Lelit Elizabeth Owner Experience - Page 26

Need help with equipment usage or want to share your latest discovery?
domes
Posts: 25
Joined: 4 years ago

#251: Post by domes »

I received an Elizabeth last week. I haven't used the steam wand too much but the performance seems just fine, actually quite good. I am a total newbie on making espresso as this is my first machine but have had my wife tell me twice that the espresso drink was absolutely delicious. I chalk that up to the Elizabeth pre-infusion and temp stability rather than anything I am doing. I know I am making mistakes. I made a drink this afternoon and thought wow that is running fast, what did I do?... but it still tasted great. Looking forward to when my technique gets better and I start making some drinks with elevated results the Elizabeth is capable of. I am getting by right now with a Baratza Virtouso as waiting for a DF64 to someday arrive at my doorstep. I was on the fence too about MaraX but there is a lot of convenience and features with Elizabeth I am liking. I am not a fan of the design of the water tank (how hard would it be to have an open top with handles) and the buttons need to be gently pushed from the center but I don't regret buying it other than the dent in my pocket book.

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gldgate
Posts: 1
Joined: 3 years ago

#252: Post by gldgate »

Just joined the Lelit Elizabeth club by placing my order yesterday with Comiso Coffee (was looking also at Clive and 1st-line but Comiso had very good combo deal with nice discounts on Tamper and bottomless Portafilter). I'm a home barista newbie so excited to start the new journey. I picked up an open box Eureka Specialita a week ago so hoping it will be a good match.

The Espresso Machine research was an interesting experience in itself. I started out about 6 weeks ago just looking for an entry level machine (Gaggia Classic Pro/Silvia) but that soon morphed into performance anxiety and I went into overdrive looking at pretty much every prosumer machine and feature I could find. There was a time where I was sure I was going to get a Decent and another when I had Bianca in my shopping cart. In the end I thought the Elizabeth was the most sensible compromise for my needs. On the plus side was small footprint, dual boiler, pre-infusion capabilities, quick start up time, relatively low maintenance and steam power that should be fine for low workload of probably 2-3 shots per day. On the negative side was lack of flow control, poor water tank design/layout, cheap steam knob and electronic control system which while very functional was pretty basic from a UI perspective. I know some folks prefer the look of traditional e61 machines but I kind of like the industrial look of Elizabeth. It would not be out of place in a 1950's diner. The area I wrestled the most over was flow control. Intellectually it sounds fantastic but in the end I came to conclusion that based on my workflow I would probably not make the most out of it. During weekdays the priority is expedient and consistent caffeine fix. I would likely play more with it on weekends but not sure it justified an incremental $1K+. Also, with flow control being the hot topic feature du jour I would not be surprised if it becomes a feature that migrates down into lower priced machines in the next couple of years. Anyway, I ultimately needed to make a decision and hoping things work out well. Looking forward to posting more as I get better acquainted with miss Elizabeth over the coming weeks and months.

chanty 77
Posts: 916
Joined: 14 years ago

#253: Post by chanty 77 »

gldgate wrote:Just joined the Lelit Elizabeth club by placing my order yesterday with Comiso Coffee (was looking also at Clive and 1st-line but Comiso had very good deal on Tamper and bottomless Portafilter). I'm a home barista newbie so excited to start the new journey. I picked up an open box Eureka Specialita a week ago so hoping it will be a good match.

