espressotime wrote:Nothing more analoge than a vintage machine.
video

It even has a mercury switch.

video

And no plastic or silcone in there.

I would trade it for a Speedster though.

That's true though the vintage machine wouldn't be able to do some of the things the Speedster can easily do due to that very technology that it has...

I' ve seen a Speedster only one time and I loved it.
The way it looked and the feel it gave.One of the dreammachines.I don' t care much about preinfusion pressures possibilities etc since I know I never would use them.

Absolutely. I saw one on sale many years ago at a substantially cheaper price than today due to the exchange rate then - it was so stunning that I momentarily tried to find some way to be able to afford it but it was just beyond my budget at the time. Still is today unfortunately but at least my machine itch has been fully scratched by the nurri leva In any event, after my brush with the Speedster, I got introduced to levers and after thta I was a full time lever head and so no pump machine - even the Speedster- would have sufficed after that.

I couldn't narrow it down to one...so it would be a 2-group Slayer + a Lapera.

From the example machines named by klosor5, it sounds like he is looking for the ability to make various adjustments to the shot in which case the Lapera - which is a high quality no expenses barred clone of the vintage brugnetti aurora - doesn't sound like it will fit the bill...

espressotime wrote:Is that somekind of morse apparatus in your avatar?
My dad had one of these.

Yes, my avatar is a Ham Radio morse code 'Iambic Keyer' or 'Paddle' that is used with an electronic morse code generating device that puts out perfectly spaced dits & dahs at a specifically adjusted 'words per minute' rate . You can think of it as a semi-automatic espresso machine with a rotary pump where as the picture you posted is of a beautiful 'Brass Pounder' that you can think of as a totally manual espresso machine like an Olympia Cremina lever machine that with pure muscle control the operator creates the Morse Music.

Thomas Alva Edison, very early in his career, was applying for a job as a railroad telegrapher. Sitting in the waiting room with other applicants, waiting to be called into an interview, between the sounds of telegraph message traffic was also a Morse Code message pounded out in 'Brass', "If you copy this message, my office door is open, just come on right in." As Thomas Edison was the only applicant copying the code in his head, he was the only one to get up out of his chair and walked right in. Needless to say, he was hired on the spot.

"... And that's the rest of the story!"

The early bird gets the worm.

... And the second mouse gets the cheese!

Best is very subjective and I fix machines so I get to handle many types of machines first hand. Due to my job, I look from a technical perceptive.

I personally avoid the double boilers especially for home. As reliability is definitely not as solid as a heat exchanger with much lesser components and a much simpler design. The time required to fix DB is always higher which translates to higher cost passed to consumers. They are squeezed too tight together in a small home machine and often they have bad air flow which can cause a problem with parts longevity.

I also look at more practical things like the start up time, size and power consumption. Don't be taken in by too much functions, the more functions the machine has the more things to fail and less the reliability. Many users have no idea what to do with all the extra features and I can bet you the most important thing to tune is your grinder. I noticed that excessive function could add more confusion than help anything. And you need to keep your eye on your grinder setting as the coffee oxidise everyday requiring recalibration.

We sell double boilers all the time we can't find any evidence that they taste better and would want to use it ourselves. Alot about consistency about making pristine shots everytime is often far from reality because your coffee oxidise all the time and it's almost impossible to maintain this precision constantly.

If you must get a double boiler, the larger the brew boiler the more stable it is, but at the same time the more stale water it will retain.

Users are often not aware that water in the brew boiler has very little turnover and they are reboiling the same stale water for forever. If taste is a concern, you may want to think if using stale water will matter.

I prefer copper boilers as they seem to last better and start up quicker. Before getting a stainless steel boiler, please check if your water contains any chloride. Especially if you stay near the coast. Also avoid softeners that could be reused with brine. Chloride under a pressurised and hot condition can cause s/s boiler to crumble.

Personally I will go for a fast start up machine, copper boiler hx. They could easily last for decades with minimal repairs.

Simplicity in componentry should make the machine more hardy and resistant to being more frequently requiring maintenance and repair and replacement of components and much easier to fix if it does break down. The ideal from this perspective should be a dipper type traditional lever employing a large copper boiler - such as the izzo pompei. In more than ten years it hardly required any work to be done on it and was completely reliable. However it did not have fast start up time.

I am just a home enthusiast but I have had a double boiler e61 for probably at least a decade now and the stainless steel double boilers have never failed. Only the electronics needed to be replaced at one point.

Pay utmost attention to proper water quality for your type of boiler with your city's water chemistry.

Water quality is as important to your espresso machine as burr alignment is to your grinder.

The best way to stay out of trouble is to not create it.

I had a Speedster for 5 years or so and replaced it with a Slayer. I prefer the Slayer.