Quick Mill Anita, Expobar Office Lever or Isomac Rituale

[heyduke]

I am having upgrade fever but am having a little trouble making up my mind. I have it narrowed down to the Quick Mill Anita, Expobar Office Lever or the Isomac Rituale. Right now I am leaning toward the Anita but I would love some feedback on this. I know that they are all great machines but one must stand out above the rest. I would like to hear from owners of any of these machines.

[HB]

Interesting, you named the popular models I suggested in Seeking new E61 machine below $1000. I've used all three (*) and they are good choices at the right price. Below are some of my off-the-cuff thoughts:

• Quick Mill Anita - the majority of my comments from the Buyer's Guide to the Andreja Premium apply. Nice solid machine, good internals. Insulating the boiler was a smart idea.
  
• Isomac Rituale - this was a comparison machine for the Buyer's Guide to the La Spaziale S1. I love the Rituale's casing - heavy, tight seams, dampens noise. Isomac no longer has the strong vendor presence in the US it once enjoyed. Their attention to assembly details is spotty, especially with regards to wire routing. Overall though the price is attractive nowadays, any problems are known and the solutions well documented. Secretly I would like to see Isomac make a comeback in the US.
  
• Expobar Lever - it's a bit of a stretch, but Abe's Buyer's Guide to the Expobar Brewtus applies to some degree, such as the Materials & Workmanship section. A friend of mine owns this machine and I traded with him for a few months. Although it looks similar to the Rituale, it doesn't have the same quality casing. Generally speaking, Expobar delivers a lot of machine for a good price. To keep the price down, they choose some medium-grade components like the steam valves and OPV. My pet peeve for this particular machine was the noise - the vibration pump was the loudest I've ever heard and the driptray rattled irritatingly. Todd Salzman at Whole Latte Love mentioned that they have a better one for newer models, although I've not seen it. It pulled very good shots and has a HUGE driptray.

These machines share similar group designs. Their plumbing affects the flushing routine slightly (e.g., the Lever has a much longer flush than the others at the same pressurestat setting, I assume because of its longer delivery tubing to the group). The Rituale is the weakest steamer of the three, although it's easy to microfoam even with the stock tip. The stock Lever comes with a one-hole tip for foolproof microfoaming, but it steams so slowly as to render it practical only for single-servings.

I invite owners to chime in with their thoughts.

(*) Actually I used the Andreja Premium, which is similar to Anita in the practical matters of shot quality, materials & workmanship, etc.

[jimoncaffeine]

My very first post... After lurking for months...

I just went down this path. I was comparing the Anita, the Expobar Office Lever and a used Isomac Millennium. Started with the used Isomac but it had something wrong with it. Likely it was minor but when I looked at the $200 difference in price between it and a new Anita or Office Lever I decided against it.

I went with the Anita. I decided that I liked the quality of its parts and the distributor better than I did the Expobar. When I researched a bit I found that the Anita is very similar to the Andreja Premium without: the commercial water and steam valves and wands, direct plumb in option (though it does look like it may be possible for a pour over plumb in modification) and a slightly less fancy body. If you read the Andreja review on this site, almost all of it applies to the Anita as well.

Some of the things that I liked:
- Good quality vacuum breaker (you can put it on a timer and not worry about it vapor locking).
- Reset-able thermal breaker instead of a thermal fuse.
- 2 portafilters (its a small thing but it is nice... Besides you can then have one converted to bottomless later!)
- Access port for adjusting the boiler pressure without removing the body panels.
- Access port for replacing the boiler element without having to remove the boiler.
- Stainless steel frame.
- Pressure gauge for brew pressure as well as boiler pressure.
- A distributor that encourages you to modify pressures, temps and make repairs yourself. (actually has a faq with pictures on their site to tell you how to do it.)
- A distributor with a great reputation on this site and others.
- A distributor owner willing to spend 40 minutes on the phone talking to you about his machine and is knowledgeable and genuinely excited about it.

After making the decision:
- Placed the order by phone.
- Received an email ups ship notification within an hour of placing the order.
- Received the package in 5 business days from the East coast.
- Double boxed and well packaged.
- Beautiful workmanship and materials. (obviously assembled by someone who cares.)
- Large... It makes my Rossi RR45 look "normal".
- Extremely well written and correct set of instructions.
- The owner, himself, answered the few questions that I had.

After 2 weeks:
I have no buyers remorse, what-so-ever. This machine replaced my Gaggia Baby (which replaced my Starbucks Barista 6 months before - The Upgrade disease - ugly but satisfying... ) and while I could pull very good shots with the Gaggia the Anita is *noticeably* better. Yes, you can easily tell the difference in a cappuccino or an americano, let alone a straight shot of espresso.

This site has been invaluable for info on the e61 (definitely read the articles and posts - regardless of which machine you buy) and on fine tuning pressures. The e61 requires some change in ritual that you will need to get used to.

Do I like the Anita better than I would have liked either of the other two? I don't know for sure, since I haven't lived with the other 2 for a couple of weeks. I feel like I made the right decision for me. I know the other two would produce great espresso as well.

