It is important to consider the type of equipment being purchased, its size and weight, and the capacity of the person buying it to do their own repairs. It's one thing if you live in a major city and you have a dealer located not far away, who can come and fix your machine. It's another thing altogether to be located at a distance from a reliable dealer, and either have to rely on your own abilities to fix stuff or to have to pay a small fortune to send it a long and expensive distance for repairs.

Most commercial 1 group machines are not the sort of thing you are going to just toss in a box and call the UPS man to come pick up, to send them off to the dealer for repairs. Even a semi commercial machine can end up costing $400 or more dollars round trip to send off for service across the country. So the value of having a great dealer backing you up, who happens to be located a couple of thousand miles away is only worth a certain amount, if you wouldn't realistically be sending the machine off to them anyway. Under those circumstances, in any situation other than DOA or some sort of catastrophic breakdown, you, the buyer, are either going to have to learn how to fix the thing yourself (perhaps with telephone support) or you are going to have to find someone locally to fix it.

I have local friends with an Andreja Premium they bought from Chris 6 years or so ago, which has needed to be sent off 2000 miles each way twice now. When it broke again, last month, they were ready to put it in the dumpster and be done with it. Fortunately, we found a servicer 3 hours drive away, and they drove it there and got it fixed. This is no fault of Chris or his great crew, this is the "fault" of geography.

When I started having fits with my GS/3 due to gicleur blockage, the probability that I would ship it off for service was essentially zero -- I either had to fix it myself, which I did, or I would need to find someone locally to fix it.

Granted, it's great if you can get the parts for free from a reputable dealer, but most new espresso machines of any quality are not going to need expensive parts sent out during the warranty period, and most of the parts that will ultimately break will be available, either from another dealer or people who sell generic parts (for such things as solenoids, group gaskets, etc.)

I don't want to understate the value of a good dealer -- they have a lot to offer and I recommend using one highly, but if you live in a remote place, like, for example, in Alaska (or rural Idaho) you probably shouldn't buy such a machine unless you are at least a little bit handy yourself, and in the end the responsibility for keeping your machine running is going to end up in your own lap.

ken

It is important to consider the type of equipment being purchased, its size and weight, and the capacity of the person buying it to do their own repairs.

anchorage is a large town--280K people. we have a local espresso machine service shop. it would probably be a good idea to find out if they service elektra machines. either way, buying from a place in the lower 48 or in italy doesn't offer local assistance. risk notwithstanding, the savings in buying from espressocoffeeshop still make it potentially worth it. i think the more immediate question is whether or not i'd be better off buying a la spaziale.

elmwood wrote:anchorage is a large town--280K people. we have a local espresso machine service shop. it would probably be a good idea to find out if they service elektra machines. either way, buying from a place in the lower 48 or in italy doesn't offer local assistance. risk notwithstanding, the savings in buying from espressocoffeeshop still make it potentially worth it. i think the more immediate question is whether or not i'd be better off buying a la spaziale.

I used to live in Anchorage and I know it is big enough to have a real service shop (although I was not into espresso when I lived there, departing in 1992). Fairbanks, as well, almost certainly has at least one competent repairman. But the state is full of small towns in remote locations and that was largely what I was referring to.

The internet is remarkable for its way of allowing a relatively small number of people spread out all over the world, to meet in one (or several) places to discuss what certainly would appear to most people as an obscure hobby.

ken

I am from Czech Republic, and we do not have an Elektra dealer here. I would like to buy an Elektra Nino grinder in near future, and also having trouble to find a good online shop, where I can be sure that I will be taken good care if the grinder breaks or malfunctions.

michaelbenis wrote:I've heard nothing but good things about Espressocoffeeshop, though I've never used them myself.

My favourite for Elektra (to the UK) are Coffeeitalia, who are a similar outfit, but I think you'll find their shipping rates not as competitive as Espressocoffeeshop for the US.

Jim makes good points about service back-up, though Elektra are pretty reliable and have decent QA. A lot depends on how good the local support is... Over here in the UK the best service people are the independents, and I wouldn't trust most of the official dealers with my machines. There is one that is good but they're miles away and they're slow. So I go with Coffeeitalia... and have had no reason to regret it yet.

Cheers

Mike

I have bought Nino and Macap Auto tamper,from Espressocoffeeshop,and I am very happy with them.
They send by Fedex, I think,into my house.
No postage for Greece.

it appears that espressocoffeeshop.com has mostly positive reviews and by all accounts is a reputable business. when i called electra-craft, they said similar things for what's worth. the only problem i see is that the warranty and service is provided by a non authorized elektra dealer. shipping the machine is out of the question. all repairs would need to be done locally.

there doesn't seem to be any explanation of the nearly $2000 cost difference (including S&H) between the various domestic vendors and espressocoffeeshop.com. does anyone know why the elektra a3 is so expensive to buy in the usa?

So to be clear if I purchase an A3 or Nino from 1st-line and live in Alaska or Texas and have a warranty issue their repair tech is going to drive out and repair it for me free of charge? If not and I have to find a "local" dealer is she going to be more sympathetic to my problem since I bought from 1st-line or Chris's than a dealer in Italy? Are they going to service the machine free of charge? I would think not, as others have said those of us who live 150 miles from anywhere you either learn to do your own repairs, pay with time and money for shipping the item for repair or do without. If the dealer in Italy has good feedback from buyers in the states I personally would go for it.

RxTim wrote:I would think not, as others have said those of us who live 150 miles from anywhere you either learn to do your own repairs, pay with time and money for shipping the item for repair or do without. If the dealer in Italy has good feedback from buyers in the states I personally would go for it.

exactly, it makes no difference in the end to buy from italy where the machine is made or seattle or wherever. the machine would probably weigh 100 lbs shipped with pallet. it would be pretty spendy to send it anywhere for repairs.

if you do a google search on the elektra a3, three places pop up: chriscoffee and 1st-line Equipment. because espressocoffeshop.com is out of italy, you have know about the place to find out it is $2000 cheaper.

Regarding elektra warranty
the manufacture offers parts,
vendors such has myself, Jim, Chris and many others,
offers the labor to fix it for free under warranty
of course shipping charges are not included in that.

yes you are right about the weight with pallets is about 106 lb

offers the labor to fix it for free under warranty
of course shipping charges are not included in that.

and living in AK doesn't help with those shipping costs. from a elektra authorized dealer perspective, is the $1,500 added cost of the elektra e3 worth it over much lower priced HX machines like the vibiemme domobar superauto? i've read that the domobar has the true E61 group with preinfusion while the elektra a3 doesn't. on the surface, the e3 just has a bigger boiler. i want to buy a machine that will last at least 20 years and the e3 seemed like a good fit, but i'm not so sure.