I am looking to replace/ semi-retire my la pavoni europiccola. I have had it 11 years and it has seem a lot of wear
. I have made many mistakes and it shows on the machine. I one blew the piston by muscling the arm down when using too fine a grind, enough said. I got it because I use it 4 to 8 times a day and was wearing out home pump machines. One of the above noted machines has a two year warranty and the other a six. Should I try another pump machine or stay with the harder to wear out lever machines?

Watching this thread with interest. I, too, have been haunting the forums and youtube trying to gather as much information as possible about the American machines.

I took the plunge and laid out 1/2 on a Salvatore espresso machine SES machine. Each machine is made to order. $1,200. The machine comes with a 6 year warranty. The next step up is a commercial machine and is rated for 60-90 uses a day. The machine I ordered should be able to far exceed any given days usage. The down side is it's a very small company and 10 years from now repair may be a problem.

I don't think fixing the Salvatore will be an issue. I think parts are pretty much interchangeable from one vendor to another. Any competent service person should be able to repair it. Nope, I wouldn't worry. How do you like the SES machine? I was looking at it hard.

Mike:
I don't think you will have to worry much about repairs. But, the Salvatore machines don't have low boiler water or low reserve tank safety features. So the Operator has to pay attention and be there on start-up; no vacuum breaker. I recommend taking a few ounces of water out of the boiler every day, and making sure the autofill is working. My routine is to fill the tank with my special no-spill bottle before start-up, listen to the autofill kick on, and drain a few ounces after shut-down. The One Black is not designed to be left on for long periods, the SES is virtually the same as the Semi.

Congratulations!!!!!