I had sight of the Lever Magazine (Issue 4) Review of the Evoā¦Itās just a scanned in magazine turned into a .PDF in Italian. Reading through it, they appear to have understood the machine properly and have fairly reviewed it, although possibly not covered some areas thoroughly enough. So I will try and give you a flavour of what it says. Please donāt shoot the messengerā¦I did my best on the translation.
Intro
It starts by explaining how companies are manufacturing lever groups, both professional and domestic use. Mentions that professional groups give the best thermal stability, repeatability, volume delivery etc..but are larger, more expensive maintenance and much longer warm upā¦.vs domestic machines. They cover how ACS has changed the normal way of thinking with the EVO ā¦then explain a bit about ACS as a company
The Evo Overview
The reference the LSM style group, the multiple boilers, PIDs and all the good things we already know. They confirm the surprisingly fast warm-up time of 15 minutes and the fact you donāt have to keep it on all day. Again, this is nothing new to us.
They like the fact that the steam boiler can be switched off when not required, as when doing an espresso, because I guess in their lever world, this is a very unusual feature to have the decoupling of steaming and brewing (in temp and operation) and the lack of a requirement to keep a boiler at steam temperature.
They mentioned the front panel flex rumours (started by a certain group). They comment it has a slight flex but nothing too pronounced. They were told by ACS the panel had been significantly reinforced by ACSā¦as we know, itās never ever going to break.
In use
They talked about the convenient access to the water tank via a side panel, but suggested care to not spill water on the switch and to use a funnel. Unfortunately they did not mention the fully compartmentalised nature of the machine, with a 3 discrete bays wet, hot and electronic. In my mind, this is a very unusual and useful approach.
They noted it didnāt take long to get used to the machine and finding the right parameters for roasts ranging from very dark to very light and the fact that brew temperatures can be easily and rapidly adjusted..they limited themselves to mainly adjusting the group temp, leaving the brew boiler about 8C hotter at the mid point of the temp range. We of course know the group has 200W of heating power and well able to cope with directly influencing brew temps with mainly "guidance from the brew boiler.
They commented on the fact that the āchamber openā design of the group means less maintenance as the piston never passes the ports, seals last longer and that water is input to the group at all times below the piston by use of a valve. They made mention of the fact that this type of design will drip a little on warm-up, which is perfectly normal.
They talked a little about preinfusion and acting on the lever to change pressures of preinfusion as well as extraction, they clearly liked this feature and found the guage useful.
They had a machine with different support brackets to the ones used on most/all production models? and noticed a little bit of an angle between the drip tray and the case. Their machine has a grill, which they did mention could be difficult with the feet of scales, although as we know the Evo has moved to a perforated tray. Me I like the grillā¦but hey ho. They didnāt pick up at all on the fact that you donāt really need a scale (apart from when dialling in) and can use the pressure gauge instead.
Mention was made of the group being incredibly stable, and their chart of brew temperature showed really very little variation as shots were produced to different schedules. The brew temp remaining within 0.5C of the set point.
3 other of things they didnāt like was the ACS label stock on the lower left front panel of the machine (itās a sticky aluminium foil label) which they felt looked cheapā¦I have to agree, to me a machine is best left to speak for itself without some stick on label. I have no idea why ACS decided to stick a label on it. Plus one of the portafilters didnāt match all the others, I found out later that ACS had run out of portafilters from the group supplier and purchased one from somewhere else just so they had a complete kit??? (something I wouldnāt have done). Lastly the ill fitting aluminium tamperā¦no surprise there then.
Overall though, they thought the accessories were comprehensive and the supplied extra spares excellent. The machine easy to use, but able to provide a level of customisation in use and accessories for even the most demanding user. Their expectations were high and they were not disappointed. They thought the pump was a little noisy and would have liked to see a quieter one, but were not overly bothered. They felt it was expensive but had all the functionality anyone could want and definitely has a place among the more attractive (in terms of desirability) machines on the market today.
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Overall I think they did a good job with the review, of course they missed quite a bit of stuff out, such ads the use of premium materials, thick steels, stainless boilers etc..but overall it looked a very favourable review.
