JmanEspresso wrote:And the Linea doesnt "need" a pump to work? This is interesting. How does it work then? I assume you mean, it will fill and feed water, but only at line pressure. . .

That's what I mean. It will be fully operational without the pump (hooked straight to the water line), but you will only get line pressure. This is more than adequate for testing out every aspect of the machine except the full-pressure 9 bar test. You can brew espresso if you want (again at line pressure), and it will be interesting--very drinkable, virtually no body. The main purpose is definitely damage assessment.

Anyway, the machine ought to be fine if the seller is telling the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but. If you trust his word with your money, then you're safe. If you have doubts, you may want to press for a test.

He doesnt look to be in a rush to sell it. The only doubts I have are the standard "craisglist/Ebay" doubts.

The guy ended up buying a rebuilt 2grp aurelia for his shop. Hes got this Linea sitting on his living room floor that he has no need for.

He had it listed on CL about a month or two ago, at 1200. i guess no one bought it. It seems to me that, for a shop, why not have a 3grp(or 4), WITH a pump, and for a home resto, why not wait for a one group. I happen to have the space for a 2grp, and am willing to buy a pump and motor. To be honest, my gut instinct it that he is telling the truth to the best of his knowledge.

I havent heard back from him yet, so we'll see. But, Nicholas, you make a good point. Im going to set it up with him so i can test it, before ANY money leave my pocket. Unless he can show me a video of it working, and somehow prove that its a current video... Id accept that too. Still, if it worked when he bought it, and he just put it on his floor for a while, it should work. But of course, there is no way to know.

If it works, it could be the deal of a lifetime. Take it apart to clean it, put it back together, add the price of a pump/motor and a PID, and Ive got a 2grp linea for under $1500, which would be awesome, because i wouldnt feel bad at all spending money for the GB5 group caps, or the Chronos Keypads, or the "barista lights"(see LM website). That would then leave plenty of room for a TMFR profiler setup. Heh, Im getting a bit ahead of myself here... Point is, it COULD be a great deal. It could also be a huge nightmare.

Idk, we'll see what happens.

JMan, congrats on a good find! Hopefully everything is in decent shape. Keep in mind that you may run into problems with the Hybrid Group Cap. If I remember correctly, they can only fit on the welded on group/boiler model. The older ones need to be modified in order to fit. Someone please chime in if I am wrong.

Is yours the first generation one, which has the bolts that need to be attached to the boiler and group, or do you have the next one where the bolts are welded to the boiler? My 1 group is the prior one and can say from experience, when ordering the gaskets to be triple sure they are selling you the correct one.

Well, you could sure as hell do worse if you decide to buy it without confirmation that it works, my understanding is that as long a boiler or grouphead isn't cracked, these LM's can always be fixed some way or another.

Sounds a lot like the guy could easily be handing over a huge mess to you. I would really make sure either:

(1) You can somehow test the entire machine before you buy. Finding a pump and motor? Tell him you've got one you can drop in and see how he reacts. If he's agreeable chances are much better he's telling the truth. Maybe he'll put one in for you and add that to the cost of the machine. Just line up the contacts and the model and price for everything.

or

(2) Test or "write off" each component. Try to find out how much each part is worth, and when you go to look at it try to estimate the machine's worth based on that. Pretty tough to do unless you've rebuilt a lot of these before.

Video/picture/promise that the machine used to work at some point is kind of shaky to buy something like this on, but these are all just my opinions. Hope it works out well for you, or that you have the stomach to walk away from it if it looks shaky.