Despite the higher quality of my late VAM, the tank is a looser fit than my orange one. You can actually make out the heating element's orange glow when it is heating up.

That said it locks in quite solidly and I don;t get the thermostat triggering when I pull - at least not as a regular occurrence and when it does it has everything to do with the temperature of the water and not the actual physical action of pulling the handle.

Once the kettle is at pull temperature (199 F or so) you can just turn off the power switch.

Okay, so I've had my Caravel for a while now (about a year, I guess), and am enjoying it immensely, but still don't know all that much about them (even less than I thought). It seems from what I've read here and elsewhere that Arrarex and VAM were separate manufacturers, but if so, that confuses me. I have a gray Caravel with no little lever for the boiler lid. Underneath the drip pan, it reads "Arrarex," but underneath the boiler is "VAM."

Can anyone clarify?

Thanks.
Andy

Sure- My guess is VAM is the name of the manufacturer (perhaps V.A.M stands for 'something' Arrarex 'something') - and Caravel is the name they chose for the product. But the early machines were just sold under the VAM mark and didn't have the little Caravel ship or name. Perhaps these early ones were more hand made- and then they started the process of refining the manufacturing process with the first line of Caravel branded machines.

In fact that makes sense from a Trade Mark perspective in that VAM and Arrarex would be the 'house' marks and 'Caravel' would be the product mark.

Well, I have moved on from my old pre-millennium Pavoni to one of these type 1 machines, and I must say, my first impressions are "wow". I guess pretty much everything has already been said about this machines quality and construction and thought that went into design, but it's kind of sad that they aren't being made anymore. Hopefully with renewed demand for this class of machine some work will be spent to investigate further. I can just imagine a slightly pro-sumer design of this with one open boiler and one closed for steaming milk.

Anyway, my routine was pretty easy to figure out and goes something like this:

(1) Grind 13g coffee (recently just switched from the Mazzer SJ to a Kyocera handmill)
(2) Boil water and try to catch just as slightly larger than pin head bubbles are coming up. Estimated about 200F (thermometry would be a bit more helpful here...eventually I'll be testing out the built in thermostat, but not enough shots yet to have fiddled with it).
(3) Pull a warming flush or two into espresso cup (1-1.5oz total volume) through PF and basket.
(4) Dry basket and fill with coffee, tap to settle grinds and try to fit the 13g as evenly as possible.
(5) Tamp just to level and give about 3-4mm of clearance (about the thickness of my tamper).
(6) Lock in, then raise lever (haven't yet tried a lever raise and then lock in just before water pours).
(7) Wait for gurgling to stop, pump lever until resistance is felt all the way to the top.
(8) Aim for a smooth but slightly heavy pull all the way to the bottom. Pull takes about 30s which seems to make a really nice ristretto for the 13g of coffee and I would estimate anywhere from 0.5 to 0.75 oz depending on how well I do the Fellini preinfusion.
(9) Remove cup, raise lever half way (not high enough to allow water to enter group) and pump a few times. This really clears out the soupy puck nicely and allows a great dry puck to eject every time.

Again, just amazed at the engineering of the machine (in almost every regard). The routine seems like a lot to type out, but really it was pretty intuitive after already owning a manual lever. With a couple small upgrades like a temp sensor (or dare I think PID?!) I can just imagine this beast cranking out amazing shot after shot that can be perfectly reproduced. But on some level the espresso is already so great that I can't imagine going through all the work of a PID just to get temp control, mostly I can't think of a great place to put the thermocouple.

Also not only is my belief that milk in coffee and tea ruins it and is bad health wise, but I am much happier without all the steaming and pressurized boiler and I think coffee mostly tastes much better straight (though I enjoy a very occasional macchiatto). Though on the other hand it would be nice to have a steam wand for company, I probably still won't invest in a stove-top contraption just to satisfy people that would likely ruin such a perfect espresso anyway!

I heard people saying earlier that they use the Caravel as their benchmark machine, and it's not hard to see why. Easy to use, fantastic coffee, reproducibility and pretty fast back to back shot making (which reminds me, any chance of anyone having new baskets made for these beasts?). If you can deal with lower shot volume (or generally enjoy ristrettos more anyway) and don't need a steam wand, there's really no reason not to pick one of these up!

Not sure if this is the place to ask, but has anyone turned a set of handles for the older style of this machine? I really wish I had access to a lathe. My handles are both in sorry shape and I'm not all that concerned with keeping the bake-lite originals. If anyone knows someone who can do it shoot me a PM.

Any other options for handle replacements? It seems to be the one thing on the machine that actually CAN be damaged (besides seals).

re: handles, email Doug at Orphanespresso.

re: the Caravel, I've had a pair of 16g Caravel ristrettos today, and they were just sooo good. I pulled out the scale just for fun and was surprised the little basket could swallow up 16g. But I weighed it twice just to be sure. Then I ground for another shot, and it was also right at 16.0g. Now I've got a little experiment going to dry the pucks and check for extraction of dry solids.

Peace,
PC

Not to take away from Orphan, but you might want to check out this thread, pretty amazing work: Custom Wood for your Espresso Machine

Thanks for the suggestions on handles! BTW any tips for removing the portafilter handle?...seems like it should screw off, but kinda scared to really crank on the thing. Lever handle seems pretty straight forward.

As to dosing...I can barely fit 12g in the basket without considering it overdosed. Even there the basket is rounded for me. If I just dosed straight from doser without tapping and leveled it would probably be 11.5g or less. I've crammed 14g as suggested in with lots of tapping, but funny enough the machine pulls nearly the same even with +/- 0.5g dosing, so doesn't seem too sensitive to dosing to me. Grind size seems to take a big change to make noticeable effect. I'm thinking basket geometry has most to do with this.