Hello L1 LR owners, I am considering one of these great lever machines. I would choose the R but am wondering about heat inside causing shortened life of internal parts? I notice there are no holes on top for air flow, the machine seems pretty solid and just concerned about heat build up inside with no insulation on boiler and a tight case. I know the R hasn't been out long enough for long term reliability reports, but I know the L1 has been around longer. Are my concerns unfounded? I'm pretty set on the LR compared to other brands and Reiss looks to have great support and he answers emails very quickly. Thanks if you can give some input!

I would not lose any sleep over it. All espresso machines get hot inside. The electronics of the LR, such as they are, are pretty simple and bulletproof. There is no complicated brain box or PID. Mine has been on 24/7 for 3 months. Eventually, I will get around to installing the WiFi timer control thing I purchased. Mine is plumbed in 230V version. If you have a reservoir, and you leave it plugged in continuously, you will need to male sure to check the water level in the reservoir, as this will slowly deplete from boiler evaporative losses through the VB and OPV.

you leave you machine on 24/7?? how often do you use it? That seems crazy to me... espresso at 4am? surely a simple timer switch could save your machine from some wear- and some electricity?

It's in my office at work. I or others might use it at any time. Rarely do we use it at night, so I will eventually set up the timer. It is designed to be able to be left on.

L1 (original, not their other machine now called L1) has been on 24/7 with weekly intervals off, with no heat issues. The recommended timer I purchased for it stopped working after a week, and I haven't picked up a replacement. I acquired the L1 second hand a year ago and it has been awesome. The owner before me had it for about 3 years.

When I tried a Londinium I disliked how hot it was on the inside (from an inefficiency point of view). Certain part of the frame can almost burn (maybe around 45-50C or more, I should've measured) after being left on for more than 2 hours.

However, the good news is so far there is no reported major failure on the L1 so it's reasonable to assume it will work well enough for long term. The Gicar label may brown (cosmetic) and maybe it will fail slightly sooner compared to an insulated boiler but we're probably talking in decade term. The Gicar replacement cost(along with other parts) is reasonable enough from Londinium so I wouldn't worry much about it.

Thanks guys,

I still think it may benefit from having a boiler wrap insulation, keeping the boiler more insulated and maybe less heat inside case..

samuellaw178 wrote:When I tried a Londinium I disliked how hot it was on the inside (from an inefficiency point of view). Certain part of the frame can almost burn (maybe around 45-50C or more, I should've measured) after being left on for more than 2 hours.

However, the good news is so far there is no reported major failure on the L1 so it's reasonable to assume it will work well enough for long term. The Gicar label may brown (cosmetic) and maybe it will fail slightly sooner compared to an insulated boiler but we're probably talking in decade term. The Gicar replacement cost(along with other parts) is reasonable enough from Londinium so I wouldn't worry much about it.

FWIW, my Gicar and pstat failed at just past the 4 year mark on my L1 (Nov 2012) on about 12 hrs a day.

3cordcreations wrote:Thanks guys,

I still think it may benefit from having a boiler wrap insulation, keeping the boiler more insulated and maybe less heat inside case..

I do not think that this is a bad idea at all. It will in no way impair the function of the machine.

I've been meaning to insulate my L1 since I got it. But it is very tight in there and I didn't feel like taking things apart.



But I remember my Giotto went from cycling every 6 minutes to every 45 minutes when I insulated it, so tonight I jammed some ceramic insulation in there anyway.