Hi all, after waiting nearly a month to receive my new machine, it arrived yesterday and I got to work.

The machine arrived as described in the eBay auction. I cleaned and descaled it, cleaned and re-lubed the piston and , although I purchased a rebuild kit for it, all the gaskets are good and the machine works well.

Pulling shots hasn't been as hard as I imagined. Most of them have been pretty good off the get go.

I'm using 49th Parallel's "Epic" roasted 7 days before freezing. I'm dosing ~ 15g. The taste is more balanced than on my Gaggia, but I find the espresso to be very thin with little body. Everyone seems to suggest grinding finer and tamping very lightly, but my Vario is already 3 steps from the max. Any suggestions would be welcome, but so far I'm happy with my purchase.

While pulling the shot, should resistance feel the same all the way through? It seems there's very little resistance until I'm almost half- 1/4 of the way down. Then, near the end there's very little resistance at all. Is that normal?

brokemusician77 wrote: Everyone seems to suggest grinding finer and tamping very lightly, but my Vario is already 3 steps from the max. Any suggestions would be welcome, but so far I'm happy with my purchase.

You may need to calibrate the Vario. I had trouble getting fine enough when I first got mine until I calibrated it following the instructions in the manual.

I've recalibrated a bunch of times since I bought the Vario. May be time to do it again.

The first part of the pull will be lighter. You are pushing water into the puck. Once it is saturated and swells it will tighten up and you will get more resistance. I use to do a half pull, then lift to let the piston refill with water then pull the shot and yes, the resistance will lighten near the end of the pull if I remember correctly but it should not be super light. It will take around 35 pounds of pressure on the lever to generate 9 bar in the piston. If it is taking less than that, tighten up the grind. One of the nice things about a lever, you can lighten the pressure to keep the flow consistent and timing close to the mark.

Recalibrated the grinder yesterday. Chopped the portafilter today. I think it's easier to tell if the pressure's in the right ballpark by looking at the extraction. The shots look perfect, and are tasting really good.

I'm surprised at how easy this machine is to operate. I was initially pretty intimidated by the idea of buying a lever. After 2 years with the Gaggia, I've got my grinding/dose/tamp technique down really well. I'm also used to having to temp surf that machine. So the only real difference is having to pull the shot manually. I can see this being a really finicky machine for newbies, but it's taken me almost no time to get the hang of it.

After only four days with it, I'm consistently pulling better shots than I was with the Gaggia, making great microfoam and pouring Latte Art. No sweat!

Since this was purchased as an interim machine, while I wait to buy a Bezzera, I didn't have high hopes for it, but I think I'll keep it around awhile.