"A spring or not a spring, that is the question" - my apologies to Shakespeare and this forum

Seriously, I am considering a lever machine but with the minimalist approach and budget. La Pavonis and the Ponte Vecchio Export suit both criteria. Proven here, both are capable of making very good espresso. I sense that the spring machine can be a little more forgiving in technique. But has a downside of requiring a compression fixture for reassembling the spring loaded piston. When needed I can design and fabricate a fixture so this should not be an issue. Hence I am leaning towards the spring.

I would appreciate any comments.

Thanks

espressme wrote:Welcome Brother, however, you have a ways to go before numerically beating my faw paws.
Cheers
richard

Do you mean your faux pas cos if so you can add another to the list

Yeah thats what he meant - he loves to play with those vowels and such- he is "touched " that way...

in the head I mean..... ... pay attention son! Chicken hawk , I say...

Sorry Channeling Foghorn leghorn came upon me all of a sudden... It is gone now-- Whew!

timo888 wrote:The Pavoni is a manual lever posing as a spring-lever.

Faked me out. The Pavoni's resting lever position is down, not up.

Joking aside, there is such a difference in the way manual levers and spring levers do their thing to the coffee that I consider their visual similarities to be a superficial resemblance.

Brew pressure profile is one of the core attributes of any espresso machine. A very adept barista might be able to mimic with a manual lever the brew pressure profile of a spring lever ( H-B member jepy has done so with a computer-controlled pump machine IIRC) -- but except for that scenario, the two classes of domestic lever are radically different in how they bring pressure to bear upon the puck, and these differences produce significant differences in the cup.

Where the spring puts an absolute limit on the brew pressure (domestic spring most likely 6 to 7 bars) and the spring lever's pressure trails off towards the end of the pull owing to the dynamics of the decompressing metal, the manual lever's pressure can ramp up slowly or quickly, oscillate, wobble, dip and dive, or go high enough to bust a gasket.

Speaking of gaskets, home-maintenance is much more challenging with a domestic spring lever.

But I still like spring levers a lot. Don't get me wrong. The Lusso's temperature stability puts it in a duty-cycle (domestic) class all by itself ... at least until some other domestic spring lever with a thermosyphon struts down the pike.

Regards
Timo

Timo,

Thanks for your informative response. I have been very encouraged by you and others on this forum at being able to make very good coffee with simple lever machines and hand grinders. The simplicity and Zen like approach to coffee making is very appealing. Not to mention if fits my budget at present and is a means to enjoy good coffee until I can move up to an Olympia or the like. At present I would be quite happy to get just a good shot until I have the time and money to fully support what appears to be a fascinating addiction you folk share.

Thanks to all for an excellent forum

Geoffrey