Leverpresso Pro (Kickstarter)

#1: Post by **ira** » November 9th, 2021, 1:10 pm

I was suckered onto KickStarter this morning and found this:

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hu ... esso-maker

I was surprised it had never come up before. Looks like it might be the best travel espresso maker so far. From my perspective. Seems to be a combination of elements of borrowed from a number of other machines and assembled in a quite nice package. Maybe messy to clean though.

Ira

November 9th, 2021, 1:44 pm

At least they're honest about the machine needing significant pre-heating.

I'm not seeing anything to sway me that the Pro is any better than the existing non-pro leverpresso of a few years ago that didn't get great reviews?

I still think Ross in Australia makes the best portable espresso maker - Rossa PG air - unless considers the Robot to be portable (or a Europiccola

. I use a modified handpresso because of its small size, but they're not for everyone.)

#3: Post by **TenLayers** » November 9th, 2021, 1:49 pm

It's gotta be good. They used the zeitgeist word "Pro" to name it.

#4: Post by **Jonk** » November 9th, 2021, 2:10 pm

I'm a bit weary of the thin aluminium levers, those have been prone to break on the ROK. I have even seen pictures of the thick levers on Flair Classic/2 snapped, not sure if that could've been user error or some manufacturing mistake though.

November 9th, 2021, 3:05 pm

This is due to the Rok and Flair handles being cast aluminum instead of from solid, the cost of casting a piece like those is much less in those volumes and there will be castings that end up with contaminants or voids that may crack...they likely planned to replace any that fail and would still be saving significantly over a fully machined lever.

I dont know on this product if the handles are cast they do mention 5axis machining but they could be doing final machining of a cast component.

#6: Post by **eltakeiteasy** » November 9th, 2021, 3:36 pm

baldheadracing wrote:At least they're honest about the machine needing significant pre-heating.

I'm not seeing anything to sway me that the Pro is any better than the existing non-pro leverpresso of a few years ago that didn't get great reviews?

I still think Ross in Australia makes the best portable espresso maker - Rossa PG air - unless considers the Robot to be portable (or a Europiccola . I use a modified handpresso because of its small size, but they're not for everyone.)

I think the non-air version is a bit more travel-friendly. For anyone curious here's the workflow... Dead simple:

#7: Post by **boren** » November 9th, 2021, 3:55 pm

baldheadracing wrote: I use a modified handpresso because of its small size, but they're not for everyone.)

Can you share what did you modify? I have a Handpresso and it's my preferred portable espresso maker when traveling, but there's definitely a gap between the coffee it produces and one from larger machines.

November 9th, 2021, 4:03 pm

eltakeiteasy wrote:I think the non-air version is a bit more travel-friendly. ...

Nice video, and neat trick to use an immersion heater - I used to use a Bonavita travel kettle.

I had an HC-P and accessories, and his grinder - which is a simply awesome grinder - but found the whole setup too heavy for my use at the time. I just noticed that the Aluminium version of the Air doesn't seem to be listed on the portaspresso.com site anymore, though.

November 9th, 2021, 5:01 pm

boren wrote:Can you share what did you modify? I have a Handpresso and it's my preferred portable espresso maker when traveling, but there's definitely a gap between the coffee it produces and one from larger machines.

1. The "intense" portafilter. They advertise this for ristrettos, but I find that it works for a 1:2 brew ratio. https://www.handpresso.com/en/handpress ... se-41.html I think that the regular portafilter just delivers moka pot coffee.
2. Tamper and funnel to get a decent amount of coffee nicely distributed into the mesh basket (I have the older version shown in the first video on this page): https://bikegang.ecwid.com/Ultra-Lightw ... -p38004891
3. A cup to hold boiling water and submerse/heat up the whole area outside the main cylinder/air pump including the portafilter. I think that the glass "bowl" that holds the brew water before you flip the device can't get hot enough.
4. Pump up into the red zone of the pressure gauge. Air pumps give a declining pressure profile just like a spring lever machine, and you want the initial pressure to be well above 9 bar given the small volume and thus steep pressure decline of the handpresso's pump.

Apologies for the thread jack.

#10: Post by **jgood** » February 20th, 2022, 10:57 pm

I would be scared to have all the weight pushing on the container the catches the espresso, not to mention tipping. And are the arms long enough? I have a Cafelat Robot for my portable setup and when pushing on the (apparently) longer arms the force you exert is considerable -- to get 8 bar you apply almost 49 lbs of pressure -- according to the chart in the Robot instruction manual.