I recently purchased a Pro 500 and I eventually found a spot for it in my tiny kitchen. I have the Sette 270, but it will be replaced with a Niche Zero in February.

So the Pro 500 found a home in a corner of the kitchen partly under the overhead cabinets. My kitchen, due to it's small size was custom built to eek out every last possible cubic inch of storage and so my overhead cabinets are only 41cm over the counter.

No matter how many times I measure it, there just is not enough height for the Syncronica. I don't like the looks of the Bianca but I have figured out that I can squeeze in the Pro 700 if I remove the cup railing, which I have also done on the Pro 500. The railing on the 500 does slide in underneath the cabinet, but it makes it more difficult to remove the top to fill it with water. Yes, I suppose the Linea Mini would fit, but the price is a bit much for me.

Why would I want to change? Mostly the ability to plumb it in if I wish. Pour over is getting old... Not unbearable, just old. As I live alone (my wife passed away in August), I don't need to do multiple shots in short order... I usually make a l6 oz Americano in the morning and when it's gone, I'll make a second one.... Sometimes I might make a large latte or have a straight espresso, but mostly Americanos. In the evening, I switch to a decaf espresso blend and make a couple more 16 oz Americanos. To be honest, I've wanted an espresso maker for almost 2 decades, but the Mrs. would have killed me if I spent that kind of money. Now that she's gone, I have little else to occupy my time and I figured I'm probably better off drowning my sorrows in coffee rather than something else. I will also say that for the first 3 weeks I thought I'd made a terrible mistake and that espresso was horrible tasting... Well, the forth week came around and all of a sudden things started tasting sweet!

So.... I may keep the 500, the 600 really appeals to me, but it can't be plumbed in, and so far only the 700 seems to fit.

I have thought about the La Spaziale, but the low height under the portafilter and the basket diameter, not to mention the styling and push button operation isn't my cup of tea. To be honest, the 600 with a rotary pump would have been perfect... but they don't make one. Am I missing any other possibilities?

The Decent is another non contender, I've seen too many computers turn into doorstops because they went out of date in 10 years.

Regards

Christian

Hi Christian. I am sorry for your loss. I'm glad you have found a hobby to occupy your time! There are machines to choose from that should meet your needs. But since you like Profitec there is a machine they make for a retailer that is super compact. It's a Luca (Profitec) S58, it's a under 11 inches tall. Take a look, I have been fascinated by the ideas of this machine and would love to see someone tell us how well it works.

If you are fine with your actual HX machine, Rocket chronometro R can be plumbed-in and are cheaper than the Pro700.

You need to check the height of the Mozzafiato (fix cup rail) vs the Giotto (removeable cup rail) and the pricing vs the Pro700 in your country.

We had the exact same problem with the last house we bought. The previous owners were very short and when they had the house built they had all the top cabinets mounted much lower than normal. My solution was to raise the top cabinets over the area where I wanted my equipment. I assumed that this would be a major project, but it turned out that they were only fastened to the wall with a few screws. Moving two of them up and touching up the paint took me less than a day. At first, I thought it might look a bit odd to have a few cabinets at a different height instead of all nicely aligned, but lo and behold! Around here at least, that seems to be in style these days. New houses all seem to have the top cabinets at two different heights.

Thanks for some interesting ideas so far.

That Lucca looks amazing, and it's almost perfect, but it's 16.5" in height and not 11". (Apologies, I was looking at the 58, not the 58S. The 58S is an inch shorter as it does not have the cup rail, but it's sold out and it's not listed by my Canadian source) I would have to remove the cup rail and I'm not sure you can on that machine. A second problem is that I have only found one online dealer in Canada that might be able to supply it, but it's out of stock. I can purchase many brands from my local dealer in Winnipeg who can offer service and even offers in home service and repair. The Lucca would require shipping 2000km and I'm not comfortable with that. Cross border shopping was an option at one time, but the Canadian dollar has taken a nosedive and while at one time it was par with the US $, it's now significantly lower.... making purchasing from the US an absolute last resort.

I looked at the Rocket 58 and again, that cup rail is just slightly too high... If it could be removed, it too is a possibility (but over $1000 more than a 700) and I can purchase that one locally. As for an HX, changing the machine, only to retain the HX boiler and just gain plumb in, seems a bit wasteful considering the cost, an upgrade to a DB machine would at least seem like a worthwhile endevour, even if not technically necessary in my circumstance.

Changing the cabinet.... I've been resisting this idea, but I have to admit... I should consider it. I had to modify the cabinet over the refrigerator as the closest replacement I could find was a couple inches taller. In my situation, there is no overhead space above the cabinets (the cabinet over the fridge DID have hidden space above it). We needed every last speck of storage space and so the cabinets go almost to the ceiling and the doors are within a cm of the crown molding. I would have to have the cabinet cut down and new doors made up (stick and rail panel doors) to make it happen, and that seems like too much work when the Pro 700 will slide in without issue by removing the cup rail.


Christian

I stood standing there, staring at the cabinet and espresso machine. Yes, I can move the cabinet up without having to make new doors, and no it won't be easy. However, it WOULD look strange as that cabinet frames in the left side of a wall mounted microwave/range hood.

So, I'm back to the 700 or just staying with the 500 which is obviously cheaper by far. The good news is that I decided to clean the Sette and figured I might as well fix the tension on the micro adjust. It was easy, I just put some cotton string under the felt strip and that snugged it up nicely. No more wandering settings during grinding.

Oh you are right regarding the Luca, the dimensions I quoted were for the under cabinet portion, sorry about that!

I've kept looking and I have found a few more options, but the only one within my price range is the only one I don't like!

The following will fit under the cabinet without the need to remove a cup rail or anything:

Lelit Bianca
Rocket R60V
La Marzocco Linea Mini
La Marzocco GS3
Slayer

I do not care for the looks of the Bianca. The rest are too expensive, with the GS3 and Slayer being too wide for my tastes. I really like the looks of the Rocket, but it costs about 80 lbs of roasted coffee more than the Pro 700. Perhaps it's worth it, perhaps not...... At least I have another 5 months of winter weather to think about it. I'm not going to upgrade until spring arrives and by then I may have made my peace with the Pro 500 and doing the pour over thing.

Just an update, should anyone care.

I have, after almost 1 year of thinking, decided to upgrade to the Profitec Pro 600. It fits my kitchen and uses a less expensive vibratory pump, which, if it ever fails, has a much more appealing price tag than a rotary pump. I considered the plumb in question, but I doubt I would ever do it. I've used a pour over for almost a year now and it doesn't bother me.

The 700 does have a 2 liter steam boiler over the 1l steam boiler on the 600, but as I make less than 10 milk drinks in a year.... the extra steam power would just be wasted and a 1l boiler is plenty large enough. I did search for a single boiler that might suit my needs, but honestly, I didn't find any that I liked.

Regards

Christian