Ian,

Does the steam boiler on the Brewtus remain full of water? I ask because on my Alexia I notice the steaming is better if I create "head space". To do this I simply purge the wand right after I've pulled my shot to drop the water level in the boiler, allowing room for steam. Once done steaming, I top off the boiler.

My Vetrano's boiler is only partially filled, so a ton (relatively speaking) of steam is sitting on top of the water in the boiler, allowing it to steam quite well. I was just thinking that if the Brewtus had a water level probe inserted into the steam boiler to lower the level to allow head space it'd be able to steam better (assuming an appropriate tip is fitted).

I guess my question is for all DBs...do they all have the steam boilers topped off with water, or do any of them allow head space for steam?

p.s. In addition to the great info of your reviews, thanks for the incredible pictures. Everyone loves eye candy.

Thanks for the quick answer, Dan. I feel stupid for asking such a question but wasn't sure if they were partially filled or full.

But the amount of vapor space in the boiler does effect the performance. If I remember correctly, it was somewhat counter intuitive. Less steam space, more water got you more steam pressure but a wetter steam that fades fast. Less water in the boiler gave your less pressure but a dryer steam that will run longer. Or I could be completely wrong.

cannonfodder wrote:But the amount of vapor space in the boiler does effect the performance. If I remember correctly, it was somewhat counter intuitive. Less steam space, more water got you more steam pressure but a wetter steam that fades fast. Less water in the boiler gave your less pressure but a dryer steam that will run longer. Or I could be completely wrong.

No, I think you are exactly right. It starts out counterintuitive that it is true, but then when you think about it from the perspective that (within reason) the steam boiler is filled with two things - water and steam the intuition turns because if the volume of water is higher the volume left for steam is lower and vice versa.

Well finally made in back from Palau and Yap. Two weeks on a boat with narry an espresso to be seen. Nothing like a few espressos from the Brewtus to ward off the jet lag. This one tasted mighty good to me even though it ran a bit thin - had sequestered a bit of coffee in the freezer before I left so it was a little past prime.



By the way if any of you divers out there are interested Palau has some pretty good shark action along with some great wall diving.



Will get into a few more tests once the jet lag wears off.

Cheers

Ian

woodchuck wrote:I am still disappointed in the steaming performance of the Brewtus. For a double boiler it just isn't nearly as powerful as either the Dalla Corte Mini or the La Spaziale Vivaldi. Dan and I discussed whether or not it might have something to do with the geometry of the boiler. Given a good sized boiler (1.7L) for such a small machine, it just just does not have the front end steaming power that some of the other DBs do.

According to a post of a German distributor here he actually measured the boilers to be 1.3 liters.

Bernard, thanks for the link. I'll check it out. May need some help from google translate

Cheers

Ian

In short it says that the manufacturer's data changed from 1.7 l in 2007, to 1.5 l in 2008, to 1.65 l in 2009 - without any changes in the outer dimensions, which prompted him to measure the size i.e. 1.3l

He concludes that not only do the Italians make everything bigger and longer but so do the Spaniards

A bit OT:
He also does custom work on the Brewtus III and Vibiemme Junior. Of course isolating the brew boiler is questionable but energy cost on the Vibiemme is down about 40-50% according to the description. [End of thread drift]

Bernard, thanks for the translation.

Cheers

Ian