Yes, Bezzera is still around, an no they don't sell club-style machines anymore.
Also, if you push up that lever, you'll just lift the rollers. The Faema Zodiac T1 group has the same type of roller setup if i'm not mistaken. But there are only a handful of groups in existence that have that feature. (MiniGaggia, the Gaggia sidelever, the Conti Prestina, La Peppina and from the looks of it, the Campeona home levers are the ones i know of.)

Sorrentina,

I think you have partially answered my questions. If there is only one hole in the cylinder wall of the group head then there is no path within the cylinder for the water to return to the boiler. So I suspect there is another return path. Typically a hole would be drilled up connecting the two horizontal water holes to create a return path. Unfortunately this cross drilling process leaves an unwanted hole to the outside world. This is either plugged with a screw or brazed shut. The end result is both a syphon loop and water feed to the cylinder. Is there any evidence of this?

Thanks
Geoffrey

I am not totally clear on what you mean- there only seems to be one way for the water to enter the piston- one hole. But I think what you are describing is what must be in the bridge part- and the screw at the base of the bridge is the plugged hole of which you speak.

But with only one entry hole- I wonder how well the water circulates around the group? Maybe it is just designed to circulate in the bridge part?

GB wrote:...
If there is only one hole in the cylinder wall of the group head then there is no path within the cylinder for the water to return to the boiler. So I suspect there is another return path. Typically a hole would be drilled up connecting the two horizontal water holes to create a return path. Unfortunately this cross drilling process leaves an unwanted hole to the outside world. This is either plugged with a screw or brazed shut. The end result is both a syphon loop and water feed to the cylinder.
...

If the cylinder has a liner that is pressed or screwed in then there need not be any more drilling to allow water to circulate, but that would be more expensive to manufacture and would introduce a new failure mode. Early Faema groups were made that way. It might be something to look for.

Serrentina,

The screw in the bottom of the "bridge part" could be the clue. Which as you mention would mean that the water is only circulating in that section of the grouphead and relies on conduction to heat the rest of the head.

Coffeefrog,

Thanks for the info. I was unaware of the faema system utilizing the cylinder liner. As you suggest it should have excellent thermal properties - very uniform throughout the head. But at the cost of mechanical complexity.

The more I learn about these machines the more respect I have for the ingenuity of the early designers.

Cheers
Geoffrey

sorrentinacoffee wrote:I have another question about that Bezzera group:

Can you 'help' the lever return? On the PV- and on my Sama- it is not possible to push the lever upwards and add extra force to the returning spring. I had a Mini Gaggia lever and on that machine you could 'help' the spring in this way and thereby increase the pressure and get more manual control of the shot.

Sounds like a nice feature, but as BlueCold said, the brew pressure of the Bezzera cannot be manually tweaked in this way.

GB wrote:...
Thanks for the info. I was unaware of the faema system utilizing the cylinder liner. As you suggest it should have excellent thermal properties - very uniform throughout the head. But at the cost of mechanical complexity.

The more I learn about these machines the more respect I have for the ingenuity of the early designers.
...

mechanical complexity... yer... don't ask me how I know they can leak around the liner or I will become hysterical... the first lever group was a saturated design, much more complex than the later models. The water inlet was above the piston, not blocked off by the piston seals and that meant more seals and more things to leak. Unfortunately their ideas about temperature control amounted to high, low and off and pressure regulation was an emission valve and a weight.