That's certainly looking good, Lucio.

Getting more and more tempting, especially for my better half who can't really be bothered with the levers..... even if I do end up conceding that a Handpresso may be a better option for camping and hotels...

michaelbenis wrote:That's certainly looking good, Lucio.

Getting more and more tempting, especially for my better half who can't really be bothered with the levers..... even if I do end up conceding that a Handpresso may be a better option for camping and hotels...

Just wait and see the "fight" with Mcal... that will be the ultimate match.
Next test will be performed by my "enthusiast" wife

Lvx wrote:
Last month, I was contacted by a German coffee magazine to release an interview about my insane and extravagant passionate hobby: coffee machines and lever pump machines.

I've received a copy of the magazine...
I've became a cover-boy

Very nice, Lucio! Congratulations!

Nice collection of caffettiere napolitane, too. I wish I could get proper roast barley for ours here in the UK....

Wow, where was this when I was first getting into espresso? It would have saved me a lot of money.

michaelbenis wrote:Very nice, Lucio! Congratulations!

Nice collection of caffettiere napolitane, too. I wish I could get proper roast barley for ours here in the UK....

Our elderlies still mix coffee to barley or better roasted chicory .
They are so much get used to its taste they cannot drink pure coffee.

Stanner wrote:Wow, where was this when I was first getting into espresso? It would have saved me a lot of money.

You focused the point.
It's not fair to show to espresso experts a tiny funny aluminum machine which is able to make the same final result as a pro machine.
My friends are amazed, my wife is in deep love with "she", but this is only my word.
Unfortunately my enthusiasm has been confused with a personal commercial involvement with the producer, but i'm not.
The "sad" truth is that this machine is not sold in Usa, so you can only dream about it.

It would be great to learn more from this "miracle machine".

Temperature control is easy to understand. You have a bed of boiling water on the bottom, controlling temperature to 100 degrees and then the machine is designed so that you end up with 85-90 at the brew area.

However producing stable 9 bar pressure is more interesting. With pistons you can produce 9 bars from, say, 1 bar, but how to make that 1 bar stable? The material available on web mentions some valves in the body of the machine, so I guess there is some sort of valve setup taking care of keeping the pressure stable (enough)?

The concept is the hydraulic press : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydraulic_press
The underneath bed of water is needed to obtain the 1.something bar .
When the "exit" valve is closed, the piston can't move, and the pressure of the lower chamber is maintained fixed (after 6 minutes of heating) by a valve which is a whistle. ( take a look at the "naked Bacchi here : http://caffettiere.blogspot.com/2009/11...-nuda.html
When it "sings" it's time to open the valve (check here my personal tutorial : http://caffettiere.blogspot.com/2009/12...orial.html).
When the valve is opened, the piston is free to press the upper water chamber at the 9 bar obtained with the hydraulic press.
That's it.. no magic, no tricks.

Lvx wrote:When the valve is opened, the piston is free to press the upper water chamber at the 9 bar obtained with the hydraulic press.

If I understand this correctly, the volume of the lower chamber grows when the piston moves and therefore the pressure drops, no? So if the piston pushes the water in the upper chamber at 9 bar it only does this initially and the pressure constantly (and I assume rapidly) drops from there, or?

Br,
Teme

Hi Teme,
I'm just the final user, but you are lucky , i work in a power plant and i've a degree in thermodynamics.
You are right, if we know that Pressure x Volume = K x Temperature , we should imagine that there is a drop pressure when the volume increase.
But.. in the meantime there is an increase in the temperature due to the heater still on (in my case the flame).
I've seen a technical report which says that you have a variable pressure from 9.9 to 9.5 before opening the valve , and during the extraction the machine mantain the 8.5 pressure.
If you want more technical info, i will send you via pm mr. Bacchi email (you can easily find it on the web).

regards
Lucio

Lvx wrote:But.. in the meantime there is an increase in the temperature due to the heater still on (in my case the flame).
I've seen a technical report which says that you have a variable pressure from 9.9 to 9.5 before opening the valve , and during the extraction the machine mantain the 8.5 pressure.

Hi Lucio,

That makes sense, but I (apparently incorrectly) assumed that there would be no way that the temperatrre increase could take place quickly enough to maintain pressure. I guess that would depend on the kind of stove used - gas or induction and you might be ok, but a "regular" electric stove? I guess the small water volume and aluminium construction help here.

Anyway, quite an interesting "machine" albeit fairly impractical (especially for multiple coffees) and slow.

Br,
Teme