IMAWriter wrote: How many shots can you pull before it gets too "toasty?"
It's not HX, correct?
This is so new to me. And I'm quite confused on this point. From my reading here I had assumed that the accepted wisdom, as per your questions also, is that these lever's had a limited use before the group overheated and there was no easy way to cool it down except to let it rest, or play with the on/off switch (i.e. turn the machine off while brewing). But the Cimbali dealer tells me that this machine has the opposite problem when pulling multiple shots. He says it cools down. He is refering to the water in the boiler, I assume and not the group head. I've not had occasion to pull more than 2 shots at a time so far, and this kind of use will be normal 99% of the time so I'm not too worried about it. I'm looking forward to learning lots through experience.
BTW, this machine has autofill, but it also has a very, very cool "lever" knob (the knob to the right of the power switch on the bottom of the machine) that pulls out and pushes down to manually fill the boiler. It is plumbed in, both boiler and drain.
What I have noticed, compared to my Jr. is a very slow recovery time when the boiler pressure is brought way down (like when I use the hot water tap to draw out 500ml of water to force a cycle). I assume this is because it has been converted to 110 from it's original 220 power.
Over all, a super, super cool machine to use.