Slayer experience

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Mokko
Posts: 60
Joined: 9 years ago

#1: Post by Mokko »

29 May 15

I have read hundreds of posts on Home Barista, learned all kinds of information and continue to stay extremely enthusiastic about my relatively new hobby of home espresso. I'm sure there are many other like me that are on the edge of their next purchase so I thought I would document my experience in hopes that maybe it will help someone with a decision at some point. I should probably start with a little background. I consume lots of coffee products, I appreciate good coffee and good espresso, I like machines and tools of almost all types, and I am a little OCD and ADD, so diving into home espresso seemed like a good fit. I do not have an extremely refined pallet, in fact if I had to be a sommelier, I would be unemployed. I also do not live in Seattle, or a thriving coffee town. I live in the outskirts of Detroit where Bigby, Starbucks and Tim Horton's are the top end, unless I'm willing to drive and hour for a decent latte. This left my leaning up to me. I read a lot, and had lots of ahh hah moments along the way. I started with an old used La Cimbali 2 group machine (plumbing 220V power, water in and drainage out was much easier than learning good distribution). For a grinder my choice was a Mazzer Mini-E. (Learning point: when using blog sites as a reference for making a decision on equipment you can't experiment with first, keep in mind the date of the post that talks about the equipment. There may be newer developments with better options.) My first year was experimenting and learning with this equipment. Over the course of the year I bought a pressure gauge, thermocouple and digital reader to dial in my machine to proper pressures and temps. I learned about water quality, learned how to de-scale (partial and full). I experimented with a PID (thanks to a lot of work and posts by Ken fox....wish he still was active on this site, I'd buy him a beer or shot of some sort). I found a work around to explore pre-infusion. Through all of this I discovered that the drinks out of my La Cimbali were better than Starbucks and way better than the morning drinks I have been making out of my Nespressos machine. This revelation was the catalyst to send me deeper in the well. Time to transition from Nespresso Monday-Friday and Cimbali on the weekends, to good espresso and latte every morning.

Anyone that spends any time reading on the HB site will see a re-occurring message: Grinder, Grinder, and of course Grinder. Since I am posting this on the Espresso Machine site and not the grinder site, I will spare you the details of my long drawn out deliberation on grinders and decision criteria (again, I am not in a place where I can play with the grinders, my decision had to be on word of mouth and reading), but as of last night, my current grinder is a Compak F-10 in polished aluminum. But back to the machine....

I knew I was going to get a new grinder, and did not want to half step that decision, I was also 75% confident I would end up with a new machine, so I let the combined package deal I got from Clive coffee send me over the edge to just buy them both. For the new machine, I wanted something with a built in timer. A timer that could have a different setting for Monday-Friday then on the weekends. I wanted a PID controlled dual boiler in a single group. It had to look nice (my better half calls my Cimbali a conversation piece because it looks so industrial, I wanted the new machine to stand a chance of eventually being in or closer to the kitchen). I wanted something built solid that would last, and could be repaired if/when needed. It didn't take long for the short list to be: Speedster, Slayer, La Marcozza GS3, and Synesso. I also believe like many others have posted, when you're in that group there is no wrong decisions, only decision that are better for a specific individual. I also believe that there are more cost effective machines that can produce an amazing shot, but my OCD kicked in again. He is how I necked them down. Speedster: I think it is a great looking machine, and can't find a bad comment on it. And with the dollar strong against the euro is looked even more appealing. But my likes of its design and appearance were not shared by the ultimate decision maker of what goes in the kitchen. So while the idea of my own espresso bar in the basement is appealing, I didn't like the idea of how many times I would be going up and down the stairs in the morning before work, and Saturday morning latte, so I conceded the Speedster. That and shipping is not cheap. For the Synesso, again I have not read a bad thing, but the appearance just doesn't do anything for me, and it was the most expensive option, so that culled Synesso out. This leaves the GS/3 and Slayer.....hmmm corvette or Porsche....Lamborghini or Ferrari. Life is tough when faced with decisions like this. For price, the Slayer was a little more, but I don't look at the cost of the machine as a sunk cost. If for some strange reason I decided I no longer like coffee I could always sell everything and with both machines I would recover a significant amount of purchase price. Cosmetically I like the paddle on the Slayer better, I like the opportunity to customize if desired better with Slayer, and Slayer is made in the USA. So next week my Slayer will arrive. This weekend will be spent playing with my new grinder and my La Cimbali machines. (I currently have a La Cimbali M-29 and M-32). Not sure the fate of the Cimbali machines yet but that is another story for a different post.

It was easy to really like the Compak F-10 right out of the box. I used an old dry pound of coffee to make rough adjustments with dose and grind, then played around with another pound of freshly roasted coffee to pull some shots. I really like the adjustments on the grind on the F-10. It only takes a few shots to make the correlation on volume of shot at different grind settings with a 20 gram dose and constant 25 second extraction following pre-infusion until coffee beads on the bottom of the portafilter. Stated another way, I can theoretically consistently reproduce Ristretto, Normale, or Lungo shots for a given bean and roast based on the digitally displayed grind setting. Producing a precise repeatable grind setting is something I could not do on my Mazzer Mini, or at least I didn't spend the time and coffee to figure it out. My only negative comment on the Compak F-10 is the user manual is not the best. I found some u-tube videos that helped me understand the dosing options and settings much better than the manual did. I also learned don't inadvertently re-zero your grind setting. The Zero function is used when you replace or remove the burrs and set zero as bottomed out steel on steel..(or just shy of). When you zero, you can never go finer than zero. I was on about 450 when I hit zero, thinking it would be like slipping the sights on a rifle scope and would just adjust plus or minus off my zero to dial in a shot. I was wrong, I could not dial in lower than 450 and then had to learn how to open the machine up and re-zero. In the end, it was all good learning, I just think the manual could describe things better.

