Espresso machine upgrade?

capuchin think he’s referring to the Evo Leva in he classifieds current at a bargain price.

capuchin - ha! I’m one step ahead of you: I managed to convince my wife to buy a better sideboard for the dining room - before I had a cheap trolley. The real intention was that I would, eventually, upgrade the Elizabeth. On the positive side, I can now accommodate a bigger and deeper machine, up to 45cm from rear to front feet. However, that cannot accommodate the Vesuvius machines, they are 50cm deep!

capuchin Maybe somebody like @DavecUK knows if modern machines have a significant advantage.

They do. The S1 Vivaldi II suffers from a few things modern machines don’t at least when I last reviewed them a long time ago now, Issues are:

• You can run the rotary pump from a bottle, but it won’t prime when hot if you run out of water
• the group is purely heated by conduction (Boiler is behind group and not huge) with a 0.45l boiler, arguable not large enough with the control systems it uses
• No PID temp control is much more primitive, brew temps are in the range but not tightly controlled
• It never overshoots temp….ever! of course we know that’s impossible and the software simply won’t register an overshoot. I tried it!
• Steam Boiler is quite large for home use, 2.5 litre, but fortunately can switch it off when not used.
• certain very expensive proprietary components (perhaps they use industry std SSRs nowadays but back in the day some weird triac thing with fins.
• The S1 specifically had an RS suppressor on it that would cause certain RCD controlled mains system (with the RCD in the fuse box) to Nuisance trip if it is already close to the tripping point..I reported this to them but was ignored.
• A lot of plastic, with a tendency for screws to strip threads if worked on by the careless.
• Descaling is a pain as it’s a solenoid operated water wand, so no way to heat up switch off and drain the water as the solenoid won’t be working (I believe when the steam boiler is switched off the solenoid is disabled (they may have changed that over the years)
• No last shot protection (I hadn’t invented the concept back then)

The good points…

• it’s quiet
• it can produce a decent shot.
• very good steam

I do think it’s yesterdays machine though.

I

MediumRoastSteam I can now accommodate a bigger and deeper machine

For a moment I thought of only Vostok, until I read the 45cm! 😅

Depends on the model you buy on my old feet model the distance is ,

40mm from the back of the machine to the middle of the back foot

430mm from middle of the back foot to the front foot.

40mm from middle of the front foot to the front of the drop tray back foot is 50mm wide front foot 30mm wide

MediumRoastSteam

The depth from the edge of the back panel to the front edge of the front feet is 487.5 mm (in the case of old style legs). I wouldn’t know what the dimensions are as we have rails now. :-)

Edit :

These dimensions are from the user guide.

JonWoo187 I considered the Silvia Pro X, but after seeing the reviews, the drip tray put me off - small things, but important to be happy - so I ended up with my ECM Classika PID, which I’m very happy with (The added flow control is a bonus).

There is so much to be said for good build quality and workflow, and absolutely upgrades need a lot of research - ideally hands-on, but for many of us that’s almost impossible. Having said that, I’m hoping I don’t find a need to upgrade personally now. I see these shiny ACS machines, but honestly they wouldn’t be any better for me - just fancy buttons and levers 😉

Back to the original post, it does sound like a dual-boiler for the milk aspect, but I’d absolutely suggest watching videos and reviews especially around workflow and how it fits your expectations. I know that my workflow actually became much simpler when I went to E61 after the Bambino, but that’s more because the Bambino couldn’t hold temperature, didn’t have a shot timer, didn’t have a 3-way solenoid, etc… little things (well, not the temperature) but you have to put more effort in to get to the same place.

Sure, the E61 takes around 45 mins to heat, but I make a glass of water when I wake and switch on the machine, then when I’m ready for coffee it’s good to go. You just need what best fits in your daily flow.