The Espresso Machine research was an interesting experience by itself. I started out about 6 weeks ago just looking for an entry level machine (Gaggia Classic Pro/Silvia) but that soon morphed into performance anxiety and I went into overdrive looking at pretty much every prosumer machine and feature I could fine. There was a time where I was sure I was going to get a Decent and another when I had Bianca in my shopping cart. In the end I thought the Elizabeth was the most sensible compromise for my needs. On the plus side was small footprint, dual boiler, pre-infusion capabilities, quick start up time, relatively low maintenance and steam power that should be fine for low workload of probably 2-3 shots per day. On the negative side was lack of flow control, poor water tank design/layout, cheap steam knob and electronic control system which while very functional was pretty basic from a UI perspective. I know some folks prefer the look of traditional e61 machines but I kind of like the industrial look of Elizabeth. It would not be out of place in a 1950's diner. The area I wrestled the most over was flow control. Intellectually it sounds fantastic but in the end I came to conclusion that based on my workflow I would probably not make the most out of it. During weekdays the priority is expedient and consistent caffeine fix. I would likely play more with it on weekends but not sure it justified an incremental $1K+. Also, with flow control being the hot topic feature du jour I would not be surprised if it becomes a feature that migrates down into lower priced machines in the next couple of years. Anyway, I ultimately needed to make a decision and hoping things work out well. Looking forward to posting more as I get better acquainted with miss Elizabeth over the coming weeks and months.
I am anxiously awaiting the Elizabeth also. I also needed a smaller footprint & finally jumped over to the dual boiler despite me being the only real espresso drinker with steamed milk. Only one 4 shot cappuccino per day, but really depend on the milk being perfect. I really dislike the water tank--cheap feel/look & with that little hole to pour water in, one MUST have a funnel or you risk splashing water onto the electrical and shorting. Yeah, think they could upgrade that & the little plastic steam knob to a metal.

chanty 77
Posts: 916
Joined: 14 years ago

#254: Post by chanty 77 »

Got my Elizabeth machine today. Do I have to program the preinfusion to 0 if I don't want to use it (for now anyway)? There is a 1 button with a water drop and a 2 button with a water drop & then a button for just water. At this point, I will just be using brew and steam for my cappuccino. Do I just press the second button for steam or the first for both brew and steam. Thanks. I figured it out. I made sure (at this point) that the 1 and 2 buttons were not programmed, that the prefusions were OFF. I realized that after brewing my espresso--all I have to do is turn the steam knob on & it is ready to steam beautifully.

chanty 77
Posts: 916
Joined: 14 years ago

#255: Post by chanty 77 »

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xbm8Omsv9YM

The first noise you hear, ignore-it is the stove timer. The whistle comes right after the pump kicks in. I don't know if that is ominous or benign. I don't remember hearing that noise at all until using it the last several times. Started using machine on June 30 2021. Thanks.

Evoh
Posts: 4
Joined: 3 years ago

#256: Post by Evoh replying to chanty 77 »

I got my Elizabeth about a week ago and I also hear the same noise as you, although maybe not as loud as yours. Was also wondering if it was normal or not.

chanty 77
Posts: 916
Joined: 14 years ago

#257: Post by chanty 77 replying to Evoh »

I sent the video to the vendor I bought the machine from. Hope they get back to me. My machine is only a week old, would hope there is nothing going on with it. I am not mechanically minded--thus would not appreciate having to try & fix something or worse yet--send it back in.

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chanty 77
Posts: 916
Joined: 14 years ago

#258: Post by chanty 77 »

Evoh wrote:I got my Elizabeth about a week ago and I also hear the same noise as you, although maybe not as loud as yours. Was also wondering if it was normal or not.
Hopefully this will ease your concern, the vendor got back to me:
"This sound is perfectly normal. Your machine is operating within spec. My tech team cleared this as well. It's water entering your solenoid valve. A lot of our machines do it and it seems to be intermittent. Again, I would just chalk this up to an espresso machine noise".

chanty 77
Posts: 916
Joined: 14 years ago

#259: Post by chanty 77 »

Have any of you found a pitcher with a curved longer spout to add water into the reservoir? I have a funnel, but even that unless I am super duper careful can splash a little. If it hits the elements, can short out. It won't help me, but down the road they should replace this cheap looking, hard to fill with the little hole reservoir and the plastic steam knob. Other than those two things (which are not major), am really liking this machine.

DaveC
Posts: 1743
Joined: 17 years ago

#260: Post by DaveC replying to chanty 77 »

I've used one of these for years on all my machines...just a few bucks from Amazon