Yep, exactly! Francesco knows what he's doing!

Do you mind sharing some info on your PID? Mine is 220V and I was going to pull the plug (ha!) on a plug adapter and a 110V heating element from Brooks.

drgary wrote:Ha! I thought so.

image

Where else would you find such an immaculate example to add to your collection? (From Francesco Ceccarelli.) Congratulations, Vlad! That is the right 1.0.

I just pulled a shot on my Caravel 1.0, which is connected to a PID for excellent temperature control. The offset is about 10°F.

Mod note: Moved from Post a pic of your home espresso setup...
Click here to see here for pics of this beautiful machine

Gary, I just saw your post re: 110V heating element: Temperature probe for a Caravel. I'm glad I didn't order it yet. Do you run yours with a transformer and a PID?

drgary wrote:Ha! I thought so.

image

Where else would you find such an immaculate example to add to your collection? (From Francesco Ceccarelli.) Congratulations, Vlad! That is the right 1.0.

I just pulled a shot on my Caravel 1.0, which is connected to a PID for excellent temperature control. The offset is about 10°F.

Vey nice! All you need now is a Peppina to complete the 2 by 2. You have a spring lever with steam boiler, manual lever with steam boiler, manual lever with brew boiler, but no spring lever with brew boiler.

Vlad, I've got the 110 v heating element and it is holding up. Since yours is more collectible than mine, you might want to run it in native mode on a transformer to avoid rewiring. Francesco could probably advise you well on that choice. BTW, for fast warmup, I quickly bring water to a boil on an induction range and pour that into the tank. From there it takes less than 10 minutes to stabilize.

Very true, Jim! Except the next one on the list is a Strietman CT2.

another_jim wrote:Vey nice! All you need now is a Peppina to complete the 2 by 2. You have a spring lever with steam boiler, manual lever with steam boiler, manual lever with brew boiler, but no spring lever with brew boiler.

Great advice, Gary! I've been boiling water in electric kettle and using my emersion heater to bring it up to temperature today.

drgary wrote:Vlad, I've got the 110 v heating element and it is holding up. Since yours is more collectible than mine, you might want to run it in native mode on a transformer to avoid rewiring. Francesco could probably advise you well on that choice. BTW, for fast warmup, I quickly bring water to a boil on an induction range and pour that into the tank. From there it takes less than 10 minutes to stabilize.

I run my 220v caravel with a pid and transformer. First I wired the transformer to the pid and then from the transformer to the caravel. It works, but it makes a noise every time the pid calls for heat. Better to have the transformer first and then use the pid on 220v. Seems obvious now, no idea why I tried it the other way first.

I put the Brooks 110v element in my early Caravel & haven't had any problems. I run both the Caravel and my La Peppina through an Auber-WS pid temp controller.

OK, I have a potentially stupid question .

Does it take approximately the same time to come to temperature using Brooks 110v heating element and using VAM original 220v heating element on a transformer?

drgary wrote:Vlad, I've got the 110 v heating element and it is holding up. Since yours is more collectible than mine, you might want to run it in native mode on a transformer to avoid rewiring. Francesco could probably advise you well on that choice. BTW, for fast warmup, I quickly bring water to a boil on an induction range and pour that into the tank. From there it takes less than 10 minutes to stabilize.

If they have the same wattage, performance will be the same. On their website the 220v is 550w, but the 110v one doesn't have watts listed...