Lelit Elizabeth Owner Experience - Page 2

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
babalu120483
Posts: 75
Joined: 5 years ago

#11: Post by babalu120483 »

hercdeisel wrote:Good luck! I wish I lived close enough to a dealer to be able to play with the machines before hand. I think it really is the coinflip. I do love the classic look of the e61, for me it's just about warm up time.
So After much debate and off course clearing it with the wife, I pulled the trigger on the Elizabeth. I placed the order on Monday and received it late Tuesday night (Shipping was included and because I am only less than 2 hours away from 1st Coffee, I got it in less than 24 hours).

All I did was take her out, fill her up and run some water so the system gets prepped and ready. I was surprised that it took almost 2 minutes for both boilers to fill up. Here is a picture of her next to Sette.



I will be doing a more in depth review similar to hercdeise after i've had the machine for a few weeks.

I took a bunch of pictures (un-boxing style) if anyone is interested in seeing them let me know.

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hercdeisel (original poster)
Posts: 157
Joined: 5 years ago

#12: Post by hercdeisel (original poster) »

Congrats!

Looking forward to hearing what you think!

babalu120483
Posts: 75
Joined: 5 years ago

#13: Post by babalu120483 »

My first impressions (so far):

The machine heats up pretty fast. The LLC will display the temperature as it goes up and will give you an OK once it has reached the set temp. I have mine set to for the Coffee boiler and it took 15 minutes to get to that temp. The portafilter was still not properly hot so I left it for 5 more minutes before I felt it was ready. I have my Elizabeth on a smart plug so heating it up in the mornings will not be a problem.

The pre-infusion options are pretty cool. I have mine set at 5 seconds and an overall timer of 35 seconds. The shot came out really good, with a good amount of crema and pretty tasty.

Steaming - WOW! Coming from the Barista Express (thermo-block) I have to say that the steaming power is amazing. I typically do Lattes in the AM with about 5oz of milk and it took less than 20 seconds to heat it up and get really good micro foam. I am surprised at how good this machine is with steaming.

My overall impression after the 1st day of use is that this machine is definitely a step up from my Barista Express. Very easy to use, wife friendly and most important its pulling good shots.

I will take a couple of pictures once I finish setting everything up.

If anybody has any questions, please let me know!

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GregoryJ
Posts: 1064
Joined: 6 years ago

#14: Post by GregoryJ »

Is it possible to set the pre-infusion time during the shot? Like you could you run the pre-infusion just until the coffee starts to bead under the basket without knowing how much time that would take before hand?

babalu120483
Posts: 75
Joined: 5 years ago

#15: Post by babalu120483 replying to GregoryJ »

Based on the options on the LLC I would say no - Its either a static time or off - I will test tomorrow and will let you know if possible. I haven't tried holding the shot button and see if the pump doesn't engage until I let go of the button.

Stanford55
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#16: Post by Stanford55 »

In experimenting with the pre-infusion, did you notice any differences in the taste or body vs. your Express? Nice looking machine, keep the info coming!

hercdeisel (original poster)
Posts: 157
Joined: 5 years ago

#17: Post by hercdeisel (original poster) replying to Stanford55 »

I can't compare to my own barista express but i've used my dad's barista express with it's built in grinder. the difference between using the whole barista express setup [grinder and brewing] in my experience isn't close to the level of coffee you get from elizabeth + sette. they just aren't the same thing but that's probably as much due to the grinder as anything.

For body, i've been playing around with a dark roast (Topeca's Italian Roast) that I had to use with my robot at work and pulled a genuinely syrupy shot this morning on my second shot with the beans (on par with the pure sweet syrup i've pulled from my robot).

Recipe: 10sec preinfusion with the steam boiler set to 130c/266f (that's 5c lower than default steam boiler), 15g in ~30g out, 45 seconds total (preinfusion+full pressure).

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babalu120483
Posts: 75
Joined: 5 years ago

#18: Post by babalu120483 »

I am assuming you changed the Boiler temp since the pre-infusion water is coming from the boiler?

I never thought of actually messing with that as well. I am going to have to give that a try now LOL
hercdeisel wrote: Recipe: 10sec preinfusion with the steam boiler set to 130c/266f (that's 5c lower than default steam boiler), 15g in ~30g out, 45 seconds total (preinfusion+full pressure).

hercdeisel (original poster)
Posts: 157
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#19: Post by hercdeisel (original poster) »

babalu120483 wrote:I am assuming you changed the Boiler temp since the pre-infusion water is coming from the boiler?

I never thought of actually messing with that as well. I am going to have to give that a try now LOL
Lowering the steam boiler temp reduces the pressure of the water coming from the boiler to the puck. Depending on how much you drop the temperature you can really slow down the preinfusion. With the default 275f steam boiler temp and 15g in the double basket (or a 15g VST basket), my preinfusion ramps to about 3bar of pressure and I get drips at about 5-7 seconds. If you drop it down to 255f you can keep preinfusion pressure about 1.5bar for up to 15 sec (might be longer, that's the longest I've done) and it'll slow down the preinfusion so that you won't get drips until around then.

This probably all varies with the kind of coffee you're working with, dose size, etc. but that's been my experience so far.

The only downside to doing this is that lowering the steam boiler temp like that also significantly reduces your steaming power. As you noted, this thing steams milk super quickly when it's at default levels!

babalu120483
Posts: 75
Joined: 5 years ago

#20: Post by babalu120483 replying to hercdeisel »

I was wondering why my pre-infusion of 10 seconds started to get drips at 5 seconds LOL - I will try to bring down the temperature and give it a try. I never thought about doing that. Thanks!!