John_Yossarian Oh my goodness, in a review:
- Stick to providing information about the machine you are reviewing
- don’t neg every machine you can think of that competes with it, especially when you are negging minor things on other machines vs fairly pointless or not great working features
- Not a great deal of information given about the machine, concentrated more on pricing and making you feel like an idiot if you spent more, you are just buying a name
- What didn’t he like. The app is grrrreaat , but a bit rough visually, Flow profiling would be nice, but move it into a different price bracket, the badge and 20 amp power (if you can afford that machine, your kitchen has 20 amp power. In other words negatives that are not really negatives at all.
now I am currently doing an engineering review on a machine that has a “similar concept”. except the machine I am looking at has a few more features and is the second iteration after I didn’t like the first at all:
- Manual Pressure profiling
- Adjustable preinfusion pressure (for automatic shots)
- group light
- bottomless portafilter and reasonable accessories
- quicker steam boiler warm up
- the ability to use the (solenoid operated) hot water tap to drain the steam boiler. Just think about that one for a bit
Now for the things he didn’t talk about and this is my beef with the current trend in reviewing.
- Is the portafilter compatible with standard accessories and a standard fit!
- How do you drain the steam boiler for a refresh, or descale (remember this is absolutely a horizontal boiler) and a solenoid operated water valve!!
- Can you change the offset on the thermoblock, in case it’s not reaching the temperatures he is sure it is
- how do you clean the group (there is an issue around thermoblock machines if this style)
- How much energy does it use, he bigs up energy efficiency, but tells you nothing
- why is the steam boiler so large?? Why is he so excited/surprised you can turn the steam boiler off…I came up with that on the first machine I designed almost 20 years go. It’s become pretty much standard now.
- What is the preheat exactly, it sounds like a copy of the Electra Verve system, which, was useless.
There’s a lot more he didn’t mention, and he sounds like he is reading from the sales brochure. he just keeps smiling as his bigs up the machine…the punter is the one paying and you need to ask a LOT more questions as you learn almost nothing from the review.
Makes me weary sometimes…..
