Greetings!

I do love coffee so I think I've found the right place. After going through too many cheap department store type espresso makers, I've come to the conclusion that a proper machine is the only way to go. Once I started looking, I've found a large assortment of great machines including Rocket, Expobar, etc.

I have an opportunity to get an Elektra Sixties T1 at a reasonable price. In fact, it would be around the same price as some of the better 'home versions' such as the Expobar Brewtus IV or higher end Rockets. One thing that concerns me is the installation of the T1. It seems that I need to hire both a plumber and electrician. Can any of you give me some advice on this? Do I *really* need to get this plumbed in or is there a more economical home setup or conversion kit? What about electrical requirements? Is it a simple case of replacing a 15 amp circuit breaker with a 20 amp or do I need some rewiring?

Would I be better off skipping the Elektra and going with more of a home version?

I do own my own home and can make mods if needed.

Welcome to HB!
The T1 is a great machine, I've had mine running for about a month now. With a John Guest system, the plumbing should be super easy (though I understand it can be intimidating). As for 20A versus 15A, I have mine on 20A because it turns out I had an extra 20A socket not being used. There are a number of members here who have made a very easy (really) modification to use 15A.

If you can get a T1 for the same price as those other machines (and the T1 is in good shape), then it's a simple choice.

-phillip

(I used to live in Winterpeg - keep warm)

Hello fellow T1 owners!

I purchased a T1 built in 2005 about 6 weeks ago from Williams-Sonoma of all places. I bought it after reading the Home-Barista review of it. I have never made an espresso in my life so am excited to get it up and running.

Just today I had a plumber and an electrician in to install a filtered, pressure-regulated supply line, a waste water drain and dedicated 20 amp outlet. It is connected to the water supply, drain and electrical outlet. The left side pressure gauge on the T1 shows 4 bar pressure which I assume is the resting inlet pressure. I turned the on/off switch to on and the light to the left of it turns orange, but nothing else happened. It is silent. Why? Shouldn't I hear the pump or boiler start to fire up? The instruction booklet was woefully poor in this regard. How do I know the thing is working. Is there something I need to do to get the water to come out of the hot water spout, the grouphead or the steamer? When I shift those valve levers nothing happens.

I can't find any other manual online to help. The sales people at W-S are of no use. The Elektra website has nothing useful either. Any help to get me started would be much appreciated!

Scott, it seems to me like something is wrong. On mine if you turn it on and flip those levers water or steam comes out. Make sure some water is going into the boiler as on some machines a heating element turned on in an empty boiler can cause major problems. (I am under the impression that new ones do not have this problem and have a safety feature to prevent this, but I do not think your model does, but I am no expert).

Mine is also a very quiet machine, but it is not silent. On the bright side the 4 bar seems good as that is what mine reads. I'll now step aside and let wiser posters give better advice from here.

As for the OP, I do not think it is overkill at all at home. I am, however, under the impression that you either need to modify the unit to make it 15 amp or get at least a 20 amp breaker, 12-2 wiring, etc for it as it is genuinely a 20 amp machine according to my "kill-o-wat" reader. Then again I know too little about electricity to be giving advice on it so please consult an electrician or at least someone who knows more than I do.

But I can say that I bought it for home use a few weeks ago and love it and am very happy with my choice.

PS if you do not want to plumb it in, look into threads about "flo-jets" as these are supposed to be reasonable options, but I do love having a plumbed in machine at last.

I can't find any other manual online to help.

Try here - http://www.home-barista.com/downloads/

plumbing in water to one is pretty easy Chris coffee can hook you up with the parts T off the main under the sink if you are close run it up and done OK a touch more but pretty easy

drain I just ran a Y connector and brought the line down at a nice angle and have had no issues but I would say hire a plumber if you are not comfortable with it

for electricity I just jumped mine off a dedicated 20 amp under the sink for the dishwasher ? so if you have a dishwasher 20 amp under the sink this would be the easiest and I run my dishwasher and never turn off my machine and have only tripped the circuit a few times in the years I have had it I used to turn off the machine every night and run the dishwasher and never had issues ? so you could try it either way


and they are great home machines

I love my T1 -- had it for 3+ years now. Works great!

L to R: Mahlkönig K30 Vario; Elektra T1; Baratza Vario.

I returned my T1 back to the local W-S today and exchanged it for the floor model (only one they had). I hooked it up and soon got hot water from the hot water port, steam from the steamer port and hot water from the grouphead!! Progress!

The right hand side pressure gauge reads 1.5 bar (in the green) which I understand to be a good thing. However, the left hand side gauge reads 0 no matter whether any of the spouts are in operation or idle (or whether there is a portafilter attached or not). That can't be right? Any ideas? Could there be a disconnection of a wire leading to that side of the gauge? If it is just a faulty gauge can the unit still function properly or should I wait to use it until I figure that out?

Sorry for the novice questions, just didn't think it would be this difficult to get a new machine to function properly. Thanks in advance.

That gauge should read positive as long as you have it plumbed in even if the machine is turned off, because it should be reading the pressure from the pipes coming in (assuming you are not using a flojet). When you run the pump to extract espresso it should be used to gauge the pump pressure.

If the pressure is right, I can't imagine that it matters if the gauge works, but if the pressure is not right it would be helpful to be able to use the gauge to fix that issue. On the other hand for about $25 you can create your own gauge to test the pressure (I don't have a link, but if you search HB you will find out how to do it). Someone else can correct me if I am wrong about this, but I can't imagine why it would matter if the gauge was broken except from the perspective of getting things set up. (There are certainly plenty of great machines out there that don't even include that gauge.)

Greetings Bruce,

I too am from Winnipeg. It would seem single group Elektra's are the go to commercial machine here in town. Good luck with your decision.

Cheers