I just got a brand new Vibiemme Domobar Super - dual boiler + PID machine. I had a Expobar Brewtus III and am eager to try out the Vibiemme.

The Brewtus III was connected to a timeclock which would turn on the espresso machine at 6 o'clock in the morning to warm up. By the time I would wake up, my baby would be sitting ready for use!

Now last Friday the Vibiemme Domobar Super arrived and has this 3-way powerswitch. The first stage is to activate the pump and then 90 seconds later to turn on the heater elements.

I cannot operate the 3-way powerswitch automatically and would like to turn on the Vibiemme at 5.45 in the morning so it warms up automatically.

Any tips?

Thanks. SJ

I don't understand. If you want to use a timer, plug the Vibiemme into it and set the switch to this position:


Heater on, pump ready

This position is used for pump-only operation. It's used, for example, to fill the boiler for the first time, or to flush the boiler without needlessly reheating the water:


Pump only, no heater

For the sake of completeness, this is the off position:


Off

Your Expobar Brewtus behaved similarly, if you ignore the Vibiemme's second position (labeled as "I").

I am curious why you went from the Brewtus to the Domobar Super. Seems like a lateral move.

It is a lateral move as both are dual boiler PID espresso machines. I considered and even tested both machines (also with the Scace thermo portafilter) earlier and eventually bought the Brewtus for the stupid reason that the temp reading of the Vibiemme seemed off to me, not realising that the temp on the display was the temperature in the boiler and not the temperature at the brewhead as measured with the SCACE. The Brewtus III displays the offset temp.

I might be completely wrong, but the Expobar makes me perfect espresso but is lacking cappuccino-power. It is a Spanish machine and somehow they ship the Brewtus III with the (brew) pressure set to 11 bar instead of the approx. 9 bar I would prefer. It is quite easy lowering the pressure using the OPV valve (thanks to the great help on this forum), but you cannot separately adjust the boiler pressure in the other boiler that provides the steam. Somehow this pressure cannot be adjusted separately and I think the pressure is not good enough to steam milk.

With the Vibiemme the pressure of the coffee boiler can be made separately from the steam/hot-water boiler. Maybe there is also some more steam power, but to be honest: I haven't checked the difference in capacity.

Then, I think the Vibiemme looks much better than the Brewtus III.

I have no direct knowledge, but I can't imagine that the steam boiler pressure is not adjustable.

That is what I thought as well. It should be possible to change the pressure of the steam boiler on such a machine as the Brewtus III ! However, this seems not to be possible as confirmed by the manufacturer. Would anyone else know how to adjust it? Combine this with the fact that the Brewtus III is shipped here in Europe with a 2-hole steam wand tip and that I could not easily find a 1-hole tip made me switch to the Vibiemme.

Dan, thanks for the pictures of the powerswitch. I just wasn't sure if I needed to power on the Vibiemme always using a 2-stage approach. Did you or anyone on HB write a review of the DoubleDomo / PID version?

SJ

sjjan wrote:Did you or anyone on HB write a review of the DoubleDomo / PID version?

No, we discussed it, but decided to put it off while they did some tweaks after the first production run (Vibiemme DoubleDomo review - when ?). Then the holidays came, wrapped up a review of the Ponte Vecchio Lusso, La Spaziale Vivaldi II, and the soon-to-be-published Expobar Brewtus III. Oh, then there's the long overdue final writeup of the Titan Grinder Project... a sizable backlog. The DoubleDomo is still in the queue, assuming that 1st-line is still interested.

sjjan wrote:That is what I thought as well. It should be possible to change the pressure of the steam boiler on such a machine as the Brewtus III !

That is very strange. Brewtus II has a normal pressurestat that can be adjusted. Would it be possible that Brewtus III has a non-adjustable pressurestat? Or do they use PID for controlling steam boiler? If the latter, then it is probably adjustable via the PID as it is almost the same PID as in Duetto.

sjjan wrote:However, this seems not to be possible as confirmed by the manufacturer.

My understanding is that the business focus of Expobar is in completely different markets and therefore they are not always so interested in direct customer support. "Not possible" might meant "it is complicated, and we are too busy to explain".

It wasn't me who asked the manufacturer, but one of their largest resellers/online shops (http://www.koffiewarenhuis.nl). There is no way to adjust it. At least, I could not find how anywhere. What does work is putting a wooden toothpick in one of the holes of the steamwand tip. Then, the Brewtus III gives this perfect microfoam. Before plugging one of the holes, there was no way we could produce microfoam with the 2-hole tip delivered with the Brewtus III.

Now I have this box here with a Vibiemme DoubleDomo PID machine. The 2 boilers in the DoubleDomo are smaller in size (1.4 liter) than in the Brewtus III (each 1.7 liter). Both boilers can be adjusted. The question now is if the extra money paid for the Vibiemme will pay off. I had thought about buying the HX version. However, I didn't.

It all isn't so easy to get this perfect espresso and cappuccino with any espresso machine without doing some adjustments. I wander how people get any decent drink made when they just unpack the espresso machine and start making drinks. We weren't able to get the perfect microfoam without the wooden toothpick closing one of the holes in the steamwand tip, but I would not see everyone else buying espresso machines do the same. Why don't the manufacturers not put in a little bit more care in delivering a better configured and adjusted device?

Now I am to start using the Vibiemme (I unpacked it, but did not use it yet) or send it back and continue using the Brewtus III. Maybe I should first read the review that was just published of the Brewtus III and then decide.

SJ