Hopefully this helps.

Good luck,

Jim

[HB]

A distributor owner willing to spend 40 minutes on the phone talking to you about his machine and is knowledgeable and genuinely excited about it.

Thanks Jim for joining up and commenting. There's no harm in spelling it out that you're talking about Chris Nachtrieb, owner of Chris' Coffee Service and HB site sponsor. My experience with him mirrors your own, except it is hard to get off the phone in less than 40 minutes. The man doesn't sleep.

[jimoncaffeine]

Dan,

No worries. I was afraid that I shouldn't post the name of the place on the forum. I definitely would not hesitate to recommend Chris to anyone. I suspect that Chris must drink a lot of espresso...

Jim

[heyduke]

Thanks for all the information. It pretty well confirms what I had already made up my mind on. I think I will go with the Anita because of all the reasons mentioned. I like the ability to use a timer. I have never used a HX machine or the E61 group head but I'm looking forward to the experience.

[jimoncaffeine]

No worries. You are in for a real treat with any of the e61s. One thing that I hadn't considered before is the amount of water that is used... I had decided that I didn't want a plumb-in model and the water tank is HUGE compared to my old gaggia. The reality is, with the cooling flushes and with a large americano I use about 1/3 to 1/2 the tank. This is at least twice the amount of water I have used with non-e61 machines. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to either do a plumb in conversion or some sort of external water tank solution. Search on this as well and you can see some of the clever solutions that others (on this site and on coffee geek) have employed.

General stuff...
I have used espresso machines (mostly home Gaggias and one brief period with a Starbucks Barista) for about 20 years and the Anita is a real treat! If you haven't had to tamp before or worry about grind quality you may have a steep learning curve ahead of you... I didn't ask before but I hope that you either have or are budgeting for a good grinder. Without a good grinder, any decent, non-pressurized portafilter machine will almost certainly disappoint you. Hopefully you already have one and have some tamping experience under your belt. If so, within a day or two's time, you will be pulling some of the most consistent good shots you've ever done. If you haven't, research and learn while you are waiting for the machine to arrive. Heck, even if you have, it'll give you something to do while you wait. Also if you don't already have a good 58mm tamper, buy one before the machine gets here. Seems like all the machines come with very poor fitting, inadequate plastic tampers. This will make tamping easier, more consistent and more enjoyable. You don't have to spend a ton of money, unless you want to... Aluminum 58mm's start at around $20 and you will be sorry you didn't buy one sooner. I got by with a plastic tamper for about 18 years with my Gaggia's... If pressed, I can still pull a decent shot using the plastic one but its much harder. None of them fit properly (like about 56mm in a 58mm basket) and that causes channeling, uneven tamping around the edges *and* makes a bigger mess since when you pull it out of the portafilter there's usually coffee waiting on the rim of the tamper to fall on the counter and floor.

Please, post back what you ended up buying and your impressions of it.

Good luck,

Jim

[heyduke]

I have been using a Starbucks Athena for 4 years and have experience with using that machine. I also have a Cunill Tranquilo which is a great grinder. I am sure that there will be a learning curve with the Anita but I am looking forward to it. I started off this journey with a steam toy and thought it did a great job, then I got the Athena and it did a better job so I am really looking forward to the Anita and the espresso it will produce. I have over 150 lbs of green coffee beans on hand so by the time I get through them I should be a expert.

[jimoncaffeine]

I have been using a Starbucks Athena for 4 years and have experience with using that machine. I also have a Cunill Tranquilo which is a great grinder...

Not familiar with the Athena or the grinder that you have. As long as it can grind finely and uniformly, you will be pulling some great shots in no time. It might take you a few pounds to get the hang of it but then you will have 145 lbs of excellent shots left. I never could get the hang of pulling a good shot from the Starbucks Barista that I had. The pressurized portafilter seemed to defeat all my best efforts. Going back to a Gaggia helped me a lot. If yours has a pressurized portafilter you will need to buy a good tamper and learn to use it. The one that comes with the Anita is worse than the one that comes with the Gaggia's... It has a coffee scoop at one end and the tamper at the other. Not meant for 20-30lbs of pressure even once... The coffee scoop is useful for filling the portafilter basket though. One other thing, with non-pressurized portafilters, is that the puck will be dry and come out clean instead of a gooey mess. Much cleaner and less hassle for multiple shots.

Once you get the hang of it, you will likely have a very hard time finding a shop that can produce better espresso drinks than you can on the Anita.

I just found a picture of the Athena... Clear a bigger spot on the counter!!! The Anita is very large compared with most home espresso machines. Its also very attractive to the eye. It used to be that people would enter my kitchen and their eye's would stop first on my Rossi RR45 grinder (really large for a home grinder - dwarfed my prior espresso machines in size and weight) and then stop at my pid-modified-air-popper-coffee-roaster. Now I could have 3 trained hyenas standing on each others shoulders, on top of the stove, with oven mitts in their teeth and no one would notice...

You should be very happy with the Anita and it seems well built for the long haul.

Good luck,

Jim