La Cimbali Junior Casa - Page 3
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MVendi81
- Posts: 59
- Joined: 13 years ago
After reading the many posts on this site giving seemingly-endless praise to the Cimbali M21 Junior (in all its iterations), I decided to go ahead and pull the trigger on a brand-new 'Casa' model from Chris' Coffee. I took delivery of the machine last Monday, and after my first week with it, I must say I am a very happy camper!
It really is a beautiful machine--and it's true what they say: it's just as impressive inside as it is out. This is a very well-built and impeccably-engineered work of art.
I had done all my plumbing the weekend prior to its arrival (yes, I've now learned and successfully executed sweat-soldering
), so needless to say I was pretty excited to get this thing fired up and to start making some coffee. All my filters were hooked up, my line pressure regulator read ~3 bar, and I was leak-free; I was ready to go! I powered up, programmed the volumetric buttons, and after about a 90 min warmup, I tried to make some coffee. It was all going well until I tried to use the preinfusion feature and got, well, no such feature.
After a couple e-mails to Chris', I discovered that my particular machine had somehow came to me with the brainboard of the original DT/1, instead of the 'Casa' model (needless to say, I was a little miffed, but Jason and the wonderful folks over at CCS quickly notified Cimbali and are shipping out a correct replacement board). Apparently, this has happened to one other customer, and since the regular DT/1 and the Casa both come off the same assembly line, I was able to understood the boo-boo. Fortunately, and because both models share more similarities than differences, I have still been able to use the machine all week, and have been getting great coffee with it.
But, it didn't come without a bit of a struggle initially. I really did have to pay close attention to grind setting/dose/distribution, as the immediate ramp-up of the rotary in this brew path really does highlight any shortcomings on the handle side of the pf (dare I say I've taken more than a couple trips to the sink?
). After some adjustment on my part, the CCC Toscano and Rustico shots I've been pulling have all been delectable. It will be interesting to see the difference that the preinfusion makes.
Being that this is my first HX, I imagine I'll be getting used to flushing and temp management for a little while, but so far it doesn't seem too high of a hurdle. This machine seems to make that part very simple. Add to that a very classic, simplistic, and functional design, and it's easy to see why this thing is amongst the top of its class. I cannot help but get behind the existing recommendations for those with the budget.
Before I close, I wanted to thank the good people of this forum (particularly Ken Fox, Jim Schulman, Dan Kehn, and Rich Comess) for their invaluable hints, tips, overall expertise, and outright passion you have expressed for both this machine, as well as espresso coffee as a whole; I enjoy reading your posts, and you've inspired me to up my game, so to speak, as I continue on the never-ending journey to chasing the God Shot. Only, now I'm doing so with better equipment.
Mike Vendittelli
It really is a beautiful machine--and it's true what they say: it's just as impressive inside as it is out. This is a very well-built and impeccably-engineered work of art.
I had done all my plumbing the weekend prior to its arrival (yes, I've now learned and successfully executed sweat-soldering
), so needless to say I was pretty excited to get this thing fired up and to start making some coffee. All my filters were hooked up, my line pressure regulator read ~3 bar, and I was leak-free; I was ready to go! I powered up, programmed the volumetric buttons, and after about a 90 min warmup, I tried to make some coffee. It was all going well until I tried to use the preinfusion feature and got, well, no such feature.After a couple e-mails to Chris', I discovered that my particular machine had somehow came to me with the brainboard of the original DT/1, instead of the 'Casa' model (needless to say, I was a little miffed, but Jason and the wonderful folks over at CCS quickly notified Cimbali and are shipping out a correct replacement board). Apparently, this has happened to one other customer, and since the regular DT/1 and the Casa both come off the same assembly line, I was able to understood the boo-boo. Fortunately, and because both models share more similarities than differences, I have still been able to use the machine all week, and have been getting great coffee with it.
But, it didn't come without a bit of a struggle initially. I really did have to pay close attention to grind setting/dose/distribution, as the immediate ramp-up of the rotary in this brew path really does highlight any shortcomings on the handle side of the pf (dare I say I've taken more than a couple trips to the sink?
). After some adjustment on my part, the CCC Toscano and Rustico shots I've been pulling have all been delectable. It will be interesting to see the difference that the preinfusion makes. Being that this is my first HX, I imagine I'll be getting used to flushing and temp management for a little while, but so far it doesn't seem too high of a hurdle. This machine seems to make that part very simple. Add to that a very classic, simplistic, and functional design, and it's easy to see why this thing is amongst the top of its class. I cannot help but get behind the existing recommendations for those with the budget.
Before I close, I wanted to thank the good people of this forum (particularly Ken Fox, Jim Schulman, Dan Kehn, and Rich Comess) for their invaluable hints, tips, overall expertise, and outright passion you have expressed for both this machine, as well as espresso coffee as a whole; I enjoy reading your posts, and you've inspired me to up my game, so to speak, as I continue on the never-ending journey to chasing the God Shot. Only, now I'm doing so with better equipment.
Mike Vendittelli
