List of manual (direct) lever espresso machines

#1: Post by **RTD1** » December 16th, 2018, 5:17 pm

I'm interested in direct (no spring) lever machines and am trying to get an understanding of what's out there. So far I am aware of:

- La Pavoni Europiccola and Professional (and variants as well as rebrands like the Gaggia Factory G105)
- Olympia Cremina
- Gaggia Achille
- Arrarex Caravel

Specifically looking for machines with a boiler (open or closed) so deliberately excluding things like the ROK.

What else?

#2: Post by **myso** » December 16th, 2018, 5:24 pm

Strietman CT1
http://strietman.net/ct1/
Open boiler, manual lever from Nederlands.

#3: Post by **Nick Name** » December 16th, 2018, 5:25 pm

http://strietman.net

Absolutely.

Edit: I was beaten by a minute by myso.

#4: Post by **learncoffee** » December 16th, 2018, 6:19 pm

The 2 popular recent ones:
Flair
Cafelat Robot

December 16th, 2018, 6:23 pm

Conti Comocafe

The list of vintage machines is quite long:

http://www.francescoceccarelli.eu/macch ... ia_eng.htm

December 16th, 2018, 6:45 pm

learncoffee wrote:The 2 popular recent ones:
Flair
Cafelat Robot

These don't have boilers.

#7: Post by **sweaner** » December 16th, 2018, 7:29 pm

Eastsideloco wrote:Conti Comocafe

I believe that has a spring, like the La Peppina.

December 16th, 2018, 8:30 pm

You're right. Shows you how much I use mine.

Francesco's site is a good resource RE: vintage levers, whether manual or spring powered. There are quite a few random manual levers, like the KyM Express.

FWIW: I'm partial to the VAM/Caravel models because an astute user can manage temperature with some precision. I like the Cremina because it is relatively temperature stable, assuming you have a Teflon boiler gasket (heat break) installed. And I love the Strietman machines, both for the build quality and the performance in the cup. All three of these machines are also easy to service, which I value from a reliably perspective.

I'm less enamored with the other closed-boiler vintage manual lever machines that I have tried, such as the Kym Express and a modern La a Pavoni.

#9: Post by **drgary** » December 16th, 2018, 11:16 pm

RTD1 wrote:I'm interested in direct (no spring) lever machines and am trying to get an understanding of what's out there. So far I am aware of:

- La Pavoni Europiccola and Professional (and variants as well as rebrands like the Gaggia Factory G105)
- Olympia Cremina
- Gaggia Achille
- Arrarex Caravel

Specifically looking for machines with a boiler (open or closed) so deliberately excluding things like the ROK.

What else?

The older La Pavonis are very well built, especially the 1st generation machines.

There's the Zacconi Baby Big. I had an early version of it that I didn't like as much as La Pavoni, however there are later versions that may be better. Even the early version of the Zacconi Baby had "give" to it when pulling down the lever and the group capacity was rather small.

BTW although I have not tried the ROK, I have read about people having difficulties with build quality. The Cafelat Robot, Flair and EspressoForge are all capable of pulling consistent and controlled shots. Maybe you can let us know why you are excluding such manual levers.