Colin,
Congrats on the fix.
As for returning the Cremina to your brother, I won't sweat it, the Eurobar's got it trumped!

I agree, the Eurobar has distinct advantages, but I did enjoy using the Cremina as well. It's funny how different the dosing and grind it likes were though. The Cremina baskets are bigger, so that isn't so surprising, but the Cremina tended to choke at a coarser grind than the Eurobar when I used Elektra double baskets in the Cremina. I also have two different Pavoni baskets, one original and two newer. The newer baskets are a little smaller and choke sooner than the older basket. When properly dosed with appropriate grind each basket also seems to result in different flavors in the espresso. The end result is with two machines and one coffee I could make 4 slightly different doubles!

Cheers,
Colin

@Colin Glad to hear you got the Eurobar back up and running. The moment I read your first post I suspected the thermal fuse. It's too bad there's no easy way to set up a resettable fuse.

@Colin @Garth While I have you fellow Eurobar owners here, any quirks you've discovered working with the machine? It's my first espresso machine, lever or otherwise, so I really have nothing to compare two. From what I've read though, you both have considerably more experience with other machines.

@Colin Glad to hear you got the Eurobar back up and running. The moment I read your first post I suspected the thermal fuse. It's too bad there's no easy way to set up a resettable fuse.

Hi there! How has your restoration gone? Send us some pictures! A resettable fuse would be nice. One could could do it pretty easily with a little creativity I think, but the fusible link isn't all that inconvenient. It was simple to replace, and now I have a spare on hand in case it happens again.

@Colin @Garth While I have you fellow Eurobar owners here, any quirks you've discovered working with the machine? It's my first espresso machine, lever or otherwise, so I really have nothing to compare two. From what I've read though, you both have considerably more experience with other machines.

Quirks? I'm not sure. I think the thermosiphon works best if you purge the steam wand and water pipe to remove stall-inducing air pockets, though I could be wrong. I've found it to be a forgiving machine. I get the best results if I actively preinfuse the puck with a little pressure from the lever followed by a full pull, but that is a matter of taste, other prep variables, and so forth. The biggest nag for me is that the frame bends a bit if you pull too hard on the lever, like during a really slow ristretto. However, I've finally fixed that with some custom brackets. I'll show those off some day when I have the machine open and a camera handy. I'm also working on bending a piece of plexiglass to replace the missing cup rail (originally plexi as well I bet, see attached). Enjoy your machine, and take care.


Cheers,
Colin

I think Colin nailed it - biggest drawback is the willingness of the frame to bend, but if you're aware of it, it's easy to watch out for (though Colin, I'm very curious to see your workaround for this).
I'm more of an espresso hack, my taste is nowhere near as nuanced as many of the folks that lurk around here.
I've come to love my Eurobar for its consistency, boiler size, steam power and design. Having acclimatized to a club style home machine, I'm not sure I could ever go back to something I can't rest my cups on (**cough, cough, Cremina**).
I've always been smitten with Europiccola's and have found them to be rock solid machines, though the lack of a cup tray, smaller boiler size and tendency to overheat dull their shine.
My Cremina was a bit of a let down, though I haven't given it a completely fair shot. After a full frame up restoration, I used it for a couple of months before it had a meltdown that sent me right back to my Eurobar. I went in with really high expectations for the machine, but found it to be a bit of a fire breathing dragon that always left me with soggy pucks. I realize, I didn't use it long enough to really dial it in, but I've been around levers long enough that compared to any of my other machines, I had it really dialed in. I'm left thinking Cremina's must just be a bit tougher to get set up. I have every intention of getting the Cremina back online this winter at which point I'll certainly be open to any and all advice regarding how I should set it up and with hope, I'll revise my opinion.
My biggest curiosity is how my Olympia Club will stack up against the Eurobar. I've been waiting over 6 months for seals and gaskets to arrive from Olympia and last month I thought I was all set after receiving a package from Swiss Coffee. Sadly, they had sent me all the seals and gaskets I needed - for a Cremina, so I'm now back to the waiting game...
Doug, if you're out there reading this, I bought everything I could from you for the Club, but I'm starting to think you should sell custom cut boiler and sight level gaskets for the machine - it's the missing link that's preventing a leverhead from completely restoring a Club via OE....
Lastly, Colin - let me know how the plexiglass bending goes - if you want to do the work for a second, I'll pay the bill for both!

Lastly, Colin - let me know how the plexiglass bending goes - if you want to do the work for a second, I'll pay the bill for both!

Sure thing. I was trying to decide between opaque yellow, translucent yellow, and translucent smoke. You can see what the colors look like here. Any thoughts? I like the idea of yellow. A yellow and red combination screams Ferrari to me. I could maybe hook you up with a bracket too eventually. I'll send you some shots of the solution once it is finished.

Cheers,
Colin

Hi Colin,

I would like to up this thread as there are not much Eurobar owners but you can count on me !

My boiler was well repaired and now I need advice on how to pull nice espressi from that lovely italian engine.

Have you tried to take water temperature straight off the group - still at 0.9 bars ?

On mine, the temp is too high or the pressure too low to put water into the piston once the lever is up, can't find any good pressurestat setting for now.

Also, have you got a new plexiglass gasket ? As mine is not missing, I can give you the original dimenssions.

Cheers
Flo

Hello Flo, my pressurestat setting varies a bit depending upon the coffee, but it typically .8-.9 bar. Maybe Garth can chime in here as well. I get wonderful espresso shots from the machine. How long do you warm up the machine? Also, how did you repair the boiler? Silver solder?

Cheers,
Colin

PS I'd love the plexiglass dimensions.

Colin,
It's funny, I was just thinking of you this weekend as I finally got my Cremina up and running again (thanks to all those that offered their advice on a separate thread). As far as I know, we're the only two folks around here to have had the pleasure of this set up:



Now I'm starting to mess around with the Cremina again, though I'd have to agree with an earlier statement of yours, the Eurobar seems much more forgiving.
I'm consistently able to get great crema (and shots in general) from the Cremina, but I find it seems to run a little hot and rarely gives me the solid dry pucks I get from the Eurobar.
Often times, they're soggy or pock-marked, leaving considerably more grounds stuck to the dispersion screen.
One thing I've found interesting is that my baskets are interchangeable between the two machines with no real noticeable difference in performance. At this point, I'm no longer even sure which basket belongs with which machine. Grinds also seem to be pretty similar, but as you can see from the photo my grinder is functional, but nothing fancy. Also, I should add that I'm far from an espresso sommelier - as long as what I make is as good as the local hipster joint I'm happy.
Now that the Cremina is online, I'm hoping to tackle a rebuild of the Eurobar one of these days, though I've got an Olympia Club that's next in line.
All in all, the Eurobar is still my favorite, though I'm still holding out hope that Olympia will blow my mind one of these days with either the Cremina, Club or Caffarex (though it remains to be seen if my Caffarex can be saved).
Oh - I nearly forgot to chime in re: pressurestat settings. I'll double check next time I use it, but I'm quite certain it's .9 with a little floating depending on the mood of the machine.