So, months ago I was posting nothing but troubles with my Ascaso Duo Profession craigslist buy. The machine functioned fine, but it was so darned hard to get a consistent shot for a multitude of reasons. After months of watching craigslist a Rancilio Silvia v3 popped up and I jumped on it.

Was being sold by a young guy who had been home roasting coffee and was selling everything to do a round the world trip starting with spending time in South American touring coffee plantations.

The machine looks almost new. He didn't have his espresso grinder anymore, so couldn't pull any shots, but ran the machine through the passes and it seemed to work great. It is so clean it looks basically unused. I opened it up and it was shinning in side (barring some coffee dust build up, as it was next to his commercial sized grinder).

I know this isn't quite up to the heat exchangers you guys have but I'm getting there!

Got all of this for $400:

- Rancilio Silvia v3
- Standard double PF
- Rancilio brand bottomless PF
- Generic bottomless PF
- Rattleware 58mm tamp
- Grindenstein Knock Box
- Two small frothing pitchers
- A frothing thermometer

PLUS
- A brand new Hario V60 ceramic with Hario glass beaker
- A box of filters

PLUS
- Large bag his roasted beans

PLUS
- He gave my daughter a small succulent

I still just have the Preciso grinder which will impact things a bit, but if anything I can make good foam to cover it up

Start pulling shots!

+1 I liked my Silvia, but I paid $700(maybe $800... whatever it was it was high) for mine, so I always had pretty bad buyer's remorse. For $400, the silvia is a great little starter machine, the preciso is sufficient, but not perfect... still better than a rocky.

ben8jam wrote: I still just have the Preciso grinder which will impact things a bit, but if anything I can make good foam to cover it up

That's a great deal! One good thing about Silvia is the abundance of information out there, like this:

I have recently improved my microfoam by adapting some tips from this dated, but useful page: Cheating Miss Silvia. The cost has been pulling the shot and then steaming, so the espresso ends up sitting for a bit. But the milk is much better.

lawn_wrangler wrote:That's a great deal! One good thing about Silvia is the abundance of information out there

I am so excited to have a machine that actaully has info available online. The Ascaso was a really neat machine, but there was ZERO in terms of tips/tricks/etc. Once I get temp surfing down on this machine and comfortable with it, I'm looking forward to adding the PID which has been documented step-by-step online.

Been slammed with work buy finally got a chance to descale and backflush the Silvia. There was some scale build up, and quite a mess of coffee grounds when backflushing, but now it's crystal clear.

Ran some test shots this morning with a bag of oldish beans and a "by sight only" calibration of the grinder. 18g and a quick temp surf, and already the shots are 100% better. There is still a weird aftertaste - but I'm starting to think my water filter/ LA water might be to blame. Going to try to buy a few gallons of spring water from grocery store and see if that changes it much.

Onwards!