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New machines: too much choice!

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:23 am
by prettygreenparrot
I was all set to start saving for a Brewtus II - I like the dual boiler idea. And then I figured "hey, wouldn't it be cool to have a machine where you just pressed the button & got the right volume of water". My sights shifted a bit.

I just read that Reneka are stopping production of the Techno and Renee at justespresso.com is selling them for €1295. No way can I buy one now. But if I could, what're the differences between the Reneka Techno, La Spaziale S1 & the La Cimbali Junior DT1? And what other machines are there in this sort of price bracket?

My "ideal" machine? automatic, rotary, single grouphead, plumbed in, dual boiler.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 1:27 am
by CakeBoy
By way of alternativces that you may not have thought of, in a slightly different category, my L'Anna hand fill has a massive boiler as a commercial so although an HX it will steam and brew simultaneously all day. There are plumbed in versions of it too. Not many people on TMC look at small commercials but they are an area well worth considering in my opinion.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:48 am
by prettygreenparrot
L'Anna looks good on the happydonkey site. And commercial equipment often has those 'nice' features like accessibility for service/repair.

What features does L'Anna have other than being an automatic large single boiler HX?

Already, I see lots more reading & listening are needed.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 9:49 am
by Guest
Have you seen
http://www.home-barista.com
If not you have many months of heavy reading ahead of you.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 12:29 pm
by prettygreenparrot
oh yes, it was the home-barista.com site that put me on to the Brewtus. Still, lots more to read. thanks

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 2:28 pm
by CakeBoy
The L'Anna has excellent build quality, uses a rotary pump and is easy to work on due to its size. Adjusting the boiler pressure etc is easy with the space to work in. Crucially for a commercial, a hand fill version (like mine) is available.

I find her very consistent and she has amazing steam power. Well worth considering vs top end prosumer machines in my opinion, as I believe it to have that little bit more of everything as it was designed to work very hard. The cost is very similar to top end prosumer machines.

I don't think that small commercial machines are marketed at prosumers and that means quite a few of us don't realise what is available or at least what it is capable of when compared to machines that are directly aimed at us. It's worth a physical look at a commercial machine if you are able to do so.

PostPosted: Fri Jun 30, 2006 5:43 pm
by phil2spill
That's interesting, Cakeboy: a hand-fill machine with rotary pump -- does it have pre-infusion ? I prefer the idea of hand-fill -- more flexible in where you site it and no bother with water conditioning gubbins. I tend to just use bottled water from the supermarket which obviously couldn't be used with a plumbed-in m/c.

I've read that rotary pumps don't necessarily give better coffee than a vibe pump, but the water metering ability that pgp referred to and the quiet refinement would be a major plus. Silvia always sounds like she's about to shake herself to bits :mrgreen:

PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 12:51 am
by CakeBoy
Not sure about pre-infusion (if you PM Scott he will know), though the shots are excellent and consistent too. You could actually set one of the auto controls to pre-infuse. I was thinking of trying that the other day.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 11:29 am
by phil2spill
Sounds like my ideal machine! I don't know much about how pre-infusion works, but those in the know seem to think it well worth having.

I have the prospect of another two years study so no chance of a new m/c for a while, but maybe in a few years . . .

PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 7:01 pm
by CakeBoy
Scott is going to look into the question of pre-infusion for us.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 7:39 pm
by Guest
From what I've read about vibe/rotary and preinfusion it seems that rotary pumps deliver their pressure very fast. If there is no restriction of the waterflow the puck can get damaged and lead to channeling. Preinfusion works against this effect. Vibe pumps need some time to deliver their pressure and therefor put less stress on the puck.

PostPosted: Sat Jul 01, 2006 7:41 pm
by Guest
Guest above is Mathias. This computer seems to have a problem and I don't have a clue what it is :(

PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 12:20 pm
by phil
Cookies, probably, if you can't sign on and make it stick

PostPosted: Sun Jul 02, 2006 3:40 pm
by HughF
Anonymous wrote:From what I've read about vibe/rotary and preinfusion it seems that rotary pumps deliver their pressure very fast. If there is no restriction of the waterflow the puck can get damaged and lead to channeling. Preinfusion works against this effect. Vibe pumps need some time to deliver their pressure and therefor put less stress on the puck.

I don't get much problem with chanelling using a rotary pump S1 but this may be due to the narrower and deeper 53+mm LS baskets.
The only time I've seen a puck smashed apart was when I dozily stopped a shot after 6-7 seconds thinking I was re-using an old puck when it was fresh coffee. Oops...

Cheers,

Hugh

PostPosted: Tue Jul 04, 2006 1:10 pm
by scottwhite
looking at the manual on this never been asked for pre infusion relating to the hand fill before, more soon