But I have a few questions.

I have an Expobar Pulser now and I am getting tired of fixing things that go wrong.

I should start out by saying that I don't drink espresso, but I do appreciate good espresso based drinks. 90% of the time I make an americano for me and my wife, with the occasional latte. I like the idea of a lever because I make my coffee early (before the kids are up, so silence is golden) and well....they just look cool. A lever with my zass at 5 AM would go unnoticed.

Can they be used for americano? Can 1 or 2 cooling flushes be pulled into a mug without any issue? I know some think that is not good for the taste but without a water tap I would have no choice. I'm looking at the Achille specifically is that helps.

Thanks.

Steve

Have you considered any of the Ponte Vecchio line? I think the Lusso has a water tap.

Hi Steve,
IMLTHO, The steam tap is a good source of heat to superheat the water in a cup for a direct pull Americano. Or, do the pulls into a heated double wall glass and then super steam heat water to pour them into.

That said, Some of the lighter machines will overheat the grouphead quickly. So,for more than one pull of Americanos, I will usually use the electric teakettle for water and turn it on when I fire up the lever.

And Don't be caught doing this at home:: : I usually pour the slowly cooling shots pulled earlier into a double wall heated cup. That then goes into the cup full of fresh steamed expanded milk. Not good barista practice but nice for the occasional milk drink in the wee wee hours of "O" dark thirty.
IMHO
From what I'm seeing now, for the money, the Lusso seems to be the way to go. It has good steam capacity for a relatively low price. Especially compared to most small home lever machines of modern manufacture for a similar price.. Check the threads with a search for "Lusso"

One cents worth in a long thread!
Cheers
Richard

SteveN wrote:But I have a few questions.
I have an Expobar Pulser now and I am getting tired of fixing things that go wrong.
I should start out by saying that I don't drink espresso, but I do appreciate good espresso based drinks. 90% of the time I make an americano for me and my wife, with the occasional latte. I like the idea of a lever because I make my coffee early (before the kids are up, so silence is golden) and well....they just look cool. A lever with my zass at 5 AM would go unnoticed.
Can they be used for americano? Can 1 or 2 cooling flushes be pulled into a mug without any issue? I know some think that is not good for the taste but without a water tap I would have no choice. I'm looking at the Achille specifically is that helps.

Thanks.

Steve

I have the Cremina up and hot ......and the wife asks for an "Americano please!"

I just pull shots and stick the big mug she likes full of water into the microwave- Wa LA ! Americano!

I should be ashamed but - hey, it is simple and the water comes from the same Britta pitcher that I fill my boiler from.


Not fancy but it does solve my lack of a hot water faucet on my little lever

Steve, not sure if this the proper method for making an Americano. When an Americano is requested use the steam wand to heat up some freshly drawn tap water. Once up to temp I pull an espresso shot into the now hot water. No need for a machine with a water wand. Both lever machines I own have no problem with this method.

Off topic, but a little related. Same process for making hot chocholate. Except cold milk in place of water. While steaming the milk I nuke in the microwave a nice chunk of quality chocholate & a little milk. Blend in the steamed milk for a real cup of hot chocholate.

narc wrote:Steve, not sure if this the proper method for making an Americano. When an Americano is requested use the steam wand to heat up some freshly drawn tap water. Once up to temp I pull an espresso shot into the now hot water. No need for a machine with a water wand. Both lever machines I own have no problem with this method.

Thanks Narc-Great obvious tip- that just "sounds" better than me using the micro wave- Once again I have my nose too close to the ground to see the lane I am in..

Lots of good thoughts.

Basically what I'm learning is that I don't need to be tied to my water tap for my morning americano. It's funny how you don't think of these things untill someone points them out to you. I could heat water with a steam wand or pull from the group. Done.

Next issue is I keep reading how most levers are not made to pull a double and overheating is an issue. The Achille seems to have an answer for this. What about a Europiccola or PV? Cheap is good. The Pavoni is all over ebay. I have already spent a good amount of cash on the Expobar only to find out that the the main board is NLA.

Thanks for the help and I'm enjoying reading everyones opinions...

Steve

Hi there,

The PV lusso will be more temp stable than the Pavoni - simple as that. Probably the PV Export will too, to a lesser extent. It will allow a lot more back to back shots and can be left on much much longer than the Pavoni if that's what you want. But you will be heating a bigger machine and most likely a greater volume of water for a single shot. The Pavoni's can pull great shots and I like the simplicity, but you have a time/shotnumber window to work out in order to get the best out of them. On the upside they can be brought back to temp relatively quickly as they aren't as big or capacious as some of the other beasts. A Pavoni or PV Export for the morning and the Expobar for the heavier duty might be the way to go.

I seem to recall that there have been some QC issues with the Achille mentioned here and elsewhere (but somebody please correct me if I'm wrong). Given the hassle you say you had then this might be just another PITA.

Best of luck
sneaky.

SteveN wrote:Next issue is I keep reading how most levers are not made to pull a double and overheating is an issue. The Achille seems to have an answer for this. What about a Europiccola or PV? Cheap is good. The Pavoni is all over ebay. I have already spent a good amount of cash on the Expobar only to find out that the the main board is NLA.

The overheating is a characteristic not only of certain lever machines. It affects any machine that produces brew-water and steam from the same boiler. (This is done so that the same boiler can produce brew water as well as steam for milk drinks.) Heating water under pressure causes its temperature to rise well above the boiling point at sea-level. The only kinds of machine that have no problem with overheating of brew water are those machines that do not heat the brew water under pressure. These machines would be the vintage gravity-fed machines with open i.e. unpressurized kettles (Peppina, MiniGaggia, Caravel, Conti) and the modern dual-boiler machines such as those from La Spaziale and Dalla Corte -- at several times the price of a domestic lever machine.

Different strategies have been developed to address this by-product of milk-drinks. For example, many Silvia owners have spent a couple of hundred dollars adding PID temperature-control devices to their machines; and owners of machines with E61 groups have developed flushing regimens to cool their machines. Some lever owners run their portafilters under cool water and lock it in, which reduces the group temperature. But this is like flying an airplane by the seat of your pants at night (see Saint Exupery's Night Flight).

The lever machines that suffer the least from overheating are the Ponte Vecchio Lusso (see my Initial Impressions informal review) whose group is not directly attached to the boiler (eliminating the conduction of heat out to the group-- the Lusso has to deal with convection only) and the Gaggia Achille, which is a heat-exchanger machine that can be cooled down by pulling several ounces of cool water from the fresh-water reservoir through the heat-exchanger and out the group until the machine has cooled enough to begin making espresso in the sweet not bitter/overextracted range.

Regards
Timo

Timo,
Well put as it applies to home machines. I might be wrong but it appears that the reverse is true for commercial levers. I've not measured the temperature but it seems like the group on my Gaggia cools down so I must run some water thru to warm it up. Assuming this is true could it be because of the large mass/surface area of the group radiating heat away from the water? What's your thoughts?