by Ken Fox on Wed Sep 08, 2010 1:41 am cfineman wrote:I'm seriously considering an Andreja and I am faced with the same dilemma. SCG also throws in a couple of nice "cupies" to boot (tamper, chem). I have no problems doing maintenance (with guidance) but the extra year of warranty is nice on a mechanical machine (ok that was a bit redundant!)
BTW... anyone have experience with HiTech espresso? I have contemplated PID'ing and he seems to offer a good deal.
My basic response, as someone who has PID'd two commercial Cimbali machines (both Juniors, of different eras) is that that is "oh so 2004." If you are contemplating buying a new machine in 2010, I can't think of a single good reason to buy something you would need to PID other than if (maybe) you stumbled onto a killer deal on an old used commercial machine and you decided to rehabilitate and PID it, yourself. That is obviously not your situation.
Since you find the idea of an extra year of warranty to be appealing, that says to me that you are not (at least "not yet") feeling yourself to be a competent espresso machine repairman. Fear not, if you have reasonable aptitude in working on anything else mechanical, this may come over time, but the idea that you would intentionally buy a new machine that someone else would have modified for you, makes no sense to me whatsoever, because you are simply adding additional, non-original equipment, parts that can break.
If temperature stability is your goal (and why else on earth would anyone PID anything?) you have ample choices of temperature stable espresso machines you can buy off the shelf today in 2010.
As to "Hi-Tech Espresso," that is simply too juicy a topic for me to attempt to respond to. Suffice it to say that unless his ebay feedbacks have changed in the last year, most of his customers are satisfied with his service. He has a "very colorful" online history, and I for one would keep him at the greatest possible distance, away from me.
ken
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