Hi Henry,

To my knowledge, this machine has no "nickname", and Neowatt refers to the Italian company that produced it. I think Neowatt was rather specialized in home steam espresso brewers, and than this machine was their unique contribution to the world of home hydrocompression devices. I completely restored it and it works fine (one day I should shoot some videos of shots produced by those old guys).

Cheers,
F

PS: with regards to the "internal design", wiring, & switch I tend to think this is a machine from the mid-late 50's

Hi All,
Here is a prehistoric "La Peppina" (it can also be seen in the first post of this forum). At that time it was called "La Piccolina", made by FE-AR for the company "La Carimali". The distinctive bowl looks like it was made of ceramic, but in fact it is metallic with a very thick layer of enamel. The basis, the drip tray grate, and the bakelite handles also differ from the later models.
Best regards,
François

beautifully-bright-red

The shape of the bowl is really nice too. I tried to update the names (la piccolina/la peppina) in the first post but there is now a 'no-offsite images' rule for posts!

I can just imagine some Italian bachelor in his flat in the morning, placing a single cup under the spouts, lowering the lever, turning to the gas range steamer to froth some milk, then sitting down with his latte and a newspaper before rushing out to catch a tram...

Regards, Henry

Hi All,

All of you know the MK1 Gaggia Gilda, probably the first lever home espresso device that was produced in the very early 50's (right).
I guess fewer people met her giant twin sister (left).




best,
francois

Woah! Errr... just perspective, or is she really that much bigger? How tall are they, anyway?

Hi Henry,

The big Gilda is 50 cm tall (from base to thermometer knob) and takes 220V, the small one reaches 40 cm and is powered at 160V instead.

Best,
F

hbuchtel wrote:Zerowatt CA708
Manual lever

Actually a spring lever. Though the lever can be pressed upwards manually, to augment the spring pressure if necessary. It's a shame no one makes anything like this today.

Nice, thanks! Unfortunately I cannot edit the list anymore because this new forum software only allows 3 pics per post... so I cannot save edits without throwing away the whole post! Hopefully one of the mods can help us out?

Did you write some usenet messages about the Zerowatt several years ago? I doubt there are many other Donns with Zerowatts Those posts were basically my only source of information about the Zerowatt at the time, so thanks!

That was I. Sorry to hear about the problems with the site software - it isn't working very well for me, either!

There must be a few other Zerowatt owners around, though. I was thrilled to discover that Orphan Espresso advertises piston seals for it. Best espresso machine I've used.