Looking at what's optional I'd say $10k might be on the low side for an average machine. Since just about every possible cosmetic treatment for the bodywork is optional I wonder what you get with the base machine??

what are pre brew times

Pre Brew Timer Option

Slayer talk for programmable pre infusion.

Do you have to select one of the trim options in addition to the base price, or what? I can't think what it would come with otherwise. Bare hot rolled sheet metal? No case?

What happened about the pourover option for the single group machines?

The single group Slayer is starting to look like twice the (street) price of a GS/3. Looking forward to a user experience thread.

As for programmable pre-infusion, the Strada mod for the GS/3 MP gives a lot of control for pre-infusion in terms of time and pressure, plus intra-shot pressure control. The non-MP, volumetric, version of GS/3 also has some pre-infusion options as well.

If you are not worried about early adopter issues, go for it. If you are, and money is no object, a Speedster might be calling for you

Tamarian makes a nice point.

If this is the price range you're playing in, Id at least have the Speedster on the short list.

Ive watched the slayer for as long as Ive known about it, always tried to know what I could about the concept and the machine. Personal opinion- always been a big fan. Aesthetically it is one shmexy looking machine.

I wanted to say that, before I said this:

Anyone who knows me knows Im a la marzocco fan boy. Love the Linea, Always craved a GS/3, would still get one today. But if I was playing in a high price ballpark that could potentially get me a Slayer, or a Synesso, or a Speedster, the GS/3 would fall by the wayside really fast.

And with that said, If I were in your shoes right now, my personal choice would be:

Speedster. With almost no hesitation, Speedster. Thats just me though. Im mentioning it because, if you're playing in the big league, might as well put all the big dogs on your list of consideration.

If you're handy with electronics and working inside espresso machines, you can replace the stock volumetric GS/3 pump with a gear pump for about $600. That's given me all the options I need for controlling pre-infusion and pressure during the shot. I currently have the machine setup for manual pressure profiling, but can add microprocessor control similar to the Strada EP for less than $100 and some programming time.

With such a mod, pressure isn't measured at the group head, as it is in the Slayer and the Strada-modded GS/3 MP, but that's really not necessary. There's a fairly predictable offset between pressure at the group head and pressure shown on the boiler gauge, and you really don't need to know absolute pressure. Relative pressure is more than adequate. I plan to add an electronic pressure transducer near the pump, which I outboarded, because that's the easiest place to put it. It should be relatively easy to program the microprocessor to correlate the transducer pressure with pressure read at the group with a Scace.

GS3

Compass Coffee wrote:Just got most recent price list last month: base one group Slayer $8500 US. Hot water tap $500 additional, pre-brew times $330. Then there are various trim/finish customizing uplifts available.

Those prices/features are for the 2 and 3-group machines, from what I understand. According to Jason from Slayer, the 1-group will come with a hot water tap and pre-brew timer included in the $8500 price.

Bob_McBob wrote:Do you have to select one of the trim options in addition to the base price, or what? I can't think what it would come with otherwise. Bare hot rolled sheet metal? No case?

The $8500 gets you a plain black powder-coated 1-group Slayer with the standard walnut wood trim and plain cast Xs. If you want anything else than that, you have to pay extra per the price list that was posted.

What happened about the pourover option for the single group machines?

I believe this option is intended for a future 1-group, not the one that is being released this year.

The Slayer V3 group really is an interesting design. It's not really capable of pressure profiling out of the box, from what I understand. The pump is going to operate at a fixed (configurable) speed that will equate for all intents and purposes to a fixed pressure.


Slayer V3 valve toggle assemblies. Source: Slayer's instagram

The Slayer V3 has a unique part in it (above)-an adjustable needle valve (the sole water path in the middle position of the paddle) and a fixed 0.7mm gicleur (toggled open by a 2-way valve when the paddle is in the left position). The needle valve gives you a feature that you won't have on a GS3, or any other machine, out of the box-the ability to control not preinfusion pressure (at least, not directly), but the time it takes to come to preinfusion pressure-the time during which water is delivered to the group, but not quickly enough that any pressure builds at all. This is what Slayer means by "flow" profiling. The Slayer V3 gives you 2 flow rates that you can toggle between, one of which is configurable (by adjusting the needle valve).

This is a really interesting prospect to me; I've been meaning to start a discussion about it for a month or so. It's also not something that you can get with pump-controlled "pressure profiling," which is all I have ever played with. You can mimic the feature using a manual paddle on a La Marzocco, but repeatability is very problematic. Of course, adding a needle valve to the brew path of a GS3 would be a relatively small task, if the feature proves compelling.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have preordered a Slayer 1 group. The above information is based on discussions I've had with Jason Prefontaine about how the machine works, before and after I decided to preorder. While I could certainly imitate the Slayer's "adjustable water debit" on my Shot Brewer, it's much more difficult to imitate its beautiful design.