Christmas present for myself. Same as the Zerowatt CA708, but named as Mini Espresso.

You can see it in action too:

That's very cute! And beautifully orange!

If you pump it less do you get much less shot volume?

Yes, without the little pumpig moves you get low shot volumes, similar to the PV Lusso, Riviera Espresso and other 45mm machines.

My new (old) cremina - drip tray was out being cleaned, but I haven't been able to put much more attention into it yet. Can't wait until I have the time & rest of the gear to play with it. Lighting's a little difficult in the kitchen, but it looks hardly used. Even came with all of it's original accessories! The sight glass took ~30 minutes to read anything at all, but it seems to be working fine now so I'm assuming there was just something blocking the water's path. I pulled one shot on it (stuck with preground for the moment, yech) and everything else seemed in order. The owner said he bought it in '92 or '93, although someone said the first two digits of the serial number were the year of manufacture, which would put it back to '85. Can anyone verify if that's true of the serial?

Hi Gabe,
Off topic: I grew up in Albuquerque, Manzano High, class of 87..

Back on topic, yes the first 2 digits of the serial number are the year on the '67 style, (This changed with the Millenium Edition, but that's not what you are asking about) so you are correct. He either didn't remember when he got it, or he got it some time after the original manufacture.

If something is blocking the water's path you may want to consider a descaling while you wait for the other gear. You also may want to shine a small light down into the boiler and take a look and see if there is any build up in there.

EDIT: Nice looking machine by the way.

Jon, thanks for the confirmation.
I grew up here in Abq. as well, but I won't say when I graduated, I'd feel out of place
I'm planning on descaling the boiler and such as soon as I get hold of some citric acid crystals, I spoke with Doug & Barb at Orphan Espresso and they also seemed to think the slow response of the sight glass could be caused by a blockage. I peeked inside the boiler with flashlight and yes, there's certainly some buildup - it seems the machine may have sat some time with water in the boiler. And yes, it's a great looking machine, really only a few chips in the paint to note. I got a spectacular deal, I'm frankly embarrassed.

You can get Citric Acid crystals at home beer brewing supply places, if you are in a hurry. Or, you can get it all over the place online of course.

So is this another one of those "I found this on the sidewalk with a sign that said free to a good home" stories??

Is there a specific solution or strength of acid I should use?
I didn't even realise it until now, but I have easy access to hundreds of pounds of the stuff, at least some of which is food grade. Barring that, I know of a home brew supply in town, and will drop by there tomorrow afternoon. And yes, pretty much one of those stories.

edit: found the FAQ on descaling that included the % solution. I'll descale tomorrow after work.

morgant wrote: The owner said he bought it in '92 or '93, although someone said the first two digits of the serial number were the year of manufacture, which would put it back to '85. Can anyone verify if that's true of the serial?
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Or, perhaps, the owner did buy it in '92 or '93, but simply wasn't the original owner...?

Do a search on citric acid descaling before you do anything. It's about 1 TB/liter I believe. But citric acid will take off chrome plating, so be careful what your soaking in citric acid. Also, short amount of time is needed, maybe 15 minutes after water is hot. Michael

Yup, did a search on the very thing last night - actually just finished flushing out the boiler after descaling it earlier this evening. I ended up using 1.5 tbsp./1.25l.

There's still an odd metallic smell about, but I sampled the water a few times near the end of the flushing process as I drew it through, and I don't notice anything unusual about the taste.

The sight glass seems to be working fine after the descaling process, and I took a peek in the boiler with a flashlight - the brass and copper look reasonably clean.

As to the age, the seller said he was the original owner, but who knows - could be at least a few plausible scenarios. Not hugely important to me, really just curious.

On another note though, the steam wand seems to spit a lot whenever I open it, before finally settling into pure steam. Is this... normal, or does something else need cleaning/replacing? Really, it spits everywhere when I first bleed off false pressure after filling & starting the machine, and spits less and less water the closer the boiler is to empty. I started collecting and measuring water - the first time after bleeding off false pressure, I ended up with approximately 1 Tbsp. of water from the wand. I tried again when the boiler was nearly dry and ended up with ~1/4 tsp.
Thanks for the responses!

Condensation always accumulates in the bottom of the Cremina steam wand. Opening it full for a second or so should clear it all out and give you dry steam after that. Around 3/4 full is best for steaming.

Congratulations on your great deal!

Cheers

Mike

On the subject of the steam wand, I leave it open a crack after steaming milk and thoroughly wipe with it a damp cloth before completely shutting it off. If I don't do that, the cool cloth may cause a sniff and that means cleaning out the wand and perhaps the valve after a while. I also aimed the wand at about 7:00 or so on the clock. It give me a better angle in the pitcher or cup. I like to stretch the milk and drop the shot on top.
There are as many ideas out here as there are machines so you will develop your own method of pulling a shot.
Congratulations on very nice machine!
-Richard

Must be something in the water down in Albuquerque - besides calcium and radioactivity. I'm also a former Albuquerqueian, now residing in San Francisco. Greetings to the current and former 505ers.

