Coffee Appreciation

Since our last one broke my good lady won’t hear of a second hand machine (I know). But also won’t consider the robot. It would be seen as too much of a faff.

If I win the lottery I’ll get a robot. The flair neo seems reasonable??

That's fair enough and understandable.

Yep, the Neo is not a bad shout at all. Workflow is a bit finicky compared to the Robot due to needing to pre-heat (the Robot does not require pre-heating at all IMO). I am unsure of your grinder setup, but the pressurised basket may actually be of benefit to you if you don't have a really decent grinder? If you do have a good grinder, the non-pressurised basket should be on your list.

Totally forgot about the Neo actually. If your wife is open to manual espresso then that seems like a great shout on a budget and absolutely is what I'd pick over the ROK.

Buy a Cubika for £50 and see how you get on. Spend £22 on a vst basket, and spend an afternoon taking it apart and descaling the fuck out of it.

I bought my Cubika second hand for £55 in Jan 2015. It's never really missed a beat. I thought the pump had gone at one stage but it just needed a bit of a strip and clean.

Not a popular choice, but it's a well made and simple machine for cheap.
I also understand this is literally the opposite of what you asked for (not second hand, not needing work) but potentially cheap enough to be a consideration.

My last machine was essentially free (long story involving a douchebag on eBay) other than the portafilter which was £18. Sadly it suffered water ingress after descaling (ridiculous I know) but there you have it.

I’d just prefer to go manual as there’s less to go wrong.

I have a gaggia mdf and it seems to serve its purpose well.

I personally have no experience of manual machines, but happy to give another up vote for the Gaggia Classic - bought a second hand one which is many years old but in good nick. It is a great machine with a huge amount of spares/mods/repairs that can be bought and made to it, so it makes for a good long term investment. Crucially, it makes good coffee too 🙂

Another thumbs up for the Gaggia Classic here, if a cack-handed idiot like me can maintain it then it must be an easy machine to look after... Like others have said, lots of mods, etc, never misses a beat, pulls great shots... Show your OH the Hoff video where he does espresso on a budget...

https://youtu.be/y1LUkfpTtu0

Surely not! Six minutes?

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The Veloxtermo wall mount machines are rare! - same group as the lever Presidents I think. In the unlikely event I find myself without a landlord one of these days, I'd love a plumbed in, single group President or Urania. They look amazing.

After seeing that, I'm tempted to sketch up a wall-mounted, plumbed in La Pavoni!

Has it arrived yet?

Has it arrived yet

Arrived and drank itself

Bastard nice weather. Must be quiet in the shop.

Not wall mounted, but a grown up Pav with classic, Italian 70’s styling….

Looks great in a cafe or the set of Alien, but would want something a little less chonky in the kitchen!

Maybe if I had a garage with a classic 70's Italian car to go with it though. As in that case I'm sure I'd be spending a lot of time in the garage.

Ha - too true!

They’re funny those, under all that bodywork is a bog standard Europiccola. Looks ace though.

current projects >>>>

Lots of pictures please

https://www.lfgss.com/conversations/365735/#comment16087620

Good price on some Timemore black mirror scales

Just pushed the button on the gaggia classic in midnight blue

You won't be disappointed. Part of me wishes I hadn't bought second hand as the new ones look great, and would have loved a black one!

Any plans to mod?

Europiccola question:

Steam escapes / bubbles from the joint where the grouphead bolts to the boiler when I pull a shot.

It's relatively new (<1yr old), there's no build up of limescale or obvious degradation anywhere.

Do I just need to replace the O-ring?

It’s got 3 years warranty so I’m probably not going to do the spring mod unless the coffee is utter shit.

I’m no connoisseur just a light roast Ethiopian for me

Mine's been doing that too, I ordered a new ring which has disappeared in one of the moving boxes we still haven't unpacked after a year. I'm fairly sure a new O-ring will fix it, but it hasn't bothered me enough to start digging through the 'miscellaneous' boxes.

Likely just the two little bolts holding the group on need tightened a bit. Don't think I've replaced that O-ring yet and mine is just over 3 years old and used daily.

Me and my wife welcomed our newest arrival today and we couldn’t be happier

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