Well, I had the good fortune today to pick up a new La Spaziale Vivaldi II. Dan had gotten one to test from Chris at Chris Coffee but is in the process of moving his house so I agreed to give it a go.

In the interest of full disclosure I already own a VII (and love it) but without the latest preinfusion feature so I thought it would be a good test to do a side by side - literally!

I put both machines on the same water line with a tee and just switched them on one at a time. I only have one dedicated 20amp service installed in my kitchen for the VII. I adjusted to group pressure to 9 bar which is what I run my other machine at and the intake at 35psi. Set the temp to 94 and offset to -1. I don't have a Scace so this was just a swag.

First off preinfusion takes a little getting used to. I usually rinse my bottomless portafilter from the group prior to dosing. I also do this to get the group heater to kick in. Waiting for the group to preinfuse here is a bit of a pain. One suggestion would be to allow one button to be programmed with preinfusion and one without. That would make it easier to rinse.

I read Ken's preinfusion tests, at 35 psi I probably haven't got enough pressure for a full puck saturation. I'll crank it up again on my next round. I did try three different settings. 0sec, 3 sec and the full 8 seconds. I was using Black Cat from Intelligentsia. One I'm pretty familiar with. Again, not much science here just some observations. The 0 sec pour matched my other machine a nice balanced shot, strong chocolate base notes with a hint of caramel. The 3sec preinfusion added a brighter note - I though I could pick up some more berry flavors. The 8 sec pours consistently ran a little fast and blonded early. I think I will need to crank the grind down on these ones to get a better profile. The ones I pulled were a little sour. I've taken a shot of each pour at about the same time into the pour. I would note that I generally get a camel back (two bumps) on the start of my Vivaldi pours which went away with the preinfusion.

0 seconds preinfusion

3 seconds preinfusion

8 seconds preinfusion

I picked up some Misty Valley espresso from Counter Culture Coffee today. I'm anxious to see how that fairs with the preinfusion. I'll also crank up the input pressure abit as well.

Ian, good initial review. I have always used the hot water spigot to rinse my PF so that's not a big issue with preinfusion for me. The thing that is taking getting used to for me is just not hearing the pump come on for several seconds after using the V1 and VII for so many years!

Very nice indeed, Ian.
I can't wait to give a whirl.
Like Chas mentions, I think many current VII owners will not be used to the pump not firing right away.
Thanks for the report

Looking forward to your next post(s)...

Well, I had a chance to try some of Tim's experimental Misty Valley Espresso from Counter Culture Coffee today. To all of you, get down on your hands and knees and pray that they decide to go ahead and retail this coffee. It is stunningly good! Warm honey mixed with dried blueberries. Not an everyday drink but something special that will definitely make your day!

OK back to preinfusion. First off after day two I still believe it does make a bit of a difference in the cup. Dan Kehn and I tried the Misty Valley at CCC yesterday but were having trouble with it on one of their test machines. Could either get a nice chocolate base note and body but no fruit or all fruit and no body. I suspect there were a lot of factors here, new coffee, new machine, no temp info, and of course yes the baristas. That said when I brought it home I had no trouble getting both the fruit and body but the best success I had was with a little preinfusion - 3 sec. This seemed to accentuate the fruit but not lose the body. At 8 sec I started to get a little thinner shot and at 0 sec good body and some fruit but not quite as bright as the 3 sec preinfusion. Again the preinfusion did help my pours abit as well.

I did take a few puck pics for those who are interested. I couldn't see a huge difference between 3, 6 and 8 seconds in depth but I did notice that the puck was noticeably wetter with the 8 second setting. I suspect the water tends to creep a bit more internally in the puck than the outside edge would indicate. Again, I am at 35 psi. I had trouble knocking them out without splitting at the water line.

3 seconds
6 seconds
8 seconds

Hope this helps, I'll keep banging away at it.

Cheers

Ian

what about the gradual water feed preinfusion for the Vivaldi I? I have Vivaldi II but no way of sending my board overseas for the fix, I'll buy the gradual preinfusion tool - I'd like to read some word on it please!

There doesn't seem to be much visual difference in water penetration between 3 and 8 seconds. Strange.

I'm wondering if we'll see a visual difference if the one of the shot buttons is programmed for just a few seconds - that way the difference in preinfusion settings might show up beneath the basket. Perhaps a difference in the coffee beads that start at the beginning of a shot might tell us something?

...wow, preinfusion - another variable is all we needed

Chas, I didn't see much difference but it felt wetter when I squeezed the puck. I'll try getting some shots just as the shot starts to bead as Niko suggested.

Cheers

Ian

A few more shots from today's experiments. I seem to be up against a "Preinfusion dilemma" at least for me. I tried letting the preinfusion go until it beaded - two pushes of the 8sec button before letting the pump kick in.


What I got was a tremendously fast and sour pour. If I crank down the grind to slow down the pour it takes forever to get water through the whole puck - like 32 seconds.


I guess I really need to crank up the line pressure (I'm at 35 now). Not sure I can get much more as I'm on a well and think my pump and tank are set at around 40 psi. I know Jim and Ken did some testing and concluded that you needed much higher input pressure (3 Bar) to get a decent shot. Perhaps the better shots I'm getting at the 3 second mark are due to a little different geometry in the LaSpazialle basket.
I also backed off the pressure abit to 25 psi and tried the 3 second preinfusion again - boy I do like the feel of that shot. Screen beads up evenly and a nice cone. The shot tastes great and as I said before with a bit more acidity than with no preinfusion.
I knocked the pucks out afterwords and although it be my technique for getting them out they all seemed to crack at the preinfusion line I had gotten before. Maybe weakens the puck there abit as suggested by Ken and Jim's testing.


Anyways, for me a 3 second preinfusion does seem to improve my pour and bring out a bit more fruit in the cup. If I can get a bit more lines pressure I'll try a few more shots at the longer preinfusion rates.

Sounds like you're homing in on Chris' original recommendations. I am also on a well. I get 45psi at my utility sink but I lose 5-10psi of that through the filters and the 10' run of JG tubing.

I did a few shots a 3sec, then jumped to 6sec. Now I'm going to start backing it down 1sec at a time for several shots each and see what I think.