Hello All:

I was browsing the Orphan Espresso website earlier today and notice that Doug and Barb are now carrying the 2012 Olympia Express Maximatic for the U.S. market -- at the same price as the 2011 Cremina. I'm so glad I bought a vintage Maximatic when I did! It's time to finish the rebuild. Here's the link to the new offering.

Ya, now every eBay seller will reference Doug's price in the US and they'll go from selling for about $400 and change to >$1200. Oh the information world...

Wow, 4K, I am glad I can draw the line still, it proves to me I have not lost all my espresso budget sanity.

I know lots of people say their products are not that sexy, but I really like the looks of that Maximatic.

The Olympia NEW prices are just ludicrous. I know this topic is just going to start a debate over price for quality and years of use, it just will. Just like the Cremina thread did. There are much better options for half the price, I don't get it. It's as if they have no sense of the market, or do they?

A Maximatic is great where you want quality and consistency and a very small footprint. But when you compare the price to others it seems like Olympia's following an unworkable business model that has made it difficult for them to survive. I'm surprised they don't offer plentiful parts supply for their vintage machines at a profitable price and then lower what they charge for their new, complete machines to make them competitive with comparable non-commercial pump machines.

We are always impressed when someone "finds" another esoteric item on our website...of course the Doc may be just checking the junkyard for when I get the time or inclination to part out the 20-30 vintage machines gathering dust around here....

Ah yes, the Maximatic. I believe this is the first 110v model that they have made for some time...at least since we got involved with Olympia, but the 220v has been in full production since 2002 model changeover and from what we hear it sells well in Europe. We did not huck it too hard for we are as aware as anyone that it is a simple HX machine selling well over the price of many machines with far more bells and whistles (and PIDs and double boilers). We have the full photo set of the internals which we have yet to post and it does have the same drool factor inside, from a build point of view, and enough heavy stainless steel to reforge into quite a number of prosumer espresso machines....and the proprietary brass fittings are well up there when it comes to hand built beauty.

But yes, I think the argument can and will be made on price...but I do not think that this one machine sitting in our storage will change the world on the used price of the machines. I completely restored, frame off, a few Pasquini Livietta machines and Maximatics....full powder coat, new wiring, all new seals and setup....many more hours of labor into one of those than a Cremina and we found that there was not really much of a market for them, for whatever reason....we eventually closed out these perfect restorations for about $850 (pretty much a break even proposition if your labor is worth anything). We have 8 or 10 of these as parts machines since many of the parts swap to Creminas, and as reference machines, but have no plan to restore them since a 100 point resto was met with a collective yawn...kindof takes the starch out of your shorts.

Good to see you are keeping tabs on the OE, DocG

drgary wrote:A Maximatic is great where you want quality and consistency and a very small footprint.

After using many, many machines in depth I'd say Maximatic along with Elektra Semi is probably the most overrated machine currently in production. Maximatic even more so. I'll leave it at that.

orphanespresso wrote:We are always impressed when someone "finds" another esoteric item on our website...of course the Doc may be just checking the junkyard for when I get the time or inclination to part out the 20-30 vintage machines gathering dust around here....

tekomino wrote:After using many, many machines in depth I'd say Maximatic along with Elektra Semi is probably the most overrated machine currently in production. Maximatic even more so. I'll leave it at that.

I'll have to say this about my Coffex (Maximatic) from when I had it running in my office. It's simple and straightforward, consistent for temperature control when you heat flush; it's great for steaming milk, I like that it's an HX so the steaming is always available; and it has a tiny footprint. I'm looking forward to putting the Fluid-o-Tech pump in there and discovering its true capabilities.

Tom,

You saw Don's Maximatic. Mine's pretty much identical and used to sit in my office but was badly in need of service. Even an Olympia machine can rust. It's now powder coated with the steam wand rechromed. There's some more tear-down to do, possibly a polish of some of the panels. Then it will be my go-to machine in my new office next to a Mazzer Super Jolly I just finished restoring today.