Vesuvius Steaming Performance?

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wingnutsglory
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#1: Post by wingnutsglory »

I'm looking to upgrade from a Duetto 2 and the Vesuvius is in the top 3. My concern is with it's steaming performance, specifically as it relates to the Duetto. My guess is that the Vesuvius will be pretty close, but I'd like to put the question out there and see if others have any input based on experience. I'm typically doing only about 25% cappuccinos with the rest being espresso and Americanos, but I do value good steaming ability.

Mrboots2u
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#2: Post by Mrboots2u »

I can't compare it to your current machine , It has a decent boiler and will steam milk , unless you require commercial performance then i can't see why you would have a problem with a vesuvius.

RockyIII
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#3: Post by RockyIII »

I have not used either machine, but they are both dual boiler machines and should have excellent steaming power. The specs are a little different, but I would not expect to notice much of a difference if any.

Vesuvius
1.5 liter steam boiler, 1400 watts

Izzo Alex Duetto II
1.8 liter steam boiler, 1200 watts

Rocky

DaveC
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#4: Post by DaveC »

wingnutsglory wrote:I'm looking to upgrade from a Duetto 2 and the Vesuvius is in the top 3. My concern is with it's steaming performance, specifically as it relates to the Duetto. My guess is that the Vesuvius will be pretty close, but I'd like to put the question out there and see if others have any input based on experience. I'm typically doing only about 25% cappuccinos with the rest being espresso and Americanos, but I do value good steaming ability.
If your Duetto II has no pressurestat, then steaming performance will be much better with the Vesuvius. If it does have a pressurestat, the steaming will be a little bit better.

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wingnutsglory (original poster)
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#5: Post by wingnutsglory (original poster) replying to DaveC »

I believe it's temperature regulated so no pressurestat. I guess I never have been super clear on how much of a difference that makes and haven't tried a machine that uses one recently, at least not a machine with a non-commercial size steam boiler less than 2L.

I wonder if it makes much difference that the Vesuvius is (seemingly) limited to a 15A mode in the US, where the Duetto can handle 20A and heat both boilers simultaneously. That does seem to help steaming with the Duetto (20A vs 15A).

DaveC
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#6: Post by DaveC replying to wingnutsglory »

probably not.

B747VET
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#7: Post by B747VET »

I previously had a Profitec Pro 700 that could selectively handle 15 or 20 amps. I switched to a Vesuvius V2 about 5 months ago.

I believe that the programming of the Vesuvius seems to constantly switch power every few seconds from steam boiler to brew boiler and overall it does a better job of maintaining steam temp/pressure at 15 amps than the Profitec did at 20 amps enabling simultaneous boiler heating. Overall, I'm quite pleased with the Vesuvius steaming capabilities. I definitely would not go back to non-pressure profiling espresso machines.

DeGaulle
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#8: Post by DeGaulle »

If your Duetto II has no pressurestat, then steaming performance will be much better with the Vesuvius. If it does have a pressurestat, the steaming will be a little bit better.
Edit:
I wonder why dual boiler machines in this class would have a PID instead of a pstat in the first place. When steaming, who would be interested in keeping the steam boiler at a steady temperature; just to have enough heating power to produce abundant steam to me seems more important than trying to modulate the heating output depending on the fall in temperature.
Bert

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aecletec
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#9: Post by aecletec »

With PID steam you can adjust the temp and therefore pressure easily...

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wingnutsglory (original poster)
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#10: Post by wingnutsglory (original poster) replying to aecletec »

My understanding here is that you take a hit on responsiveness of the system (and steaming perf.) with a measure of temperature lagging that of pressure...? I guess it depends somewhat on the probe itself and its position in the boiler.

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