I just ordered a 1984 fully rebuilt Pasquini Livietta from Orphanespresso. I was wondering if users of the 49 mm version of the Olympia Maximatic / Coffex / Pasquini Livietta's can give me some usage tips from which to start off so I'm not pulling shots completely in the dark. For example, how much water to flush, and how long to wait after flushing, generally speaking how many grams does the machine prefer for a double basket, etc.

Also, it is possible to fill the boiler up with distilled water to prevent descaling, and keep the reservoir with filtered water?

Any input would be tremendously appreciated.

Can't offer any info as I don't own one. But it looks like an incredible machine to have. I recently watched a video by Orphan Espresso on this machine. Do let us know how it works out for you. Later!

hyoungblood wrote: Also, it is possible to fill the boiler up with distilled water to prevent descaling, and keep the reservoir with filtered water?

Assuming that is an HX machine, you can do that. Remember, the boiler will be refilled from the tank when it gets low. Every now and then try to empty the boiler and re-fill.

Does anyone know if the distilled water can harm a boiler in any way?

I have these machines and they produce really good shots. Download the maximatic manual from Olympias website as a starting point -http://shop.olympia-express.ch/. I found that the machine is the most temperature stable with a lower pstat setting as per Olympias recommendations, .7-.8 I find this gives me a brew water temp of about 199 as measured on a scace device. Flush until the flash boil stops, lock in and pull your shot. If you pull a shot every 1-2 minutes or so the temp should remain quite stable. If you overwork the machine you may find the temp climbs pretty fast up to the 203-205 range. The same goes with a higher pstat setting, it's hard to keep the temp down below 203 after a shot or 2.
I have a pressure gauge that I picked up from Richard Penny which really helps in making small adjustments as does the scace picked up at Espresso Parts NW.

sweaner wrote:Assuming that is an HX machine, you can do that. Remember, the boiler will be refilled from the tank when it gets low. Every now and then try to empty the boiler and re-fill.

The Olympia/Pasquini has no autofil from the reservoir. You let the machine cool down and manually refill the boiler through the cap on top of the machine. The reservoir is fresh water for the HX only.

sweaner wrote:Does anyone know if the distilled water can harm a boiler in any way?

I believe that distilled water can leach atoms from certain types of metals, and I also recall reading that it's not best for making coffee. I prefer to use a soft Spring water for my espresso machine.

wildbwilson wrote:...it's hard to keep the temp down below 203 after a shot or 2.

I find that simply flushing the HX brings the shot temp down, and I routinely do that between shots anyway. Have you tried this?

With the Olympia/Pasquini Maximatic/Livietta the drip tray is very small so I flush into the cup the warm it and dump the water into a separate container. I also use a low & wide tupperware bin as a catch tray for cooling flushes and backflushes, portafilter wiggles, etc. This helps me to prevent drip tray overload (since my other machine is plumbed in it's easy for me to forget that the drip tray has limited space)

JonR10 wrote:The Olympia/Pasquini has no autofil from the reservoir. You let the machine cool down and manually refill the boiler through the cap on top of the machine. The reservoir is fresh water for the HX only.

Just for the sake of clarity and thoroughness, it's the Olympia Maximatic/Pasquini that that no auto-fill. My Olympia Caffarex does have a (semi-)auto-fill for the boiler . . . there is a button I have to push that activates the pump to fill the boiler from the reservoir. OK, it's a manual fill, but I don't have to wait for the boiler to coll down and fill it directly. I only have to fill the reservoir, not the boiler and the reservoir . . .

(I hope that made sense.)

JonR10 wrote:I believe that distilled water can leach atoms from certain types of metals, and I also recall reading that it's not best for making coffee. I prefer to use a soft Spring water for my espresso machine.

For the Elektra Semiautomatica, I fill the steam boiler manually using distilled water then refill the reservoir with filtered tap water for espresso. Should work for the Maximatic and means never having to descale the boiler. If you're worried about demineralization affecting its stainless steel boiler, add an ounce of tap water.

Older Maximatics have a plated brass boiler. I would suggest filtered ( Brita) bottled water in the boiler also. There are a few different metals in the boiler and fittings which could become a problem with distilled water. This is only my observation. I do that on all my machines.
-Richard