lagoon wrote:Dave, the latest shipments of the Profitec 700 now come with a plumbable driptray, and a drainage kit to suit.

I bought mine about a month ago, and it had the new driptray setup.

Kal and Steve,

Thanks both for your comments. Great news to know that the Profitec is coming with a plumb in kit now. I was very surprised that a machine of that calibre didn't have that as an option in the first place.

Any comments about reliability of any of the 3 machines I am considering (or others that people think I should be)?

Dave

dave_in_gva wrote:Martin, lucky you! I'd be very keen to hear how you get on with the Vesuvius and having the Vesuvius and L1 side by side - I think you'd be the first espresso afficionado on the planet to be able to make that comparison.

I believe Dan said at the end of his Vesuvius review here that he was going to do a head to head between Vesuvius and the Profitec. I think for me it comes down to those 3 machines (Vesuvius, L1 and Profitec).

One thing I wonder about with the L1 is if people ever place these underneath cupboards. I would have no choice but for me that is going to leave the lever up and blocking the cupboard which is overhead. How do people get around this, or does one actually have to find a non-cupboard area of counter to place the L1 and other levers? If that's the case I'm afraid any lever would be a non-starter for me.

Thanks everyone for your comments, hugely helpful,

Dave

I am merely an enthusiastic amateur . There was a gent before me had them both not the bench , someone with more experience and skill than I ( his name is Dave hyde, UK based also , with years more experience that me of a lever ) .
I'll give it a shot a seeing how they compare , I do most of my posting in UK forums though .
Part will depend on the lever profile programmed , also the Vesuvisu won't be able to replicate the declining temperature profile of a lever ...let's see what and how much of a difference that makes in the cup ...
Anyway keep your eyes peeled

Mrboots2u wrote:I am merely an enthusiastic amateur . There was a gent before me had them both not the bench , someone with more experience and skill than I ( his name is Dave hyde ) .
I'll give it a shot a seeing how they compare , I do most of my posting in UK forums though .
Part will depend on the lever profile programmed , but also the Vesuvisu won't be able to replicate the decking temperarue profile of a lever ...
Anyway keep your eyes peeled

The londinium is pretty easy to fix and maintain at home , I've had no issues with mine model from the 15 months I've had it .

Good to know Martin. I've read up quite a bit on lever machines now.

While appealing on many levels in my case I am stuck with a cupboard I need to access that is situated immediately above the place the machine has to sit. I've looked at the drawings of the L1 and the lever would sit squarely in front of a cupboard we need to open all the time.

Here's a thought for lever machine designers. I can't be the only guy with limited placement possibilities. In the midst of all the great design work for the machine why not spend a bit of time thinking about ways to make the lever a little more placement friendly? Why not a telescopic design that the user pulls out, rotates 90 degrees to lock in the extended position, pulls the shot, then rotates the other direction 90 degrees and swoosh it back down out of the way? There are some monopod and tripod designs that bear looking at for inspiration. Or a fully detachable lever that has a clever engagement mechanism at the business end but can be quickly detached, stored, and reattached when needed?

In any event, things are looking decidedly more Vesuvius for me at the moment. Something I am not entirely unhappy with as it does seem to offer (potentially) the best of both worlds with huge scope for experimenting and reliably repeating profiled extractions.

For what it is worth, manual lever machines like the Cremina, Pavoni, or Caravel are far more friendly for those who must place them beneath upper cabinets. The levers on such machines rest in the "down" position, and are only lifted up during the shot-pulling process. Whether such machines are a good fit for you depends on many other considerations, of course.

FWIW I had, in our former home (see attached photo), our LI situated on the counter with overhead cabinets. I placed the LI so the lever was positioned between two overhead cabinet doors so that the handle just barely cleared when opening either of the two doors. Wasn't perfect but very doable.

spressomon wrote:FWIW I had, in our former home (see attached photo), our LI situated on the counter with overhead cabinets. I placed the LI so the lever was positioned between two overhead cabinet doors so that the handle just barely cleared when opening either of the two doors. Wasn't perfect but very doable.

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Thanks Dan...good thinking. Unfortunately our adjacent cupboard (although it does open the right way) is too far down the counter. The more I think about it the more I think a design that allows the lever height to be lowered when not in use would be a great feature for a lever machine.

Anyone got a good set of reasons I should not be buying a Vesuvius?

I had Vesuvius B0001 off the production line & it works excellently for me.

Excellent stability & repeatability.

Only problem from the beginning is the poor steam wand. Impossible to fit a large jug under without risk of overspill with the slant required. Changed the supplied wand for a Duetto wand which works acceptably but not perfect. Hopefully one day the Factory will address this issue.

Hi Ron and thanks. I had seen your concerns about this on the Vesuvius forums as well.

I have a straight walled steaming container that would stand about 12 cm high with say an 8 cm diameter. Capacity filled to the max is probably about 700 ml. Do you think that sized steaming container would be a problem for the Vesuvius in its stock configuration? Also can you confirm what side (when looking at the machine) does one find the steam wand? Pictures seem to show this as left side but I thought there had been some chatter about changing this or suggesting it could be changed.

Best,

Dave

On the original pre production machines the steam arm was on the right & hot water on the left. When it went into production they decided it is better with the steam wand on left. Left or right its still the wrong shape for large jugs.

I reckon your jug will be OK but you will have to slope it a lot & not overfill it