Coelacanth wrote:Um, no I haven't seen it in person. But as I said I have a L2, which is larger than the L1P in terms of width, but otherwise similarly dimensioned so I have a pretty fair idea.

When I bought the L2, it was a stretch for me even at the demo price, however l made a couple of observations before shelling out...

Firstly, I have spent more in the past purchasing, maintaining and ultimately selling lesser quality machines and not come close to satisfaction with them. Secondly, I can think of no reason (beyond some disaster) that I will ever sell it - so let's say I get even only 20 years out of it, it will have been cheap over time (certainly vs anything that has a pump and other costly consumables). Lastly, if I do have to sell it, I would be very suprised if I took the same sort of kick in the scrotum as I did when I sold (for one example) my Nuova Simonelli 2-group.

I'm not a wealthy person. There is no Harley in the shed like half of my mates have. No jet ski. No boat etc. But I like what I like, and I don't presume to know the OP's financial situation. He said at one point the L1P would be perfect.... I say there is no such thing as overkill

Cade, thanks for sharing your personal insight and experience with the L2. I read your thread about the time Reiss came to your house, must have been an unforgettable experience! What you wrote here is one of the more compelling reasons for me to choose a commercial lever machine. In this era where cheap and disposable is promoted, I've made it a point to collect items that I will use for my entire life, and maybe even pass them along to my children. At this point, all of my coffee equipment would qualify as lifetime items, and I'd like to keep it that way. I don't mind paying more for top build quality for this reason.
The main downside of the L1-P for me is the energy required to run it. I'm sure with that massive boiler it takes quite a while to come up to temp. If I were making 5-6 drinks every morning it would be worth it, but right now it's more like 2-3 max. If the L1-P came in a slightly smaller version, say with a 4L boiler, it would be perfect. Maybe Reiss will come up with this option in the future?
That said, if there are no other similar options on the market when it comes time to buy, I'll probably end up going with the L1-P. I don't think I want to go down the road of buying and selling and upgrading, especially when it comes to the espresso machine. Grinders are another story, especially with the fantastic new products (Kafatek!) coming out. I think if I went with the Strega, I'll always have that beautiful Bosco group in the back of my mind. I'm also convinced that the HX feature of the L1-P is well worth the extra cost. Not only do you get adjustable pre-infusion pressure, but that also affects the degree of filling of the group, allowing the lever to catch earlier which changes the pressure profile and shot volume. So in a way, you have adjustable pre-infusion pressure, pressure profile, and shot volume which is not available in the L1 or similar dipper/thermosyphon type lever. Not quite the flexibility of a Vesuvius or Slayer, but I don't have any desire to own a tech-heavy machine. I want to be able to fully understand what is going on in my machine and be able to service and fix most things myself.
Thank you, Sam, for your comments. And I'd like to just say that I especially enjoy reading your posts on HB. Often they are very insightful, generous and non-pretentious.

Thanks for the kind words Randy. Sounds like L1-P might be the one for you then. It does have the 'ultimate' machine presence and aura, and it is very easy to get great shot on the L1-P. From what I've been observing, there're not that many choices when it comes to lever machines (unlike E61 dual boilers/hx which are essentially similar functionality with different shells). The most common/ easiest to manufacture levers have been dipper levers.

The downside of a HX lever is the full-warm up period is usually longer (>1 hour) and you can't flush it up to temp (because you will exhaust the HX capacity). It'll be warm enough to make coffee in about 30 min, but that won't be its full potential. However, they're really meant to be left on all day (I don't and set it on a timer). The positive side is it will not heat up for continuous back-to-back shot (if well engineered) and will work consistently without any elaborated flushing regime.

Good luck!

As an owner of a Izzo Pompeii, I have never had the slightest urge to change machines to ANYTHING else since owning it. I have used a range of commercial spring levers and IMHO they will all take your coffee to another level. I dont think there is anything much to pick between them, the Izzo appealed to my sense of aesthetics more that the alternatives at the time, otherwise I would be happy to own any of the other serious commercial levers.

randyh wrote: The main downside of the L1-P for me is the energy required to run it. I'm sure with that massive boiler it takes quite a while to come up to temp. If I were making 5-6 drinks every morning it would be worth it, but right now it's more like 2-3 max. If the L1-P came in a slightly smaller version, say with a 4L boiler, it would be perfect. Maybe Reiss will come up with this option in the future?

Sorry I didn't see this thread before now. With respect to power consumption, IIRC [anonymized] attached an energy consumption meter to his L1-P to get some consumption metrics, and they're much less than you would expect. As well, because of the thermal mass of the machine, keeping it hot once warmed up sips, rather than gulps down electricity. [anonymized] is pretty easy to reach, so ask him directly if he still has those stats.

Oh, and [anonymized] is in the Netherlands, where the cost of juice is much dearer than in the US (somewhat like the comparative cost of gasoline).

galumay wrote:As an owner of a Izzo Pompeii, I have never had the slightest urge to change machines to ANYTHING else since owning it. I have used a range of commercial spring levers and IMHO they will all take your coffee to another level. I dont think there is anything much to pick between them, the Izzo appealed to my sense of aesthetics more that the alternatives at the time, otherwise I would be happy to own any of the other serious commercial levers.

I can imagine - your machine (in the red you chose) IMO is the most beautiful machine on the market at any cost (bar its 2 group version!)

samuellaw178 wrote:

ii) PID the grouphead

Good in theory but haven't seen one in the wild in that config.

Maybe Bezzera will release a whole new strega by 2017 with build in PID as standard? I would wait and see how

Or you can buy one from at The Coffee Machinist