As I mentioned on another post, I recently got a La Pavoni Europiccola. Per the recommendations in that post, I ran it with some baking soda to descale it, then let it heat up with clean water a few times to rinse it out, then tried to pull a few shots. I hadn't gotten a real tamper for it yet, so was just using the POS plastic one. The first shot was extremely watery and blonde. Sink. I adjusted the grind finer, next one was also watery but not as bad, still not drinkable. I tried a few more than turned it off for the night. This morning tried another shot, still watery, so ground finer, and tried again. It took a lot of force to pull the shot, but it actually came out not bad.. nowhere near perfect but getting better. however I noticed the lever was not at the same angle it had been earlier. When I lifted the lever, it broke off. I didn't think I was pushing down on it THAT hard. Has anyone broken the lever off a machine like this? Could mine have been defective, or did I just use way too much force and kill the thing? How likely is that to happen?

I have a Gaggia Factory (La Pavoni Pro with a few visual differences. Mechanically the same). I also weigh about 260libs. I've NEVER gotten my Factory to the point where the lever bent or anything LIKE that! I HAVE "choked" the machine once (pushed down with MUCHO force and was unable to get ANYTHING out of the P/F spouts. Twas probably pushing down with well over 100lbs of downforce.).

I'd have to say that, more than likely, something's wrong with your machine...

Thanks, I appreciate the feedback. I hope WS takes it back.

Never heard of that happening before. Where exactly did it break? Did one of the rolling pins snap? The U brace? Or the actual lever arm itself? That's very strange, and definitely a manufacture defect.

My very old La Pavoni pro's lever broke. The U bracket was attached to the post by peening / mushrooming the piece that went through the hole in the U bracket. I had a guy weld it. He could have done a better job, but it was free.
mbach

Mine broke where the lever bar connects to the hole in the U bracket. It came completely out.

I have a la pavoni pro as well. It's 20 years old and the lever handle appears to be stamped to the U bracket as others have described. It's taken a lot of pushing from me and is still totally fine.

A buddy of mine has a Europiccola that is the millennium edition. He snapped his lever exactly as you just described about 4 months ago. Like others have said, he took it to a machine shop in Houston and aguy welded it together for $10. It sucks, but I would say be ended up with a much sturdier lever than if he had replaced it with a new lever.

I just had the same thing happen to me. New machine, no more than 15 pulls, some of the difficult variety but nothing that should separate the lever from the u-bracket. Today I just pulled the two pieces apart. I suspect that the peening is pretty inconsistent - handmade or assembled as these things are. I will resist my urge to send it back. I think in the long run a small weld will add "character" to the machine. This is how legends are born...

By the way, this is my first post to this forum. I lurked here for a few weeks, trying to decide on which lever machine to buy. After being lured in other directions I came to realize that I wanted to be able to practice something (making good espresso with a quirky machine) that was relatively inconsequential to the meaning of life.