Ken,

Nicely done! I'm glad I had a role in having you consider first gen Europiccolas. BTW, where have you noticed reduced quality within the first gens? I see the features improving without degrading quality until version 1.8, when La Pavoni switched from a cast aluminum base to a cast steel one.

BTW, I was using my 1964 Europiccola just this morning.

Moderator note: I split the discussion to its own thread to keep LMWDP on track and to allow more focus on the other topic.

Quality & size changes in 1st gen La Pavoni Europiccolas?

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

I've been using ACS Vesuvius Evo Leva for a month. It is a fantastic machine. Comparing to the VBM HX, I'm very happy about the lever: for whatever reason I cannot fully understand, I have the impression that the lever allows me to grind finer. I can do a 20-second pre-infusion at 2 bars, then let the lever runs its course for 50-60 seconds to get a 1:1 ratio shot (18 grams in). To my surprise, the coffee is very tasty, not bitter at all. The beans are Napoli-style medium-dark roast (Cafe Borbone Blu).

In addition, the PIDs give me precise temperature control. No more playing the dice with the HX of my old VBM. I've been experimenting different combinations of the brew boiler temperature and the group head temperature, and I can taste the difference in the cup. For example, for a medium roast from a local roaster with a long brew time, I realize I need to set the group head temperature higher to reduce the acidity in the cup. While on the medium-dark roast, a lower group head temperature, about 9-10 Celsius degree lower than the boiler temperature, gives a better result.

The steam power is plenty, much much better than my VBM Domobar.

Hi there:

I wanna be in the lever domination club since I have a crazy-ass lever machine too. I'm supposed to write a reply about myself, so...I've been in coffee since 2000. I have a reputation for temperature control and measurement in coffee and I have a tiny company that makes tools for obtaining temperature and pressure directly above the coffee cake in espresso machines, which is actually a difficult measurement to accurately obtain. I worked on pressure profiling way back around 2008. I work as a consulting engineer on bleeding edge coffee machines and bleeding edge brewing methods. Early on in the pandemic I acquired a 1-group La Marzocco Leva-X. It's a bleeding edge lever machine with crazy good temperature repeatability, variable brew pressure and brew volume. I have a small basement lab equipped with a few really good coffee machines. The Leva-X is my favorite one to use.

Can I please be in your cult? Can I get my own world domination number and secret decoder ring?

-Greg

You are in at #743!

Wow. Welcome Gregory! Will you share another photo of your Leva-X?

Damn, gscace owns a Leva X? Outstanding! Please know I owned and loved an Astra for 12 years because of your Gourmet review on CG.

The guy I recently bought my Londinium from had a Decent, and was selling the 2 MONTH OLD Londinium to buy a Leva X. I think I need to take the Londinium over to do a side by side: is the Leva X 3x as good? Inquiring minds...!!!

I can't believe I missed this thread until now! I could've had a much lower member number if I'd joined back when I made this account.

Anyway, a little background. I bought a brass LP Romantica for my dad back in 2001 when we both were still living in Alaska. There was no thriving espresso enthusiast community forum in those days, nor Youtube, and we had no idea what we were doing. We only ever managed to pull terrible shots and clean up a bunch of pavoni sneezes. A few months later, I moved to California and my parents moved to Texas, and the La Pavoni disappeared in the move.

They moved several more times, and every time I asked if the LP showed up during all the packing and unpacking, but it never did. I had lost hope that we'd ever find it. But my mom passed away in 2016, and when we were cleaning out the house-lo and behold! There it was, still in the original box!

I had lurked the HB forums off and on for a few years at that point, so I knew some of the problems with the machine and what people did to address them. I pulled a few shots... better than I remembered but not great. My little Hario Skerton was not really up to the task of grinding espresso. I was between jobs and not ready to drop $3k on a Monolith, so the LP went back in the box. Not long after, I backed the original Niche Zero Indiegogo campaign, but there wouldn't be a 110v model for US backers until 2018. By the time I got mine, I was working in an office where great espresso was free and plentiful. I felt a little bad, but I didn't make much espresso at home.

