Which piston does your VAM have - with or without the hole on the piston face?

The VAM has this piston with hole.


The Caravel has this piston. Third type I believe.

Score on the later VAM piston. Best build quality with the superior piston config. Sadly both of my VAMs have the early solid face piston.

Room mates. Cleaned piston and replaced seals.

redbone wrote:Room mates. Cleaned piston and replaced seals.
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Which gets the bed closest to the bathroom?

You have those, I have none. I keep saying I'll pull the trigger, but something always comes up, like BILLS.
Please let us know your impressions of these guys as to taste, consistency, etc.

I finally got the Eureka dialed in and now the coffee tastes about as good as with the manual. I had to adjust the grind finer and tamp more lightly. Or maybe the home roast has aged more fully? Who will ever know ...

/^^\

Nice pictures Gail. I understand your frustration with the grind. I finally got the grind spot on for my Zacconi and then decided to try different beans. Ended up back in square one. Surprised on the amount of variance required between beans.

I started experimenting with my own blend and it changes quite a bit in taste over time, so it's hard to tell whether the grind is better or the coffee is better (or both).

Not to mention the variance in grind required for different filter baskets. I have an original single basket and two Brooks Espresso double baskets with the little holes.

Anyway, I am pretty happy with my €50 Eureka. It is small, quiet, and even matches the Caravel colors. It takes about 5 seconds to grind a shot. I would have to do a side-by-side taste test to see how much difference there is with my best hand grinder. Maybe one day...

Ok have to ask on how one get's a €50 Eureka. Heck of a lot more $$ here.

There are a lot of people reselling used coffee bar equipment here, so it can be found for very little. The Eureka mignon is used for decaf by many bars. The guy who sold it to me claimed it was new, and it does look unused, but it is an older model with the timer on the bottom so maybe it is reconditioned. Nobody in Italy drinks decaf anyway, so even if it was in a bar for a while it probably didn't see much action. In any case the seller told me it was an affarone. When I asked him if he had any more good deals, he offered me a Spinel Pinocchio, so I guess I got lucky the first time.