Buying Experience:
I ordered this unit from 1st-line and have to say, just about everything about the company was setting off alarm bells. No Refund, No Return, 90 day labor warranty, shipping to CC address required and fax back signature for orders over $200. Had I not read all the testimonials here, I never could have pulled the trigger.
Shipping:
Once under way I tracked this thing several times a day to see updates. Ground shipping does not have a lot of updates... the week crawled. It arrived and the box was well taped with no external damage. Opening the box I found packing peanuts up to the brim. Removing these, I found the factory Bezzera box. Inside where about a dozen insta-foam packing blobs that took up every square inch of extra room. No damage whatsoever but it was wet as described on the 1st-line website and on a FAQ note that was packed with it.

So I set it up on the counter and removed the two top panels and tank and am waiting the 48 hours.

What I can say now is this machine is better looking than on the website. It is stainless everywhere that is visible, has a powder coated undercarriage and only the tank and various electronic bits are plastic while the steam and water toggles are Bakelite. I was worried it would look a little like a toy, none of the pictures or videos I have seen have given it much scale so I was pleasantly surprised. It would fit under my normally sized counters if I had to deal with that but I am not sure how one would get water in it, maybe with a funnel and hose (beer bong)?

On the back it has a clear logo affixed with a label below that reads BEZZERA Dal 1901. I am not sure why this is not pressed in to the steel, perhaps they are OEM'ing this to others in some other markets. Who knows, I'll likely never see it again once I start brewing.

Other things I noticed, it looks like it was tested in Italy a year ago so these things are not flying off the shelves. Here is the overall internal shot.

This is the pipe and heater wires going through to the group head.

Once it gets out of water quarantine I will post more about it.
HyperSprite







