cheech wrote:It would be nice to have at times, but I more than likely wouldnt change the preinfusion settings all that often. I somewhat appreciate the simplicity of the Linea Mini, and not having preinfusion as one more variable to tinker with. I change coffee frequently, and already waste enough dialing each one in on the grinder.

This is exactly why I switched from the Slayer to a LM. I love the simplicity of the machine, especially in a home environment where we don't want to waste too much coffee dialing in.

Ryan, Mike, are you guys at 9 bar?

It really depends upon what types of beans and roast levels one prefers. For me, I wouldn't want to give up my Slayer; I value and utilize the flexibility of being able to have complete control over the pre-brew/pre-infusion process (as well as all the other brew perimeters so easily adjusted on the Slayer) for a wide variety of roast levels including, of course, very light roasts which require lengthened pre-brew time.

For compare: Try Dragonfly's Leam Hammer without a long soft pre-brew period. And then with it. Night/day. I thoroughly enjoy lighter roasts like LH.

You can induce some pre-infusion with the Linea Mini by upsizing your basket. For instance, try using a 20 gram basket for an 18 gram dose. This leaves a little extra headroom above the puck that needs to fill with water before the shot reaches full pressure. It also helps to run lower pump pressure and use the 0.6mm flow restrictor to slow down the flow. You may also need to grind finer when switching to the larger basket since the hole pattern is designed for a larger dose. It's a good way to increase extraction for lighter roasted coffees.

spressomon wrote:It really depends upon what types of beans and roast levels one prefers. For me, I wouldn't want to give up my Slayer; I value and utilize the flexibility of being able to have complete control over the pre-brew/pre-infusion process (as well as all the other brew perimeters so easily adjusted on the Slayer) for a wide variety of roast levels including, of course, very light roasts which require lengthened pre-brew time.

For compare: Try Dragonfly's Leam Hammer without a long soft pre-brew period. And then with it. Night/day. I thoroughly enjoy lighter roasts like LH.

This ^^^

I don't have a Slayer, but I like light roasts and and also enjoy the full control over pre-infusion duration and pressure my machine gives me. And through a simple mod, I also have full authority, real time, on the fly control of brew pressure, which is also nice when dealing with light roasts. The Mini is nice and all, but when/if my machine is no longer repair/maintainable, I'll be needing a machine that gives me that level of control. It's too important to the way i do espresso. Whatever machine I settle on one day down the road may be a La Marzocco. But it won't be a Mini... Unless the modding community gets up to some serious business on it.

-Peter