It's now Monday, my Slayer arrived on Saturday and I have had the weekend to play. (Note to anyone that receives a machine FED Ex Ground, if it comes to your home, you have to schedule a delivery appointment. Your delivery does not just show up on the projected delivery date.) The machine came very well packed and with the manual in hand that was sent in advance from Clive Coffee, I started to explore my new machine





My first impression after having used a LaCimbali for the past year is that this machine is solid and compact and nicely made. A little prep work to remove my old machine and get my plumbing ready for the new one and it was time to follow the directions step by step to bring the machine on line. The direction from Slayer cover every step of the power up process very well. The only spot that was lacking was the use of the up down buttons in programming. Turns out you have to cover the entire arrow with the surface of your finger for the sensor to respond. Once I figured this out, the rest of the initial programming went smooth and I pulled my first shot. On my Cimbali I was brewing at about 65% ratio with 20 grams of coffee. My first observation is the pre-infusion took about 10 seconds longer for the droplets to form on the bottom of the portafilter compared to pre-infusion at 3 bar on the Cimbali. I kept the initial extract time to 25 seconds like on the Cimbali and the resultant shot was at about 65%. I will have more time this weekend to weigh and measure shots so more data to follow. It is nice to not have to worry about a cooling flush, just a quick on off before I seat the portafilter, and another one after the shot to clear the grounds. I also like the steam wand better on the Slayer. My attempts at latte art have progressed from blobs and images that look like tulips or asparagus (not intentionally), to shapes that appear to be hearts and rosettes. I'm looking forward to another weekend of exploring, while my weekday mornings now include latte's from the slayer, my early morning are not the time for me to try to perfect anything.


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keno
Posts: 1409
Joined: 18 years ago

#2: Post by keno »

Wow, very nice! :D

Congrats on a fantastic package. Look forward to hearing more about it.

Mokko (original poster)
Posts: 60
Joined: 9 years ago

#3: Post by Mokko (original poster) »

Thanks Keno. As I look deeper in the well, I can see a roaster in my future. Not sure if it will be a Huky, but I have until next April to figure that out after I move and the new place has room for a roaster.

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TomC
Team HB
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Joined: 13 years ago

#4: Post by TomC »

Congrats Mark! It looks really good on your counter! I like seeing them in their "setting" as apposed to just a stock photo, because it certainly improves the visual impact. Straight out the of the crate, the brown seemed very 1980's to me, but once in place on your counter, it took on a whole different vibe. Kinda looks like a classic piece of bar equipment.

Are you planning on using a Scace and verifying temp stability? I doubt the new owners are in the same boat as the early buyers, but I imagine it would be one of the first things I'd want to verify.
Join us and support Artisan Roasting Software=https://artisan-scope.org/donate/

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trumz
Posts: 359
Joined: 10 years ago

#5: Post by trumz »

Very nice! I'm interested to see how your recipe will change with the new setup. Congrats!

Bob_M
Posts: 578
Joined: 16 years ago

#6: Post by Bob_M »

Congratulations, Mark. The Slayer is a beautiful machine, and capable of delicious shots. The firmware upgrade for which so many of us early birds waited has finally arrived, and I for one can finally say I'm very happy with my machine. Have fun !

Mokko (original poster)
Posts: 60
Joined: 9 years ago

#7: Post by Mokko (original poster) »

Thanks for the comments.

Tom, my measuring on my Cimbali was via one of Eric's fittings so I don't have a Scace. I do plan to take some measurements with what I have. I should be able to measure brew temperature. Verifying pressure might take some modifications to a portafilter or buying a Scace. Right now my technical tinkering is with issues on my Cimbali M32 so I can bring it into work.

Trumz, I will have some additional data soon to do a better comparison to my Cimbali, but with the pre-infusion mod I did to my M29, I got very similar brew ratios with the same grind setting on both machines. If I used this finer grind setting and slamming to 9 bar without pre-infusion, the M29 didn't choke, but shot tasted under extracted and yielded a smaller (higher ratio) shot. My better half has a more refined pallet than I do and she says the shots out of the Slayer tastes the best so far...and who an I to disagree :)

Bob, I am also very happy so far and have no reason to believe I will ever be disappointed with this machine. Thanks for being a pioneer and working the glitches out for people like me

I should have added at the beginning of my post that I purchased the Slayer in what I will call there in stock configuration, the one that lists for $9k on sites like Clive Coffee and Prima Coffee.

knockbox
Posts: 51
Joined: 10 years ago

#8: Post by knockbox »

I enjoyed reading your post , nicely written.
Enjoy your new machine
cheers

michael
Posts: 867
Joined: 15 years ago

#9: Post by michael »

Cool machine, would be great to hear more about your impressions of the machine, the flow profiling, temperature control and how the coffee tastes 8)