Thanks

I use a mesh filter by bplus for the zacconi grouphead (Zacconi Riviera and both machines by Sama) but not in the Faemina. I tried it but it made no difference.

Edit: the lever on the Gaggia Factory was custom made. As far as i remember Coffee Sensor also got some.

I've been making espresso at home since around 2003, starting with a Gaggia, then Silvia, then Expobar, and for the last 12 years, an Astra Pro (with accompanying grinder upgrades along the way, currently a Fiorenzato Doge conical). The Astra is a GREAT machine, and punched way above its weight; I abused it heavily, serving many groups of 40-60 people, and only in the last year or so did anything fail. It was good enough to stave off upgrade-itis, mostly because I felt I'd have to spend $3-5k to buy a machine that brewed better espresso (and if it doesn't, why upgrade?). My search coincided with the Micra release, and I always thought an Elektra A3 or La Cimbali Jr would be high on my list, but things move fast, my search led to levers; someone hit me up Sat, and this happened yesterday.


I got home late, and only had a chance to pull shots of a very good decaf Honduras, but....wow. Immediately apparent difference, both my wife and daughter noticed it in milk drinks too. So cool.

I had the original londinuim l1, which is sold and ended up with the lr24 for a short while. Very short

I now have an acs Evo leva

I had my last E61 HX for 12 years. I don't see the londinium having a shorter stay.

Cuprajake wrote:I had the original londinuim l1, which is sold and ended up with the lr24 for a short while. Very short

I now have an acs Evo leva

Is the ACS Evo Leva a better build quality?

I've had an L1 since 2014. With my usage - one flat white and one espresso a day - I don't see any advantage in "upgrading". It's true that the work flow could be easier, as I have to surf the group temp for certain beans, but I don't have any reason to believe that my shots would taste any better pulled on any other machine.

My Kafatek Flat grinder with Shuriken Light-Medium burrs seems more important to the results I get, with the medium to ultra-light filter roasts I prefer, than the mechanism used by various espresso machines to press hot water through the puck.

theres nothing between them bar the materials they choose to build from, the boilers are stainless A316l in the evo

so will argue for and against, but in reality your going to own either for decades

I have been drinking espresso in the last 20 years or so. It started as a way to get caffeine without heart burns. Then things get escalated quickly in the past 2 months. So here I'm: just becoming a proud owner of ACS Vesuvius Evo Leva:



Coming from a single-builder heat-exchanger E61 machine (VBM Domobar Super), I am very happy to finally have more precise control over the brewing temperature and pressure. On the other hand, if a shot goes bad, it's totally on me.

Gorgeous machine there! How's the espresso, compared to the VBM?

Greetings from the Northwest Territories, Canada. Can I please join the LMWDP?

I'd like to thank the members of this great site for all the incredible information that is available, and that is so generously given by so many. You open up the doors for everyone else!

By way of introduction, my espresso habit began via a handful of Saeco Aroma's. My "gateway" lever machine, in 2018, was a Millennium La Pavoni Europiccola. Soon it wasn't enough. I needed more brass, better pins and rollers and some other stuff (you know the story). I also started reading about how others had restored vintage Pavoni's (how these might actually be better than new), and stories about "Back Alley Finds" and "Amazing 1st Generation Europiccolas". I was hooked. I came to consider the words of drgary, rpavlis, the Garrott's, Francesco Ceccarelli and others with nothing short of awe. I started to question myself. How is it that I'm just stumbling upon vintage lever espresso machines now? Where have I been?

I felt haunted. Could I do it? Do I dare try? Could I...fix up an old La Pavoni myself? I had doubts: living in a condominium, having a wife unfond of noise and dust, not being particularly handy, and having a tool kit that fits within a plastic bucket. Surely I'll get bogged down somewhere...maybe multiple times. And who likes to look foolish?

But, I'm happy to say, I managed to pull it off! Two 1st Generation Pavoni's were provided with new seals and gaskets, and rewired using 14AWG gauge, having ON/OFF switches added and grounding the units. The one on the left is a 1970-1973, version 1.5 (with the shower screen attached). This was outfitted with Stefano's 200W/1000W heating element and thermostat. The one on the right is a 1973 version 1.6 with 220 volt elements. It's slow to heat up of course but it works well once I adapted to its time schedule. This was good to learn on (I didn't really learn much on the Millennium!) since the stages are slowed down. People talk about how the build quality of Pavoni's has gone down. I did notice this. The 1973 is much better built than the Millennium (no surprise). However, what did surprise me is that the 1970 is sturdier and bigger than the 1973. The reduction in quality can even be noticed between the v1.5 and the v.1.6! I'll close by mentioning where I did get bogged down in my restorations: Getting the heating element flange for the Stefano's element onto those fine threads on the boiler. Impossible for me to do. I resorted to the assistance of a local machine shop and haven't looked back. Thanks!