Then, in early 2022, I came across Coffee-sensor.com and the urge to tinker just got to be too overwhelming. I ordered a bunch of bits and bobs from Tudor, and finally started giving the LP the love and attention it deserved. I've probably pulled 1000 shots since then. (The piston pressure kit, IMS competition basket, and Bong Isolator were game changers.)

Anyway, I also learned to use a mill and lathe over the past year, which reminded me of the PID mod RayJohns did years ago and I've always wanted to replicate. I came back to the forums to reread his journey.

Anyway, because I can't have any cheap hobbies, I'm also into rotary engines, scuba diving, and astrophotography. Here's my Romantica in its current form. Incidentally, the inspection sticker in the base indicates it was manufactured in 2000, but it has a 49mm portafilter-so I think it must be one of the very last pre-mill machines. I look forward to contributing my part in World Domination!

This may be premature since we received our Profitec Pro 800 only a couple of weeks ago.
I have been drinking coffee since I was a kid. At that time we always had milk and coffee for breakfast. Usually coffee was leftover from the day before, made by mother with the Moka. When in college I switched to soluble coffee (Nescafe), then went back to the Moka after graduation. My first espresso machine was a Nespresso with the small pods about twenty years ago, and I finally switched to beans four years ago. I started with a Gaggia Classic. I returned it within a couple of weeks, and replaced it with a Breville Dual Boiler coupled with a Breville Smart Grinder Pro and Niche Zero. The BDB and it's replacements from Breville served us well until I decided that I wanted something more reliable and easier to maintain. Our youngest son and I are the ones who make espresso and cappuccino at home. For us and for the rest of the family. My son was hard to convince that the change was going to be for the better, he really liked the BDB. I promised that if he did not liked the lever machine we were going to keep the BDB as well. He is only 15 and he took a couple of days to get accustomed to it, but I don't think he will want anything different than a lever machine in the future. He really loves it (and I don't use this word lightly ).
Me? I am happy for the four years with the Breville. Not only I have enjoyed it a lot, but I think that I would not enjoyed the 800 so much now if I could not compared it to the previous platform. I don't know if the Profitec Pro 800 is the best lever machine we could have purchased (isn't it?). I wanted a spring assisted machine, I did not want a hybrid machine fed by a pump, and I am not experiencing the temperature fluctuations that several members have reported on the forum. It has not been plumbed yet but I manged to connect the drip tray to a container under the cart, and that is already an improvement. I like the way it does the preinfusion. It's super clean, very solid (first machine I don't have to hold with one hand while I insert the portafilter) and mostly we have been having the best single espressos and cappucinos ever. Really! Beans consumption has also increased by at least 50% (fortunately we make single shots only).

...to start at the very beginning: I have been drinking Nespresso at home for a long time. After having a DeLonghi for nearly a decade, I thought I provide myself a treat with a Breville Nespresso machine with hands free steaming etc. (or Sage as it is called here, to be precise). Turns out this did not really satisfy me, it just got me moving and showed me the entrance to the rabbit hole.

Shortly after, we moved and within walking distance there is a very nice espresso machine shop. After extensive window shopping, the Breville went on eBay and I - after heavy discussions with myself - went for a very solid, but still budget friendly approach: Lelit Anna with PID plus a Eureka Specialita. That's where the real journey began.

Machine and grinder were great, but I had been eyeing an Ascaso Steel Duo PID or a Londinium Vectis (though no pictures were available at that time) early on. I moved to the Ascaso, I played a bit with handgrinders, I swapped to a Weber Key, went from dark roast to light roast, started to drink more and more filter coffee, ... What I did not do is finally test a lever at home, I just followed the Londinium Vectis and the Odyssey Argos developments closely while from time to time being very close to pushing the button on an old Olympia Cremina on eBay.

A bit more than three months back, I finally pushed the button - but not on one of the mentioned levers, instead I bought a Cafelat Robot. Again with the idea to first try before going budget wise all in. And what should I say, very pleased. My Ascaso is up for sale currently, matching equipment partially already gone. I now basically bought a full Robot ecosystem during the last three months, quite sure I will not move on any time soon. Only thing currently still tempting me is the Olympia Cremina, but I fear this will not change ever. Let's see if she can at some time join the Robot

Shot-wise not 100% on eye level with before, to be also fair. But given how extractions look and how the good ones taste, this is more a skill issue on my side than an equipment issue.