by Dogshot on Mon Mar 21, 2011 12:17 pm I expected it to take a few weeks to sell my BII, in which time I could make a final decision about its replacement. Turns out I had 3 offers in the first 12 hours of putting it up on Kijiji and CG. I sold it for what I know was a fair price, so I guess the demand for used espresso equipment here in Canada is strong.
I really enjoyed my BII, which presented a problem in finding a replacement - is it possible to get better or more consistent or easier espresso from something else? Not really; however, you can get something that is quieter, or that is plumbed in, and that is easier to work on. The space inside the BII is pretty cramped, and the fibreglass insulating the boilers is not exactly fun to work around.
So I began to look at really high quality machines with rotary pumps and that can be plumbed, so that I could at least perceive to be 'stepping up' in machine attributes. This quickly gets one into large and expensive machine territory. I came close to pulling the trigger on a Cimbali DT1, but something just kept stopping me from placing the order.
I read all the HB machine reviews, and a single quote (about steaming performance actually, but I generalized it) really struck a chord with me:
another_jim wrote: However, in this price class, one should look for a machine that suits ones needs perfectly. And for this, bigger and faster is not always better.
After reading this I realized that all the machines I was considering were huge overkill for me. For example, I steam milk fairly often for cappuccinos for my wife, but I have never steamed more than 8oz at a time, with most of my usage more like 3-5oz. That means the Cimbali or a Spaziale, etc. would steam that much milk in about 5 seconds, and have fairly poor results.
A feature I wanted in my next machine was the ability to brew using fresh water. I realized that with its manual boiler refill, I could leave the reservoir of a Semiautomatica basically dry until morning without having to worry about an auto boiler refill switch turning on with the auto timer in the early am. The boiler refill tripped almost every morning when the timer would start my BII, and it would often wake me up from a floor away in the house.
I also use a Ponte Vecchio Export for the cottage and to use when my BII was down for service, so I am accustomed to working without a drip tray. I guess because of the PV, I don't really notice an inconvenience from the shallow tray in the Semiautomatica.
Another important criterion for me was ease of service. No espresso machine is bulletproof, so rather than reliability, I was really looking for a machine that is simple and easy to service. Taking a machine to a tech can leave it out of service for a couple of weeks. After reading some good things about the Bezzeras, I considered getting a BZ07, until I saw a photo of the internals compared to the insides of the Semiautomatica. There's nothing wrong with the BZ itself, it's just that I am not anxious to get back to such close internal quarters.
I had been having some difficulty selecting a new machine, so I wrote down my preferences for machine attributes (ease of service, boiler materials and water path, ease of use, aesthetics, etc.) and weighted all these criteria. After assigning scores to each attribute, I summed the scores to get a ranking of machines. The Vetrano came out at the low end, with the Spaziale S1VII, Cimbali DT1 and the GS/3 roughly tied, and then the Speedster (the Speedster lost a lot of points in the aesthetics criterion, which was scored by my wife). Although I had not really been considering it up until this point, the Semiautomatica scored way above all the other machines I had been considering. Although the Semiautomatica is at the opposite end of the spectrum from something like a Cimbali, and even though I had always dismissed the Semi as espresso jewelry, I was confident that my weighting system was capturing all my main preferences and that it was filtering out my personal biases, so I dived in.
I've had the Semi now for 5 days, so I am still getting used to it. The most surprising thing so far is that I have yet to brew a bad shot on it. Temp management is trivial.
I asked quite a few questions to the forum and to individuals through pm in the process of developing my decision criteria, and I would like to thank all those who helped me. I did not think I could get excited about a machine replacement for my BII, but it turns out that I am becoming quite confident that the Semi is a good fit for my needs. Of course, it doesn't hurt that it is so good looking.
Mark
