Finally bit the bullet and moved up from a heat exchange system to the GS 3. Let me emphasize - the GS 3 produces excellent and consistent extractions. But at what cost. For the high price you get a machine too heavy to easily ship should you require service. Even in central Ohio I have found no technical service. I received the machine with no instructions on software programming. I did download and print the owners manual, but after several attempts to program something as simple as turning the machine to an off setting, called support only to find out the users manual online did not match my machine. Once I identified the correct buttons for programming I attempted to set the amount of water dosage. After two days of frustration I again called support only to be told that to measure water flow one has to use a filled porta basket. (Where was this in the instructions? ) In short I think the machine is grossly overpriced and certainly not well supported with documentation. Anywhere outside the confines of nearby dealers I would suggest be cautious.

Since it's such a PITA I'll swing through Ohio on my way to Florida this weekend and take it off your hands. Do you want my Ferrari Red Linea Mini? Its much more manual and I'll show you how to use it.

Sorry to hear about your frustrations. I'm concerned as I just put a deposit down for a GS3MP with an ETA of 2 months from now.

I've been reading online in preparation for the machine and came across the manual from Clive:
https://support.clivecoffee.com/la-marz ... ser-manual

They also have linked a software programming guide:
https://links.imagerelay.com/cdn/2615/q ... _Guide.pdf

I'm not sure if you've seen these links. In any case, I hope you hammer out the details. I'm sure once you've set it up properly you'll be enjoying the excellent/consistent extractions.

Best,

Viet

Thanks for links

I own a GS3 AV. Although I paid way more for this machine than I would have liked to, I disagree that it is grossly overpriced. You need to consider the target market of the machines that La Marzocco builds. I don't think La Marzocco, who specializes in the commercial market, ever considered the home user their main customer for this machine. It was made for light commercial use with full NSF certification. Most of the components like the group boiler/saturated group are shared with other commercial machines like the Strada- which sells for over $20K. Sure, the price is out of reach for most home users, but if they were to sell this for $4-5k, it would probably start cutting into the sales or their more expensive commercial machines to commercial customers.

Anyways, for my use, the machine has been fantastic and is a joy to use. The saturated group thermal stability works as advertised. It's a big step up in espresso performance and steaming performance from my previous E61 DB. As far as programming it goes, it can be tricky to learn to do directly from the machine. That being said, I use the smartphone app to control all the programming, which works great and is very easy. The on/off timer, boiler temps, and flow meter are easily controlled.

Give yourself some time with the machine, after you get over the newness and changes to your workflow you'll discover the GS/3 has allot of depth and capabilities that you can tap into or not depending on what your goals are. I've always had great support from the La Marzocco home team when I've reached out to them with questions. Another reason I went with the GS/3 is the fact that I'll be able to get parts for it and they provide detailed parts diagrams and help if you have questions on specific parts. I really love my GS/3, and the only parts I've replaced are a steam valve rebuild kit, and the vacuum breaker assembly.

I assume you have the AV version of the GS3 and not the MP version?
Its an excellent machine using commercial durable parts, it should give you more steam than you will ever need and consistent shots.

The AV version I believe has volumetric dosing but it has the same problem as all Volumetric dosing machines, it only works if you can keep the beans at the same freshness, use the same beans, grind exactly the same, temp humidity the same.

I have a VA Prima and its great using the volumetric dosing feature. I can grind 18g, press button A and go do other stuff and it will stop at 36g out.
This however only works for a few days before it starts to skew and it depends massively on my puck prep.

Thanks to all for your supportive comments. I started the original post by noting the quality and consistency of shots. I will reemphasize - the machine produces excellent results. My rant was over the manufacturer not including any information on programming the software and for posting programming instructions that were not machine specific. This caused wasted time, beans, and a lot of unnecessary frustration. It wasn't until I called La Marzocco that I was made aware of a phone app (this is by far the best way to program the machine). Great machine -

Did you buy the machine new or used? I received a new machine from LM in January and mine came with multiple books, including about how to use the WiFi application, etc.

Supposedly new - I will check with seller.