keno wrote:Yes, my bad, it's on the right and not the left. Dyslexic moment. I will fix in the above post.

No problema...can the boilers or at least the steam boiler be easily drained ?

Beezer wrote:Is the pressurestat for the steam boiler a Mater or Sirai unit?

Having owned a few machines with Sirai p-stats I can definitely say it is not a Sirai. They have a distinctive clicking on and off sound. This p-stat is quieter, which I like better.

Also Sirai p-stats have a dead band of about 0.2 bar. This p-stat has a dead band of about 0.5 bar, clicking on when the pressure gets below 1.5 bar and off when it heats up to 2.0. This should result in fewer cycles and therefore hopefully the p-stat will last longer.

But, in any event, not to worry as the part number on LM's website (L271) shows the replacement cost as being only $36.67.

CSME9 wrote:No problema...can the boilers or at least the steam boiler be easily drained ?

Don't think it would be necessary to drain the brew boiler as its only 175ml. Not sure about the steam boiler as I have not had the machine open yet. From the LM exploded parts view of the boiler I don't see a drain.

Of course you can always drain it manually by heating up to full pressure, turning off the machine, and opening up the hot water tap. But this will not completely drain the boiler.

keno wrote:Yes, my bad, it's on the right and not the left. Dyslexic moment. I will fix in the above post.

You actually had it right the first time. Point of reference should always be from the object you are referring to. The left side of my house appears to be the right side when viewed by a pedestrian on the sidewalk, but with the house as the point of reference, it's really the left side.

Guess I just can't get it right today. LOL!

At least I think everyone knows what I mean.

keno wrote:Don't think it would be necessary to drain the brew boiler as its only 175ml. Not sure about the steam boiler as I have not had the machine open yet. From the LM exploded parts view of the boiler I don't see a drain.

Of course you can always drain it manually by heating up to full pressure, turning off the machine, and opening up the hot water tap. But this will not completely drain the boiler.

Both boilers have a drain that's easily accessed with the panels off.

Good to know, thanks for the info.

How do you find the forgiveness of the Mini? Some have been wondering about this, since it doesn't have an advanced preinfusion scheme.

For example, how does forgiveness compare to your previous ECM HX, since E61s are known to be forgiving of distribution errors.

I've had the Linea Mini a little over a week now, so this weekend I decided to get a little more hands on use with it. I bought a gallon of milk and pulled some coffee out of the freezer to practice pulling shots and steaming milk. Pulling so many shots in succession gave me a chance to play around with some variables and get used to the machine. So I thought I'd update this thread with my findings.

I'll start with this question: So far, I've found the Mini to be more forgiving than the E61. The preinfusion must be doing its job pretty well. I have had very few issues with channeling, not that I had a lot with my E61, but I definitely feel like that was more of an issue on the E61.

I should note that I've mostly been using the LM 17g basket (basically the same as VST 17g) and as long as I actually dose it with 17g it works great. With 17 g when I dump the puck I notice a distinct depression from the shower screen screw, so I think it's important not to overdose these baskets with this machine, as it does not have any extra head space. The few times that I had channeling issues or noticeably worse extractions it was when overdosing. I know that in his review Chris Tacy said that he did not like the LM baskets and preferred the EPNW HQ baskets. I have one of those and tried it and did not like it. But then again, I had a VST 17g that I mainly used in my E61 machine, so it may just be that I prefer that basket.

Some other observations so far:

• The Mini pulls nice shots, even on some older coffee from my fridge that was past its prime.
• The Mini also pulls very syrupy shots, as least compared to my E61.
• The wheel on the side that controls the PID works well. Dialing it down for some darker roasted coffees eliminated any bitter edge and highlighted the chocolates and caramels, while dialing it up a bit helped to balance out the acidity of lighter roasted coffees. Still need to experiment with this more with some better coffee.
• It takes some practice to get used to the steaming power. The biggest challenge for me has been to avoid overstretching the milk. Wand placement and controlling the pressure with the steam knob are critical. Going to practice with a gallon of milk until I get it down.
• Keeping it clean is super easy. The back panel above the drip tray is flat (unlike an E61 where the group exhaust is in the way) and a quick wipe keeps it clean. The shower screen is much easier to remove and clean than an E61 since its just a single screw and there is no need to remove the gasket.
• On the subject of gaskets, I installed a Cafelat silicone gasket since I really liked them in my E61, but I took it out and went back to the stock LM gasket. The silicone gasket was too stiff, the PF handle sat at 7:30 (as opposed to 7:00 with LM gasket), and worst of all it leaked slightly unless it was very tight. So I recommend sticking with the stock LM gasket.
• As I noted above I like the 17g LM basket. I tried the 14g and 21g baskets as well and they seem to work okay too. I know the theory with the Precision baskets is that you should be able to switch baskets and dose without the need to change the grind, but I did not find this to be the case. With the grind dialed in for the 17g basket switching to the 14g resulted in too fast an extraction and conversely switching to the 21g resulted in too slow an extraction. So I doubt I will be switching baskets much as it will take some dialing in either way.
• I tried the LM supplied tamper. It's not a cheap plastic one, it's metal and heavy. Mine did not look like the one pictured in Chris Tacy's review. The verdict on the tamper - it still sucks! The bottom is convex and the handle is very uncomfortable. I much prefer the feel of my Clive tamper and also got noticeably better extractions with its flat bottom.

Another nice thing that La Marzocco does is to package the Linea Mini with 2 water test kits. These test kits include water test strips for total hardness, free chlorine, total chlorine, pH and alkalinity, and chloride. There is also a powder and vial to test for iron. La Marzocco does not recommend descaling the machine and instead strongly encourages users to test and treat the water to minimize scale buildup. They also offer an online water treatment calculator that provides their recommended ranges for water parameters as well as water treatment recommendations. For additional info, check out this video that provides a great overview of water for espresso to achieve good taste and a healthy machine. Interesting how high chloride in the water in Cambridge, MA caused serious corrosion problems. If you want even more info, you can read Jim Schulman's Insanely Long Water FAQ.

The water in our area is on the soft side and overall very good for espresso machine use so I used one of the supplied test kits to evaluate it as a baseline. TDS was low, chlorine was a little high, and pH and alkalinity were a little low. So I treated the water with a Brita filter to eliminate the chlorine and added a very small amount of potassium carbonate to increase pH (to neutral) and alkalinity (to 80 ppm) using some other test strips to make the adjustment. I then used the second LM supplied test kit to evaluate my post-treatment water. It was spot on with all LM recommendations, with the exception of TDS which is a little low. I could add some calcium carbonate to increase, but the espresso tastes good as it is and with slightly lower TDS it will reduce any chance of scaling. I'd recommend taking this overall approach to water treatment even if you don't have an LM machine as it should reduce the risk of problems down the road and eliminate a lot of maintenance hassles with descaling.