Buy Niche Zero and add PID to Rancilio Silvia?

Recommendations for buyers and upgraders from the site's members.
Boomer44
Posts: 17
Joined: 7 years ago

#1: Post by Boomer44 »

Hey Everyone, I've recently come to terms that I'm not going to be able to afford a Linea mini for a while lol. I'd still like to get one down the road and possibly build out a coffee cart, but that's a different story.

My question is. Would buying a niche and getting a pid for my Silvia get me where I want to be? Or is it a waste to pid the Silvia? I used to be all about lattes and my cup size wheat from the acme mighty cup, to the latte size cup, to the cappuccino size cup and now I'm all about single origin espresso. Don't get me wrong I still like a small milk drink here and there lol but have really came to enjoy straight espresso.

I was looking at the mecoffee kit... looks awesome but not a lot of info on it? What do y'all think? Thanks!

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MNate
Posts: 960
Joined: 8 years ago

#2: Post by MNate »

Well, I think that combo can certainly make very excellent drinks. If you develop the skill, the Silvia is really good. It's main liability is just that it takes a long, intricate routine. Because of that though, a manual grinder like the Pharos really fits well because while you're waiting on the Silvia to get to temp you do one step on the Pharos, and then while you're waiting again you do another step on your grinder. That's particularly so for milk drinks though. But Niche is great, I hear.

PID helps a bit. I think many of us who have PID'd their Silvia's think a year later that we really don't need the PID (unless you like to set a different temp for different beans) but I doubt we would have learned the nuances of the machine so well without that display telling us what's going on. So it is helpful.

So I think you'll do well with that combo, and make great espresso fairly quickly. But since it sounds like you've got the itch, it will likely be inevitable that you'll want to upgrade, if only for the work flow.

Pharos + PID seems rather well regarded, but most saying at new prices there may be better options out there. (But you already have one, and are just thinking of adding PID, yes?)
Niche seems well regarded, especially for the price. You could keep it and be happy, I'd think, whenever you upgrade your espresso machine.