Santa brought me a 'new' (1992) Cremina 67 as well, along with a vario. Must say I'm very impressed with the quality of the design and finish, as well as the coffee. I've got my form down pretty well now (for shots at least, foam still needs a little work), and being only a few blocks from the hayes valley blue bottle, no shortage of beans. BTW, I've found the 'Roman' espresso from BB pulls a fantastic shot, for anyone interested in trying out BB in their Cremina.

I've used citric acid a few times as well. I have the best luck with letting it heat up, and then soak, with heat, for 10-20 minutes or so, 1-2 tablespoons per liter. A couple rounds of that got rid of most of the scale in the boiler. Be sure to rinse everything out well afterward, steam wand and group included. Also picked up some gaskets from Doug and Barb at Orphan (who also offer great free advice) and plan to rebuild the group very soon. A refresh with some Dow 111 to the piston seals bought me some time and greatly smoothed out the action.

Just a quick note to say hello.

Cheers,
Kyle

Kyle wrote:Must be something in the water down in Albuquerque - besides calcium and radioactivity. I'm also a former Albuquerqueian, now residing in San Francisco. Greetings to the current and former 505ers.

Santa brought me a 'new' (1992) Cremina 67 as well, along with a vario. Must say I'm very impressed with the quality of the design and finish, as well as the coffee. I've got my form down pretty well now (for shots at least, foam still needs a little work), and being only a few blocks from the hayes valley blue bottle, no shortage of beans. BTW, I've found the 'Roman' espresso from BB pulls a fantastic shot, for anyone interested in trying out BB in their Cremina.

I've used citric acid a few times as well. I have the best luck with letting it heat up, and then soak, with heat, for 10-20 minutes or so, 1-2 tablespoons per liter. A couple rounds of that got rid of most of the scale in the boiler. Be sure to rinse everything out well afterward, steam wand and group included. Also picked up some gaskets from Doug and Barb at Orphan (who also offer great free advice) and plan to rebuild the group very soon. A refresh with some Dow 111 to the piston seals bought me some time and greatly smoothed out the action.

Just a quick note to say hello.

Cheers,
Kyle

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Very nice setup, Kyle. Your espresso setup has such a small footprint...but GREAT BIG FLAVOR!

Steve, in Fort Worth

Kyle wrote:Must be something in the water down in Albuquerque - besides calcium and radioactivity. I'm also a former Albuquerqueian, now residing in San Francisco. Greetings to the current and former 505ers.

Santa brought me a 'new' (1992) Cremina 67 as well, along with a vario. Must say I'm very impressed with the quality of the design and finish, as well as the coffee. I've got my form down pretty well now (for shots at least, foam still needs a little work), and being only a few blocks from the hayes valley blue bottle, no shortage of beans. BTW, I've found the 'Roman' espresso from BB pulls a fantastic shot, for anyone interested in trying out BB in their Cremina.

I've used citric acid a few times as well. I have the best luck with letting it heat up, and then soak, with heat, for 10-20 minutes or so, 1-2 tablespoons per liter. A couple rounds of that got rid of most of the scale in the boiler. Be sure to rinse everything out well afterward, steam wand and group included. Also picked up some gaskets from Doug and Barb at Orphan (who also offer great free advice) and plan to rebuild the group very soon. A refresh with some Dow 111 to the piston seals bought me some time and greatly smoothed out the action.

Just a quick note to say hello.

Cheers,
Kyle

Congratulations on the Cremina!
I have another friend from Abq. who moved to SF about a year and a half ago, maybe 2 years now. At any rate, when I was out to visit him last, I didn't explore much of the coffee or espresso in the area, and I'm sincerely regretting it now. Thinking I might have to plan another trip out there before too long. In my world, there seem to be a lot more former 505ers than current these days though - I can't seem to find a) a consistently good shot here or b) anyone much interested in espresso to begin with.

Anyway, I ended up going with a vintage KyM from Orphan, the Vario will likely be the next thing I pick up. I'm curious to hear how the group rebuild goes - while I haven't had any trouble with the seals & gaskets yet, I believe that they're original, and it seems after 25 years in this climate, they aren't holding up terribly well. I was thinking of ordering a preemptive full set, just in case something does fail.
I was also astonished at how small the footprint of the machine was, but certainly a nice setup.

bishopthirteen wrote:I was not going to post a picture of my lever machine here as I've posted multiple pictures of the rebuild. However, I just spent nearly a month at my shop far away from my CMA lever box and have been existing on drip coffee and Peet's espresso.

Never again! after plugging in the Astoria and pulling a shot for the sink, liquid heaven. I don't think I'll ever be able to go that long again! So here is Mr. Square Pants, Not the most pretty machine but what a performer!

Viva la LMWDP!






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I had one of these Mr Espresso machines in 1992. It had been converted to propane, I converted it back to electric in 1995. Sold it in 1996 - stupid. The guy i sold it to never used it, and then died and it got auctioned away. After the rebuild it was totally manual - even the water fill. Had to be careful!

^^I was like that for a while after seeing the gallery
From now on, when i pull the lever of my La Peppina, I will close my eyes and pretend it's a La Marzocco lever.

Wow how twisted is that. Pull on dude.