Well i've got my zaffiro pretty well set up. my espresso has been at a plateau for a while, and i'm not at all dissatisfied with it. As far as the machine, i've got it PID'd to stabilize boiler temps and I did the digital-thermometer-in-E61-screw mod that has been talked about on here. For technique: I've noticed that my grouphead temp idles about 20F lower than the boiler, so i flick on steam (zaffiro is single boiler) until i get to 230-245, and then flush until both my grouphead and boiler are between 200-204 generally. (I've been working the upper temps with redline espresso). i can control the shot temp to roughly a 2 degree up-and-down (as measured on the grouphead thermometer) during the shot around 50% of the time.

Besides wishing i bought a HX, does anybody have an easy way to actively heat my grouphead? I'm thinking a heater of some sort connected to another PID? Obviously looks are not that critical. And i'd love to be able to have more direct control of my temps.