. Actually, it's 2 scenarios... 1) Do you guys leave your machines turned on and ready all the time or do you turn them on and off- on demand? If the latter... Then let's say first cup of the day... How long is the morning ritual- from Goah to whoa. Turn- on till clean-up and out the door? 2) I'm fascinated by the Rossa Portapresso. Clearly I don't have the hands on experience myself with either, but from a position of blissful ignorance I see many comparisons to a lever machine. Especially in the profile setup on the Rossa. The Rossa easily extracts to 9 bar but Ross, in his website notes, has indicated a smoother and 'softer' brew at around 6 bar. So do you guys test and record your profiles or is it a 'by feel' & taste, is 'good enough'? BTW I'm a tradesman with 35 years experience so I consider myself a Craftsman- not yet a Master Craftsman, but still practicing... Not blowing my trumpet- rather just sharing the perspective I'm coming from.... Ie after using power tools all my life I find now more and more I reach for a hand tool and get much better work for the effort... I see the Rossa as the 'hand tool' and the 'Strega' as the 'power tool', if you get my drift. Thanks, OG

First let's tackle the question of warm up time from cold That depends on the individual machine and its construction So as a general guide it will fall from a quick 15 min to a leisurely 30 min However I will only make a comment on my machine as user knowledge I own the Strega and it's fitted with group head elements that warm / heat the head to a predetermined temp And I can make coffee after 10 / 15 min from cold start even in winter Now let's talk about the Rossa - as you live in Brisbane you should visit sponsor Barazi as they have one to see on display Seeing it in person is the best way to judge a product KK

beanflying · August 2012

Will answer number 1 first then I need additional lever coffee to consider your question number 2 :coffee: 1) All machines vary in heatup time and thermodynamics. My Pavoni is ready to go after 15 minutes and after 20 is to hot to make a good coffee with out a cool down. My 1 grp Fioranzato takes around 25-30 minutes for first coffees and due to the thermal mass it can be turned off for 2-3 hours then it only takes 10-15 minutes before it is ready to go again. Power saving is not much I guess as during that reheat time it is mainly on compared to more off than on if it is left running. If I am at home for the day it just stays on for easy walk up coffees. 3 grp Izzo currently running on reduced power (3000W) with it's 20L boiler takes 50 minutes or there abouts before I am happy with it. These times can all be shortened up a bit by pulling water through the groups but I prefer just to allow for the warmup. Timers are great BTW 8)

Koffee_Kosmo · August 2012

Most lever machines have some profiling within its tolerances There is a fellow by the name of Jim Schulman that has used the Strega with the view of duplicating the profiles of different machines He has posted a great video on it See this link and view the videos - http://www.home-barista.com/reviews/bezzera-strega-second-look-t18933.html But you want to see this video on profiling and I quote from Jim

PRESSURE PROFILING ON THE STREGA: The attraction of a lever machine is that it can be played like an instrument. The Strega's combination of lever and pump multiply these possibilities. On the Strega, the pressure of the preinfusion, the early, middle and late part of the shot can be separately controlled. This allows the Strega to emulate the operation and taste of a wide variety of high end espresso machines.

KK

beanflying · August 2012

on 1344650910:

Hmmm thanks guys about the Pre-heat times. I figured that with a boiler there would be a lead time dependent on volume. Interesting though that some machines will get too hot, horses for courses. With the Rossa I've seen several now. I've even had some discussions with Ross about a demonstration and I know 3rd crack has made his shop available as a venue for said demo. Alas the stars have not yet lined up and so I wait patiently... I really didn't want to start a discussion on comparisons... It's peaches and pears. Nor to jack the thread- I guess really I was just wondering if you lever guys have looked at the pressure profiles or just accepted the good coffee for what it is?

Spun off further discussions of pressure profiling to here [iurl=http://www.bestcafes.com.au/forum/espresso-machines/pressure-profiling-with-lever-espresso-machines/]http://www.bestcafes.com.au/forum/espresso-machines/pressure-profiling-with-lever-espresso-machines/[/iurl]

Jonty · September 2012

Well was down at 155 Union Rd Ascot Vale yesterday having a coffee at Reverence Specialty Coffee & Tea and after a lovely El Salvador SO double ristretto latte and special roast called candyman as a SB. I ventured one block down with a 4.5yr in hand to catch the tram to the Melb Show. Just happened to walk pass a little shop I never knew existed in Bravo Coffee Machines and Supplies at 171 Union Rd. Did not venture in but had to stop an use the phone to take a pic for you lever nuts. From what I could see in the shop which does coffee and sell gear, this baby is no doubt for sale (sorry for the crap photo but you get the gist). What I love is I will explore this little area a little more as my sister lives just off Union Rd.....

http://www.reverencecoffee.com.au/

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