For those following this review, Eugene has the Dalla Corte Super Mini, the bigger sibling of the model Ian has discussed in this thread. The Super is 20" tall versus the regular Mini 15.4", bigger steam boiler, higher wattage, steam tap, etc.

One of the nice things about double boilers is lots of steam and the Dalla Corte Mini is no exception. I timed some different size pitchers today. It took 23 seconds with the stock tip to get 8oz of 40°F water up to 160°F. The tip that came with my machine is a three hole tip. Not sure of the exact hole size. If I had to guess I would say around 1.0mm based on some of my other tips. Larger volumes took longer - 10oz was 35 seconds and 12oz was 44 seconds. I didn't wait for the steam boiler to recover at all just the time it took me to get setup for the next test. Maybe a more "controlled" experiment would put recovery time in there between tests. It may speed up the larger volumes a bit. Needless to say you won't run out of steam.

One small issue with steaming is the articulation of the steam wand. It won't raise up quite enough to easily fit a larger pitcher underneath. Here is a picture of the wand fully raised and a 16oz and 24oz pitcher. The 16oz just makes it and you have to work at it to get the 24oz under the wand.



A little more lift would have been nice.

Cheers

Ian

HB wrote:For those following this review, Eugene has the Dalla Corte Super Mini, the bigger sibling of the model Ian has discussed in this thread. The Super is 20" tall versus the regular Mini 15.4", bigger steam boiler, higher wattage, steam tap, etc.

I'm guessing that a plumbed-in supermini actually saturates the puck in a 4-second pre-infusion due to its rotary pump and associated water mains pressure. The photos of the 4-sec "pre-infusion" from the vibe pump-equipped mini don't speak well for that particular implementation. From those photos there is no effective pre-infusion for the majority of the coffee cake.

-Greg

geneene wrote:<image>

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My SUPER MINI!!!! and espresso shots

really lovin it!!

What exactly is that inviting object in the middle? That picture is a beauty.

Looks like a small spoonful of sugar. Nice how the crema supports it. I can almost taste the shot. Yum!

a detailed look at the brewhead


Dalla Corte evolution / super mini / mini brewhead


brewhead


removed the showerhead and showerfilter


showerhead set

Wow, thanks for the diagram and photos. I am very impressed with that design--seems like a group that truly is designed with a dedicated brew boiler in mind, even more so than, say, a La Marzocco. I'll be curious to see what its temperature stability is...

woodchuck wrote:John, it's not much. I believe the water is just what's pooled in the group and what ever modest amount of pressure is in the group because of the warmer water prior to the vibe kicking in.

Cheers

Ian

From my own informal experiments, it seems that the volume of water hitting the puck is the same whether 2 or 4 seconds of pre-infusion is selected. From the picture, the lack of greater saturation with the longer time suggests there's little or no pressure. For that reason, and because I couldn't taste a difference between 2 and 4, I've set my Mini to 2 seconds of preinfusion and have been very happy.

gscace wrote:I'm guessing that a plumbed-in supermini actually saturates the puck in a 4-second pre-infusion due to its rotary pump and associated water mains pressure. The photos of the 4-sec "pre-infusion" from the vibe pump-equipped mini don't speak well for that particular implementation. From those photos there is no effective pre-infusion for the majority of the coffee cake.

-Greg

Hi Greg,

Adding some sort of "pre-infusion" program to a vibe pump is about as useful as tits on a bull. With their gradual pressure ramp up, vibe pumps give you "pre-infusion" for free, without the need to do anything. Further slowing down the native pressure ramp up on a vibe machine may do more harm that good.

ken